People who can't think for themselves will all exhibit behavior that will make the corporations rich. That's what marketing strategy has always tried to do: get people to "need" whatever it is they don't already have.

Those of us with real lives who can think for ourselves don't really care one way or the other. We can ignore the crap and do what's best for us.

Damn, what a stupid ass article. What the hell is wrong with you people. Would you rather pay more just as long as you use google. 

If you had actually read the announcement you'd find that live search gets paid (and pays you) only if you complete a purchase. How is it bad when a company gives me some of that advertising money it gets when I use its search engine?

Such intrusions simply disappear if you have the right browser plug-in.

Widespread non-acceptance of ads - surveys are consistent in showing how people find online spots more intrusive than any printed counterpart - together with software geared towards sweeping such clutter out of view, will be the undoing of online marketing as we know it.

There's also the fact that the click through ratio for most ads is but a fraction of one per cent, so when you see a banner inviting you to punch a monkey and you think, "Sheesh, nobody clicks on that sort of shit", you are actually correct. Most advertising - badly targeted advertising - reaches a tiny minority of imbeciles.

The biggest indication of this is where developers have attempted to crowbar the current format into social networking sites, and have had very little in return except a backlash from users annoyed at the invasion of their privacy.

Anyone clicked an ad next to their Gmail inbox? Have you even noticed them there? Me either.

The page of this article has 15 links to ads, mostly from doubleclick and some from google.


I would rather have a bottle of Yoohoo in front of me, than a VoleYa lobotomy! Live Search gives me acid redux! I'm Not Going Out Even For A Peep Show! I'm on to search the pubs for some out sussed open sauce! I expect I'll run into an INQ journalist or two, who will no doubt claim that I owe them a pint, again! Ain't the barsteds got enough cash? Uart D. Samson, John Lewis, Mark & Spencer, I seen you all at that Affiliate Window Shoot-out for saucy snaps of your inflatable doll named MS. Wee! Just another dodgy day at the INQUIRER beach, eh? Well, maybe a Friday. Great Groo Charlie Drashek! Will the Vole be called up younder? By and bye?
Nice rant Jamie (if that's yer real name). (no i didnae say anything, again).

Maybe MS will pioneer the Free Gas for the summer if you Live search for "Google+axis+of+evil"