Google Chrome Adds Search Pre-roll Ads
Google Chrome's biggest change from an SEO perspective are that it...
- combines the address bar and search box into 1 box
- that search box shows search suggestion results before searchers see the organic search results
The combination of those 2 means that if Google gains significant browser share SEOs will need to optimize for search suggest.
Chrome recently came out of beta, so Google can begin buying marketshare from OEMs. With the product only a few months removed from its announcement they are adding advertising to it, as highlighted by Danny Sullivan:
If Google can buy significant browser marketshare then such ad positions might add a lot of curiosity clicks for the top ranked advertiser, lower the ROI for the top advertiser.
If this gains traction most brand advertisers should not bid on their brand (unless perhaps they do so using an embedded match - which allows them to block advertising on the exact match but show up for other brand searches). Bidding on your brand's exact match and appearing in such ad positions for brand related search queries would be paying Google for adding zero value to the process.
Comments
or they may offer an opt-out for that class of ad (whatever it ends up being called).
I got a question thought, what if I wish to use chrome but don't want to see ads on every search I make?
At my post mail box if I don't want advertising in there I just have to ask for a special sticker and if any advertising shows on my mail box i can complain to the responsible authority.
I mean right now it's the search, someday maybe it's some part of the status bar... and it's just a matter of time until someone gets bombed with ads on the browser.
I'm not very pleased with this
If you don't want to support a Google controlled web the easiest way to support diversity is to search using Yahoo! Search or Microsoft Live Search.
This seems a very odd move by Google and at best premature. Given that Chrome hasn't exactly set the heather on fire this could kill it stone dead. Most people I've shown this to hate the idea and if they were using Chrome this would make them stop.
If they bring this into the main search interface they'll lose a lot of public trust. Pity there is no real competition just now but you never know...
If SEO's weren't targeting the google suggested search keywords before chrome they probably are not very smart. These suggested searches have been around for a loooong time and common sense dictates they didn't just pull these search terms out of a hat. Google makes the lionshare of their revenue via click-through on their adwords - if you think these keywords don't (more or less) line up with what makes the most revenue for Google I have a hedge fund for you to invest in. Whether or not adwords spending is done intelligently of course is debatable.
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