John Battelle talks about a paid search backlash this morning … I don’t know how you all feel out there, but I sense a backlash of sorts building toward paid search.
… The story has been too rosy, for too long. Journalists and Wall St. analysts are starting to look hard for chinks in the armor.
Link: John Battelle post
One of the most interesting, from my point of view, is clickfraud. I’ve been talking at length to a fellow who is a significant advertiser on Google and other paid search networks, and he is literally exhausted from chasing down all the fraud that is plaguing his ad buys, and really angry with Google for not being responsive to his requests for relief.
Whilst a couple of days ago, Seth Godin highlighted a Google Search for earn rupees in his post, The secret army of ad clickers that SVW picks up on today.
I’ve been thinking (like many i expect) for quite sometimes along similar lines, those lines being that “this is all very precarious”. Not just paid search though, Google’s very business model is being challenged today and with fears that Google’s Autolink will inevitably make investors jumpy i think they could well be in for a rough ride at the ‘plex
Couple all of that together with the fact that the media cannot stop talking about Yahoo’s more robust business model lately and i’ll go out on a limb and say that Google could be in real trouble this year if they don’t start acting very quickly on some of these issues….
Nick Wilson is the publisher and founder of Threadwatch.org.
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