Google to start charging companies for listings

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4HardSale

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May 1, 2011
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Google is to start charging companies for listing their products in a core part of its search service, the first time it has converted a free section of its giant online index into a purely commercial venture.
The change to Google Product Search will mean that many merchants that have relied on the search engine to lure potential customers online will face higher costs, according to analysts.

The move also raises the prospect that Google will eventually replace other parts of its free listings with adverts, said Danny Sullivan, editor of Search Engine Land. “It represents an attitude that they’re no longer going to go out and gather stuff up for free,” he said.

Google said it was making the switch to enable it to show users higher quality results when they are looking for products online. It also said the service would be relabelled as a “sponsored” venture to show it was now based on advertising.
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Google to start charging companies for listings - FT.com
 


4HardSale said:
Google said it was making the switch to enable it to show users higher quality results when they are looking for products online. It also said the service would be relabelled as a “sponsored” venture to show it was now based on advertising.
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This doesn't even make sense. The need to grow trumped common sense.
 
The move also raises the prospect that Google will eventually replace other parts of its free listings with adverts
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You mean it isn't full of traffic sapping ads already?
 
Yes it is, but it is an interesting trend. Makes me want to launch a search engine where he who pays the most is placed first. Have a feeling this is where Google might be headed with expanded paid ads.

Is anyone else using other search engines like Bing or DuckDuckGo yet? My traffic from these sites has grown, but nowhere near the traffic I was getting from Google.
 
Bing is actually easier to game than Google, just that the traffic is so low its not worth the trouble for most people. That traffic does convert way better than G though.
 
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