21 December 2005 in General | Comments enabled

So Google managed to hook into AOL before Microsoft but it may have sold part of its soul to do so (link here for story).

Google has agreed to push AOL sponsored content more, including placing their content higher in results. I see this as a step backwards. Google built their reputation on having simple UI, clearly separating advertising and having non-intrusive advertising by using text instead of images. It seems that part of the deal with AOL has also pushed Google into agreeing to use images in their advertising too. I wonder how long before their search results are clogged with advertising.

It might seem minor at first, but it’s these small cracks that Microsoft can exploit.

Interestingly Microsoft found abuse of the Google AdSense system and have published information about this abuse. It’s never a good sign when a competitor can show obvious flaws in your systems. I guess Google don’t have the smartest systems in the world after all.

It will be interesting to see how Google goes next year. Perhaps 2005 will be the year they jumped the shark.

– JD