Google to Boost AOL's Content in SERPs?
Last Friday, the deal was sealed, Google to Keep AOL. The forums discussing this today include; Search Engine Roundtable Forums, WebmasterWorld and Search Engine Watch Forums, but the most interesting thread, may be at Cre8asite Forums.
The Cre8asite thread named The Craziest Thing About The Google/AOL deal brings out one statement from a New York Times article that says;
"Finally, around 9 p.m., Richard D. Parsons, chief executive of Time Warner told Eric E. Schmidt, chief executive of Google, that he would accept Google's recently sweetened offer. Google, which prides itself on the purity of its search results, agreed to give favored placement to content from AOL throughout its site, something it has never done before."
Now it does not say specifically if AOL will get a boost in the paid listings or organic results. It may also have to do with the OneBox results you often see in the vertical creep of the Google SERPs. Either way, this may be the first time anyone at Google publicly said or gave the impression that they would "give favored placement to content" to any site.
Forum discussion at Cre8asite Forums.
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rustybrick in Google Optimization at December 19, 2005 8:55 AM
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I agree that we should be questioning what kind of treatment AOL and their properties will be getting in the Google sponsored ads.
If they are given preferential treatment, that would be counter to the whole market-driven philosophy that guides pay per click advertising. It would set terrible precedent, and in my opinion, could cause uproar... I would liken it to insider trading where a few smaller players, like AOL, have competitive advantages that the rest of the market does not have.
Of course, that would beg another question. Would this really be the first time that Google gives preferential treatment to advertisers, or do other large advertisers have preferential treatment in the Google sponsored ads already?
I'd like to see some discussion of this on the Google blog... after all, that's one benefit of blogs... stopping PR nightmares:)
Posted by Scott at December 19, 2005 09:44