Content in Context from Google Related Links: Who benefits?
The bright minds at Google Labs have dished out another offering for web publishers: Google Related Links. The concept is very much like AdSense, with two key differences: instead of ads, other contextual content will be displayed such as links to related news, related web pages etc., and probably more importantly, the publisher does not get paid (at this point)when someone clicks through to the related link.
Google’s pitch to publishers is that they have an opportunity to display dynamic and highly relevant content on their sites. But question is, would publishers be sold on that pitch?
Afterall, why would a publisher give up real estate on a site to display content that does not generate any revenues while at the same time leading the user away from the site? What kind of competitive filters would be available —- for example, an affiliate site wouldn’t really want to see links from competing affiliates and even the merchant site that could take away their potential earnings?
Do users stand to gain? Only if the links that are generated are extremely relevant to the context of their visit to the site, which as usual may be an extremely tricky and challenging task.
Organisations or websites that get listed in the relevant links will obviously benefit as a result of added distribution, but that is subject to getting a critical mass of distribution partners. Back to square one — why should distribution partners really really want to sign up?
I suspect that if this offering takes off, it could add a completely new dimension to the organic search engine optimization of sites and how SEM firms would attempt to tackle it.
The other wild hunch I have is that this development may well have something to do with the future of the AdSense program, particularly with the noise regarding click fraud becoming louder and louder. I’m not sure what it is, but I can’t help thinking that there is/ will be some connection…
