- Impact
- 5
This is an excerp from a JimWorld Newsletter
Scumbag of the Week
Have you noticed that Overture Banners aren't showing on the forums any longer? In part, that's because their last contract ran out. But we've made the decision, perhaps to our own financial detriment, to not pursue them as sponsors to the forums again. As most of you probably have heard by now, Overture, the leader in the Pay-Per-Click search engine world, has partnered with one of the more notorious Scumware merchants: Gator. Yes, your hard-fought for keyword positions are no longer simply being shown as part of search results on most of the major search engines as supplement to a relevant search. They're now being injected and forced into the face of unsuspecting Gator users.
It's sickening beyond comprehension that a company with the reputation and size of Overture has gone down this road. It's not enough that in order to satisfy their Wall Street investors they raised their minimum bid to $.10 (which in itself would earn them this award) -- but now, in an exercise motivated by pure greed, they're going against the very purity that is Pay-Per-Click. The idea that you can select your desired search terms and have them shown to users running a search was a stroke of genius. Now, with this deal, a major part of that promise, at least from Overture, is gone. Now, your paid listings at Overture will not only be shown on every major search engine, but thanks to Gator's "Search Scout" technology, your overture listings will now appear within a pop-up window behind search engines and websites that you didn't bargain for (or signup for). Unsuspecting users, infected with Gator, will have your listings thrust before them, triggered by websites that G! ator deems an "appropriate match". Not relevant, not targeted, not search driven. This goes against the PPC model in every way....I hope Overture's investors are happy with the cha-ching that this move will create in their pockets, but you can rest assured, none of us are.
For more information:
About the deal: http://news.com.com/2100-1024-995616.html
Scumware: http://www.scumware.com
Scumbag of the Week
Have you noticed that Overture Banners aren't showing on the forums any longer? In part, that's because their last contract ran out. But we've made the decision, perhaps to our own financial detriment, to not pursue them as sponsors to the forums again. As most of you probably have heard by now, Overture, the leader in the Pay-Per-Click search engine world, has partnered with one of the more notorious Scumware merchants: Gator. Yes, your hard-fought for keyword positions are no longer simply being shown as part of search results on most of the major search engines as supplement to a relevant search. They're now being injected and forced into the face of unsuspecting Gator users.
It's sickening beyond comprehension that a company with the reputation and size of Overture has gone down this road. It's not enough that in order to satisfy their Wall Street investors they raised their minimum bid to $.10 (which in itself would earn them this award) -- but now, in an exercise motivated by pure greed, they're going against the very purity that is Pay-Per-Click. The idea that you can select your desired search terms and have them shown to users running a search was a stroke of genius. Now, with this deal, a major part of that promise, at least from Overture, is gone. Now, your paid listings at Overture will not only be shown on every major search engine, but thanks to Gator's "Search Scout" technology, your overture listings will now appear within a pop-up window behind search engines and websites that you didn't bargain for (or signup for). Unsuspecting users, infected with Gator, will have your listings thrust before them, triggered by websites that G! ator deems an "appropriate match". Not relevant, not targeted, not search driven. This goes against the PPC model in every way....I hope Overture's investors are happy with the cha-ching that this move will create in their pockets, but you can rest assured, none of us are.
For more information:
About the deal: http://news.com.com/2100-1024-995616.html
Scumware: http://www.scumware.com
