Welcome to a Preview of Your Google Future.. Ads on EVERYTHING

[mouser]

The path that we are taking in the evolution of the internet seems increasingly clear.

• Step 1 is create tons of FREE web services.
• Of course don't be stupid enough to put ads on these things because people won't *start* using them if they see the ads!
• Step 2 is to market the hell out of these free services -- try to establish a monopoly and cross market your other sites -- the goal is to give everything away in order to capture market share -- profit doesn't matter at this point.
• Then once you have gathered enough users and established a userbase that has registered, etc., THEN you start flooding them with ads or fees, since they won't have an easy time migrating away once they are firmly entrenched.

I must say i'm not all that happy with this vision of our future

The business model of the web in the next decade looks like it's increasingly going to be founded on the age old concept of Bait and Switch.

From google:

If you're in the US, starting today you may notice something a bit different when you search Google News.  Last November, we announced plans to begin experimenting with ads on a number of Google properties, including news query refinements within Google search. Today, we're continuing a similar experience for users by introducing ads on Google News search-results pages in the US.

http://googlenewsblo...-search-results.html

from http://www.appscout.com/

[gexecuter]

As long as the ads aren't too intrusive and the services are free you won't see me complaining too much.

[nosh]

As long as Adblock Plus cuts them out, you won't see me complain too much either. 

[zridling]

Good point, mouser. I've noticed Google squeezing ads in a lot of white spaces these days. The ads on every youtube video was the first blow. It seems no matter the medium, there's always ads. It blows.

[sazzen]

  I have to ask, just what were you expecting, then????   

[f0dder]

Baint and switch is an aaaage old tactic, and why on earth wouldn't you use such a tactic?

[Deozaan]

I'm not happy about it either.

Just pray to all saints that Adblock Plus continues to work.

[CWuestefeld]

Baint and switch is an aaaage old tactic, and why on earth wouldn't you use such a tactic?

-f0dder (February 26, 2009, 12:01 PM)

This isn't bait-and-switch. As the link that mouser provided defined,

a bait and switch is a form of fraud in which the party putting forth the fraud lures in customers by advertising a product or service at an unprofitably low price, then reveals to potential customers that the advertised good is not available but that a substitute is.

Google isn't promising that you can have ad-free services but not delivering on the promise. All they're doing is introducing services at a low (or free) price so that people get used to them, and then increasing the price (in the form of advertising). How many times have you seen a "special introductory offer"? I bet you've even used them a few times. That's all that you can accuse Google of.

But really, what can you possibly expect? How in the world can anyone give you services without paying for it some way? Someone has to do the programming, the servers, hard drives, bandwidth, power all have to be paid for somehow. Surely you didn't believe that there are people financing this who are just looking for a way to pump their money into providing free services for you.

[mrainey]

Surely you didn't believe that there are people financing this who are just looking for a way to pump their money into providing free services for you.

If you spend some time at alt.comp.freeware, you'll see that there are many people out there who DO believe that there should be people busting their butts to provide free services for everybody.

[mahesh2k]

As long as Adblock Plus cuts them out, you won't see me complain too much either.

+`1