New Tool To Pull Out Paid Search Results
from the excellent-idea dept
Now that pop-up and banner ad blocking software is becoming more common, the makers of such products are turning their efforts to other sneaky advertising tricks. InterMute, makers of AdSubtract, are launching a product that will try to remove paid inclusion search results that have been coming under increasing scrutiny lately. It's a little unclear from the article exactly how the search removal program will work. It might just be designed to work with sites (like Google) where the paid text ads are obvious - but it suggests that it will try to pick them out of other search engines where the paid inclusions are mixed right in with the unpaid. Of course, I wonder how big a market there is for such technology? While the more tech savvy folks may know about paid inclusions, most people don't. Furthermore, they're not intrusive - which is what is most annoying about pop-ups and spam. People are willing to pay to get rid of intrusive advertising, but I'm not sure they're willing to pay to get rid of subtle advertising.
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