Read this:
Just WHY is Google so good?
Google's initial success was built on its
breakthrough search technology, which produced
more useful search results, much more quickly, than
anyone else. Some analysts believe that edge is
waning or is gone. I still think Google is the best, but in any case, there's another secret to
Google's success: honesty.
Of all the major search engines, Google is the only one that's truly, scrupulously honest. It's the
only one that doesn't rig its search results in some manner to make money.
You may or may not like Google's search results. You may disagree with its search methods. But
with Google, the search results you see are strictly those that its search methodology yields. By
contrast, at major competitors like Yahoo and Microsoft's MSN, the first search results you see
are there, at least in part, because companies paid to place them there.
Google makes money in a traditional way that users understand. It sells ads. These ads are
clearly labeled and easily distinguished from the real, unbiased search results. They are triggered
by whatever search term a user enters, and they run down the side of the page and, occasionally,
across the top. The ones across the top are shaded in color, just to make extra sure nobody
confuses them with search results.
This separation of advertising and editorial content is the same one that has been used for a
couple of hundred years in newspapers and magazines. People get the distinction.
Contrast that with Yahoo and MSN, Google's biggest competitors. In addition to ads down the
side of the page, Yahoo places paid search listings at the top and bottom of its results, in a format
that looks exactly like real results. These paid listings are labeled as "Sponsor Results," but I
suspect many users don't grasp the difference. And on a small screen, you would have to scroll in
many cases to see the unsponsored listings, so it's easier to just click on a sponsored link.
Even Yahoo's real, unsponsored results are rigged to some extent. That's because Yahoo sells
companies the right to be included in its searches, something Google never does.
MSN also supplements ads down the side of the page with paid search listings that appear before
its real results in many, but not all, cases. These are called "Featured Sites," which sounds
innocent enough. But they include paid entries.
I'm all for advertising. Advertising pays my salary, and it can be helpful and interesting to
consumers. But I'm against advertising that is too easily confused with editorial content. If
Yahoo's system applied to newspapers, there would be paid news stories in the paper that looked
just like real stories but were even more prominent than the real stories.