Sponsored link?

by Chris Bertram on April 26, 2006

I was just in gmail reading some emails from John and Daniel which mention some technical questions about choice under uncertainty and, in the rh pane, there appears under “sponsored links” an advertisment for Tyler Cowen’s Marginal Revolution —“The greatest econ blog on the web! Insightful & interesting every day.” Well, often, I’ll give them that. Are many bloggers paying google to advertise their on-line scribblings?

{ 7 comments }

1

Alex 04.26.06 at 9:33 am

Perhaps this is some sort of experiment?

2

Isaac 04.26.06 at 10:26 am

I also e-mail about technical econ things and one day noticed this link. I e-mailed Tyler Cowen about it. He wrote back (and I hope quoting this doesn’t violate any confidences, feel free to delete if he objects):
yes that is us, we set that up through Google…glad it works!
Tyler

3

Tyler Cowen 04.26.06 at 10:29 am

Isaac is correct…I don’t think it has made a significant difference, though, and probably this CT post has given us more hits than the ad itself…
Tyler Cowen

4

greensmile 04.26.06 at 11:31 am

I don’t know how, or how much, one pays to use adsense but the links are just relevant enough, just often enough, that I don’t ignore them. Of course, with shorter e-mails, relevance drops down into the commical.

5

T. Scrivener 04.26.06 at 5:41 pm

Something feels wrong about this, something feels very wrong.

6

david tiley 04.26.06 at 9:31 pm

It raises the spectre of financial inequality even on the net. There is always the boundary of equipment, since good, spontaneous blogging benefits from a fast computer, ready to hand, with broadband.

But beyond that we currently compete for attention in a crowded world on our abilities, dedication and what we happen to be inspired by.

The idea that we are competing against people with more money is a dispiriting reflection of the real world.

At the same time it makes a kind of gruesome sense since we are already up against hugely prosperous and highly advertised media beyond the blogosphere. My idea of a good ad would say: “Turn off whatever pacifying media you use to stun your brain and get on the blogosphere. While you are about it, come to Crooked Timber.” Need a couple of days to workshop it and toss my ponytail a few times, but you get the sense of it.

7

Tim Worstall 04.27.06 at 11:44 am

That ad has always rather amused me. Sometimes pops up just above my blogroll link to Marginal Revolution.

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