Dear Parminder and Ian<br><br>Just like for Milton, when I search on google, the sponsored links ARE clearly marked, identified as such and separated from the rest, in a separate frame on the RIGHT hand side. <br><br>What is happening is that google is set differently in different countries. I just did a quick test here looking for the same product with google .za; .uk; .au; .in; and .nz. BUT even then, my geographical location gives away where I am and google OVERRRIDES some of the display. <br>
<br>At any rate, with all the domains that I tried, Australia had sponsored links above the normal links, whereas the others did not. <br><br>Google has become a translator's tool, as translators look up the results count of different ways of translating something. As a member of three translators' lists, I often witness disagreements of the most frequent way of saying something based on google counts, as people in different countries get different counts for the exact same search!<br>
<br>Even the commemorative google logos for special occasions are country-dependent. On Saturday 29 August, a member of one of the translators' lists sent a note through about the "cute" google logo that day. Within minutes there were 15 replies asking what she was taling about - they could not see anything different in the country they were writing from. Others wrote in to confirm that they could see the different logo - Michael Jackson's black shoes and white gloves, commemorating the singer's birthday. <br>
<br>Regards,<br><br>Rui<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">2009/9/7 Parminder <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:parminder@itforchange.net">parminder@itforchange.net</a>></span><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"><div class="im">
<br>
<br>
Milton L Mueller wrote:
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre>You can pay to be listed in the CLEARLY MARKED and SEPARATED sponsored links, which in fact attract far fewer clicks than the regular ones. Google was the first to clearly separate them and NOT make their regular rankings depend in any way on payments, and that of course is why it won the market - it really was better for finding what you were looking for than the alternatives. That set the standard for Bing, which is actually a very good competitor now if you haven't tried it. All hail market competition! What a friend we have in....Mammon!! Genuflect to Market FUNDAMENTALISM ;-)
</pre>
</blockquote>
<br></div>
Since i just need to respond to any words that Milton says on Market
fundamentalism :), here it is:<br>
<br>
It is really not so 'CLEARLY MARKED and SEPARATED'. It started with a
small box on the left side with a different background color. Not it
has migrated right to the top of 'search results', in the same font,
color and background, and is so prominent that it blocks two third of
my browser view. So watch out for what happens next as market power of
Google increases further, and regulatory powers dont take off because
of a host of structural reasons. <br>
<br>
Worse, Google carries out, what has been called an extortion racket, to
sell advertised space to rivals of any brand that gets looked up by a
user in the search engine. So if you search for 'sony cameras' the top
advertised positions are auctioned out, and of course if sony is
interested in not having users carried to the websites of their rivals
when what they really came looking for is 'sony', it can still pay a
higher price that the rivals to also get the ad space.... Really, some
competition this. <br><font color="#888888">
<br>
Parminder <br></font><div class="im">
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre> </pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre>-----Original Message-----
From: Ian Peter [<a href="mailto:ian.peter@ianpeter.com" target="_blank">mailto:ian.peter@ianpeter.com</a>]
Sent: Sunday, September 06, 2009 3:52 PM
To: <a href="mailto:governance@lists.cpsr.org" target="_blank">governance@lists.cpsr.org</a>; Avri Doria
Subject: Re: [governance] Halal Search Engine
( a couple of people disputed this)
The most obvious example is that on any common Google search the first few
results that come through may be sponsored links - identified as such if
you
have good eyes and bother to look, but the first results nevertheless. You
can pay to be number one on a Google search results listing, that's the
bottom line.
Beyond that - because Google doesn't release its algorithms this is
unproven. But articles such as this <a href="http://www.seobook.com/google-branding" target="_blank">http://www.seobook.com/google-branding</a>
do tend to suggest new factors coming into results.
</pre>
</blockquote>
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<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>________________________________________________<br> <br> <br>Rui Correia<br>Advocacy, Human Rights, Media and Language Consultant<br>2 Cutten St<br>Horison <br>Roodepoort-Johannesburg, <br>
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