[WEB4LIB] RE: More on Google going commercial

[Walt_Crawford at notes.rlg.org]

Well, yes, but:

Daniel sez:

   A few nights ago I was looking over a book published by the clown
   princes of advertisement parody, MAD Magazine. The book, titled
   MADvertising,  was published in the 1960s I think and it covers a
   sarcastic look at the principles of advertising. It takes on everything
   from the age old principle that bigger is better to more advanced
   concepts like creative wording to imply nasty things about competitors.
   For example, "no one has ever died from drinking our orange juice" or
   "And though we do run relevant ads above and next to our results, Google
   does not sell placement within the results themselves (i.e., no one can
   buy a higher PageRank)." The point is that centuries old advertising
   concepts work just as well on the Internet.

The point is that many or most competitors to Google *do* sell placement
within their results. If people were falling over dead from Tropicana and
Minute Maid, I think Florida's Own would be well-advised to use "no one has
ever died from drinking our orange juice" as a campaign!

Cheers,
walt crawford