Views on Google charging cash for merchant, travel search?

[froggyboy604]

It's just about closing time for Google Shopping's free merchant listings. The iconic search engine has traditionally shown us products regardless of a commercial relationship with sellers, but they'll be required to fork over some coin if they want to join the party after the fall.

Google Shopping to change formats, charge merchants

Google & The Resurrection Of Paid Inclusion
Having previously declared paid inclusion to be evil, can it really be that Google is doing it now? Yes, though Google’s not been using that name, and it also really didn’t become apparent until last month.

Google Hotel Finder and Google Flight Search were both launched last year. On the surface, they seem like Google’s other “vertical” or topic-focused search engines, such as Google Images, Google News or Google Shopping, which allow you to search for certain specific types of information.

Unlike Google’s other vertical search engines, however, payment seems to have a role in being included in Google Hotel Finder and Google Flight Search. Maybe Google will find your hotel or your flight and list it for “free.” But it seems more likely you’ll appear if you have a paid relationship.

Once Deemed Evil, Google Now Embraces “Paid Inclusion”]

 

[ramtastic05]

Re: Views on Google charging cash for merchant, travel searc

I personally hate google for doing things like that.

i think they are one of the biggest, if not the biggest company in the world in terms of making revenue, yet they have to make more.

i know the sole purpose of a business is profit, but look what they did to youtube.

they started placing ads all over, which i dont care about, but they also placed ads before videos start and ads that pop up over the video which you have to click to close.

its very annoying that they need the extra money from ads being pushed in your face,

with this new charge for merchants, i think smaller businesses will feel the biggest impact as their budgets might not accommodate this.