[WEB4LIB] RE: More on Google going commercial

[Daniel Messer]

Dan Lester wrote:

> This is what I've referred to a number of times as
>
> The Cocaine Theory Of Marketing
>
> It has worked in many arenas for centuries, and will undoubtedly
> continue to work as well in future centuries.
>
> We can rant and rave all we want, but it won't go away in this
> lifetime, but one can always have hopes for the next one.

   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.
    Sure Google is taking part in advertisement schemes, and why not?
Within the electronic ether and in the minds of the users there floats
the corpses of thousands of dead dot coms who were too good to advertise
to survive, and thousands more that died even if they did advertise
aggressively (remember pets.com?). I don't know about you folks, but I
want Google to stay around. And I hope that the folks at Google realize
that the main reason people come to their search engine is because of
their relevancy and search technologies. The ads should help to further
that technology. But if Google were to compromise that tech and start
selling placement on the list, then their technology has become useless
and forever open to suspicion.

Just my thoughts,
Dan

--
Mondai wa
The subject in question...
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Daniel Messer, Technology Instructor
Yakima Valley Regional Library
102 N 3rd St Yakima, WA 98901
(509) 452-8541 x712
dmesser at yvrls.lib.wa.us
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When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.
                     -Hunter S. Thompson