The Bald Eagle Effect
We've probably all got used to seeing google ads about the net. They've been around for what seems like forever. They're a great way for webmasters to get an income off content based sites. And we use them too.
If you don't know what they are they're ads you see on the side of google search engine results and are usually there in the hope you'll click and buy something from the shop they promote. As advertisers pay google per click they aim to get really accurate keyword matching. This is an artform in itself. Picking low cost but high return keywords to ensure a sale for minimum outlay.
So we give you this page as an example. Its a wallpaper site offering free bird wallpapers - one of which is a bald eagle!
These ads - the blue coloured section show Bald Eagles for sale! Which we think is pretty insane - as ebay won't let you sell wildlife and they're protected under US law.
Its just an example of how mad the world is!
Does this sort of thing degrade the google ad system? We think it certainly highlights flaws! Ebay doesn't allow live animal sales and the trafficiing of unlicenced eagle bits is very dodgy!
The webmaster has no control over what ads can be listed - unless he listed the domains of sites he doesn't want advertised but its likely he'd have to go through hundreds to esure no odd ebay ads come through.