GOOGLE USES EXPLOIT To Trick Users Into Clicking PPC Ads

yes you are totally right, that color choice is slick!

You sure? :confused:

Can you post a screenshot?

That "slight" change makes them millions per month in profit.

But what annoys me is their lack of common sense: if an Adcent publisher uses "that" trick to make more money, he can get banned (he's just ripping the advertiser or some **** like that) - while Google uses that exact same trick to make millions and it's all good.

Google, no evil? What a joke.

You don't even need a flat panel screen to see it, if the colour is slightly off on your monitor it has the same effect.

The PPC ads when viewed on my laptop have completely white backgrounds all the time. I practically don't know if it's an ad if It Doesn't Use Title Case In The Description Like This! And psychologically, if I forget about it, I click ads all the time.

I think it's even worse on aol search. I can't tell the ads at all on that site. But it's been this way for a looooooong time, if you're lcd monitor's colors are washed out, you won't see that light color very well.

I noticed it, too. The background color is near white - I almost clicked on one this morning.

I have noticed this too, on my laptop and thought it may be my screen display fading, but its a near new laptop.
so what I have been doing, since I noticed this is ill move my head up and down to see the screen at dif angles , if the folks at google could only see me doing all these weird movements to avoid clicking on ads lol.
but now over time i have mastered this technique so I dont look like such a dork lol.

thank you so much for pointing this out rus now i feel abit more normal lol

Do you know how many people don't even know that they are ads? They just click on the first thing on the page. A friend of mine does that all the time.
An unnoticeable background color really doesn't matter. People wouldn't try for the top spot if it wasn't making them money.

What gets my dander is that the ads at the top are starting to squeeze the results further down the top fold.

G is a total hypocrite when they say they want to deliver the most relevant results when they know darn well no real significant number of clicks are obtained below the fold.

If a site doesn't get fair representation by being highly relevant whats the use.

Ahh I have noticed this too, it is probably done with the intention in mind and it is a clever mode of manipulation.

Excuse me but this has only to do with your screen being in another position? Other variables like the quality of your monitor, refresh rate and graphical card should be considered too. I just flipped my monitor up side down and nothint changed but hurting neck in the process.

It is true that Google wants to blend in the ads but they are still bound to laws as they really need to disclose on what an PPC ad is or organic result. Sorry to say but I reall think you bumped your head while fixing your stuff, as this no exploit but just your doing.

The most common type of LCD panels used in mainstream LCD monitors is a so-called "TN" panel and it is famous for loosing the colors reproduction quality when viewed from the bottom up. Just step in to any Best Buy store or whatever computer store when you see a bunch of LCD monitors and then try to look at the monitors from the bottom up, you will see most of the monitors will lose a good amount of color reproduction right there.

Does not happen to Apple monitors though... Apple and NEC have most of their monitors using better panel types like IPS, PVA, etc. Other manufacturers use TN panels with occasional top of the line models using proper panels with better color reproductiin and viewing angles.

On the side note, besides being cheap to manufacture, TN panels also provide one of the fastest response times, which is very important for gamers. So I would not necessarily mark all TN panels as "bad quality". The answer is not that straightforward.... If you want better response times with affordable price, you may have to compromise on viewing angles and colors repro. Also, this industry is very dynamic and manufacturers always tweak their panels / technologies so not all TN panels are created equal....

Anyways, now back to the OP's point..... Yes, Google could probabaly increase their revenue by 20% easily buy just making ads more obscured or by using CTR theme on their main SERP page

The funny thing is that Google and only Google are policing themselves in terms of providing quality clicks to advertisers.... Like you know, the advertisers would prefer ads that are very clearly distingished from organic SERPS so when user clicks he is very aware of the fact that he is clicking on Ad link but he still clicks so he must have a real genuine interest in that Ad, so that would make a very good quality traffic for advertisers.

However, Google's VP of Search Product may be under pressure from declining revenues (driven by econoomy crisis or whatever), and he does not want to report bad quarter results to the CEO / board / shareholders, so they may to "change" their definition of quality clicks just enough to gain that 5% CTR to make their financial results sound better and most of the advertisers will not be able to tell that 5% difference ....

So here we go, ad color and crappy LCD panels bump the CTR.... The funny thing would be to make a study that would try to corellate the CTR with the physical height of the individual, the motivation is being like this - if you are shorter, then there is more chance that you are looking at you monitor from the bottom up, so the color of the ad would blend with organic search so more chances for you to click on the ad mistaking it with organic search result...

Whew, this must be one of my longest and most useless posts on Warrior Forum... But hey, it is Friday

Cheers, (and back to work










Better type

Rus, are you talking about the background color shown here?



Wouldn't Google just use a white background for their PPC ads if they wanted to trick people into clicking them?:confused:?

Google has been testing this for a while now, including softening colors.

This doesn't surprise me. Google has been doing a lot of stupid stuff lately.

I think it's misleading.

Chalk one more up for Google lol. No wonder I stopped paying them money and getting away from them.

alexmobile said pretty much exactly what I wanted to say. This pretty much only applies to TN panel LCD monitors, which have fast response times and low input lag but poor viewing angles. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess old LCD technology tilt angles didn't factor significantly in the coloration of Google's ad backgrounds.

I noticed a lot of end users click on the first "ad" even when the organic result is also #1 in the organic results.

Google just has too many ads on their results pages for popular keywords, it's getting ridiculous, and with them stating that "above the fold ads" are going to start affecting other sites rankings in Google, it just makes me laugh. Whatever Google.

Google has some interesting ways to show their advertising. Lighter colors Are misleading. We can argue with Google Almighty that they do not have right to do it, or can just accept that this is they way to promote their product - Google will still keep it the way it will be most profitable. Google is responding to people's complains only when there are 'A LOT' of complains on some of their changes.

I've noticed this as well. The color of the PPC blocks on the SERPs is so close to white that I often have to move my head lower in order to see the difference. I'm quite sure the folks at Google know they would make less money if the ad blocks were clearly distinguished from the main results.

who said that Google has to separate ads from results? They are free to do what they wish on their site.

- how dare people market their products and services on line -

Just to touch on the what advertisers want comment .. I use Adwords quite frequently and I could care less as to whether the searcher knows its an ad. I targeted that term because I wanted a searcher to click after that term was entered and was willing to pay for it. its not like the content network where my ad may be triggered inappropriately ... its appearing for exactly the term I wanted.

Im pretty sure the "ads - why these ads" line is all they are required to do so thats all they will do.

Absolutely most people dont realize those are ads ... people (at least the bread and butter of adsense/adwords users) dont read!

Some argue here that as this is google's page, they can do whatever they like. It's right but the adds should be adds and if you make them look close to the organic results, it's some sort of spam and google becomes the biggest spammer at the end of the day. I also have noticed this before.

I have the same effect here. I also believe the owners of IPS monitors won't see it. So the trick will be see on TFT LCD's only.

Truthfully, unless I'm looking for a name of a company, I just start my searches on Google's 2nd page. I've been doing that for years.

Hmm.. But why would google care if people see it? They get money per click?

Those dirty B*STARDS!!!!! :rolleyes:

-Chris

I think there are better things to do than worry about something we can't control no? =P