[NSFW, possibly] Who else is up for clicking on search results just to mess with Google's money-obsessed, computer-automated head?

that’s what Tor is for.

The only one that I regularly click on and search for is
SANTORUM

Aren’t you really just hurting the advertisers that pay for the clicks?

Much more so than Google I’d guess.

While it’s pretty easy to find the Google hate lately, I’m concerned that we’re claiming to be a victim here. We don’t pay for Google, therefore we are the product. Google has always been an advertising company. That’s how it makes its money. There’s no “spamming” going on. It provides targeting advertising so that we get the ads (generally) that apply to us. This allows Google to sell to advertisers, who know that their ads are getting shown to the right people.

What’s the end game here? Force Google to offer a paid service that is free from advertising? Personally, I’d love that. I would pay a ton per year to Google based on the value I get from its services. But this isn’t going to happen. Offering paid “opt-out” options ends up eating up their whole business model. How much would people end up having to pay, and how much would they be willing to pay?

Anyway, I know this is likely just a light-hearted question. But I am hearing more and more of this thing regarding web services that are funded exclusively by advertising. People complain about Facebook as though they have paid a single dime for the service. They have paid with their data.

^ yea, besides.. when it comes to advertising, google is trying to give us ads that we might actually WANT to click on. There are a lot of ads you don’t see. You’re only seeing the ones that seem important to you.

If you can imagine a futuristic ideal where you only see ads that are pleasant and competitive between the products and services that are actually on your mind.

I’ll give it a go. Do you want a report?

@Sunny2 I’d love a report. Interestingly ABC News did a piece on this evening’s news about how Google’s bots read our emails and modify advertising in the email client based on things we say we’re looking for or interested in. I do pay for Google+ and the custom MX forwarding that gets my domain mail into Gmail. But it’s a tiny charge. I won’t be rebelling about the ads. Just looking to have some fun with them.

Why would I want to look at a bunch of ads for stuff I have absolutely no interest in, as well as all the ads that I already get??

Meh, I hate seeing ads for things I have no interest in. I’d prefer it if Google was BETTER at predicting the ads I want, not worse.

Nope, I got better things to do. But you did remind me of this book, which is partly about the premise you outline.

@wildpotato Thank you. I am glad I remind you of that book, because it appears spectacularly uninteresting.

It’s very hard to mess with the Google algorithms.

@mattbrowne Oh, I don’t know about that. It worked pretty well with “Santorum”.

@ETpro – Well, that seems more like the exception than the rule. From what I read, the Google software engineers go to great length to combat manipulation efforts.

Further to Google I just signed this petition asking GOogle to withdraw their financial support of the far-right corporatist lobbying group, ALEC.

^ Interesting that the petition specifically mentions Google, rather than including Facebook, Yelp, and Microsoft.

@tom_g There is a separate one that includes all of them. I just posted this one here because the thread was specific to Google, and they just joined the infamous band.