
Teens can't tell the difference between Google ads and search results - bootload
http://www.theverge.com/2015/11/20/9768350/google-ads-search-results-ofcom
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adrianN
_Despite the fact that these topmost search results were outlined in an orange
box and labelled with the word "Ad," they were only recognized as such by 31
percent of 12- to 15-year-olds and 16 percent of 8- to 11-year-olds_

In related news: 70% of teenagers fail basic reading comprehension tests?

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mhurron
> In related news: 70% of teenagers fail basic reading comprehension tests?

Or they just don't care. Or they're blasted with ads so much all the time
anyway working out the differences just isn't that important to them.

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knughit
No care enoufh to know? They were asked about the links and didn't identify
them as ads.

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mhurron
So? Do you put effort into things you don't really give a damn about? It would
appear that you don't.

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onion2k
If we raise a generation of kids who don't understand why recognising an
advert and it's implications for privacy might be important, then we can look
forward to an era where tracking is even more pervasive than it is now because
they're the entrepreneurs and politicians who'll be in charge when we're old.
This is a bigger problem than it might first appear.

~~~
zappo2938
I use Facebook for social marketing. Facebook rewards me for quality content.
The more people treat my advertisements that show up on their news stream like
they might have been posted by one of their friends meaning they comment on
it, like it, click through, and share it, the more often Facebook will show
the ad and most importantly the cheaper is costs me.

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UweSchmidt
I think we have hit peak-computersavvy.

I remember how "old people" (now over 50) have had a hard time learning
computers back in the 90s. "Kids these days" just don't see computers as an
awesome tool that needs to be mastered and are not socialized to fight with a
config.sys to play the game.

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mhurron
Kids in general were never 'computer-savvy,' You worked at that. Everyone just
thinks kids were because they weren't scared of breaking the damn thing and so
never worried if what they were doing was the right thing to do.

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UweSchmidt
We worked for it hard. Reinstalling stuff, spending evenings fixing problems,
frustrating games with vertical learning curves. We have the skills to remove
spyware from kids' laptops but must build tools and UIs that are user friendly
enough for the next generation.

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knughit
You were not most kids

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thecupisblue
Interesting thing is, most teens don't even use google as a search engine in
the way we are used to doing it. Google Now, Siri, Apps for relevant content,
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vine, Snapchat are the ways they get info. A
huge number lacks in basic CS/IT skills, even tho people claim "the damn kids
are computer wizards". Irony is that my 55yr old father is better at using the
internet than my 16yr old cousin who grew up using it.

~~~
Kenji
My sister is a teacher and tells me the same. The kids are actually pretty
clueless these days, when me and my peers were teenagers, we were much more
tech-savvy than the teens today.

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dingaling
I think they've gone beyond tech-savvy to tech-trusting; so comfortable with
the notion that the Internet is the source of wisdom that they don't apply
their critical thinking to that domain.

At work it was common to see even university graduates pasting-in code from
the first search result.

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dsfyu404ed
Kind of useless without other data to compare to. I bet there would be similar
numbers for every age group.

It's just better for traffic/interest to make your study/article along the
lines of "OMG you won't believe what kids theses days..."

~~~
pinaceae
actually guarantee it is WORSE for the generations that grew up without a
computer.

or who do you think is the target group for spam emails? teens?

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robmcm
Remember when Google said all their ads would be text based to be less
distracting...

I remember thinking, "I don't even notice they are there" which ironically
seems to have been the goal, with the slight tweak of "I don't even notice
they are ads".

~~~
profeta
which pretty much all the time, it is the same as the first organic result.

if you search for "brand x", the first ad will be a paid link to "brandX.com"
and the first organic result, will be the same, free link.

But that way Google now can get $1 out of my click from brand X. and they are
in a really bad position, because if they do not pay, google can show a "Brand
Y" link on the ad spot.

it is a win-win for Google, and a Loose-Loose for companies that want users to
find them on websearches.

~~~
sheraz
Not true. Brands can prevent others from marketing on their trademarked terms
such as brand name and product names [1]. Unfortunately this is not automatic
from Google. Whether or not brands choose to chase this down is on their own
time.

[1] -
[https://support.google.com/adwordspolicy/answer/6118?hl=en](https://support.google.com/adwordspolicy/answer/6118?hl=en)

~~~
IshKebab
Can you prevent Google from showing your ad if your site is the first organic
result anyway?

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sheraz
Just because your search results show that you are first does not mean they
are first for everyone else.

You can limit your ads shown by geography, time of time, and some other
factors...

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aselzer
Instead of teaching you how to analyze old poetry or memorize facts that never
enter long-term memory, schools should make you aware of manipulative
marketing/sales tactics and how to recognize advertisements.

~~~
germinalphrase
With my students, I do both poetry and manipulative rhetoric (marketing,
politics, etc.); they are less exclusive than you may think.

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knughit
You are a rare gem, like my teacher who taught us to play the WFF-and-Proof
nerd-game "Propaganda"

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realusername
I'm pretty sure in the past, the colour of the ads were quite different and
you could differentiate the blocks much more easily. It just became whiter and
whiter over time it seems.

~~~
massysett
Article says "Despite the fact that these topmost search results were outlined
in an orange box and labelled with the word "Ad,""

which is odd because I can't remember the last time I saw ads outlined in a
box. They used to have a different background color. It was quite clear that
the ad results were something different. Now all you get is this tiny little
box that says "Ad". It's quite easy to miss.

~~~
e12e
Reading the full report, it's pretty clear that it's just the word "Ad" that's
in a box (and I'd call it yellow, not orange, maybe my screen settings are
off). I had to dig up a browser I don't use, and so doesn't have ad-block -
but Google (in English) does indeed add a small box with "Ad" next to (some)
sponsored results:

[http://cubeupload.com/im/y24qHx.png](http://cubeupload.com/im/y24qHx.png)

(I had to upload this a few times, as I couldn't readily find any image host
that wasn't both free, didn't require login/registering, and didn't _wrap_ the
image in some kind of web page -- even after years of using an ad-blocker, my
mind refuses to "see" any box/region marked as an ad... The image is the
square with the text "Trainers - up to 60% off ..." in it ;-)

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projct
imgur.com is a good resource for uploading images, in the future

~~~
e12e
Does it allow uploading without logging in?

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dudul
"young people just get technology in a way that older generations don't"

This is _not_ true! The more you're accustomed to a technology the less you
understand it. Teens have no f-ing clue how the internet works, how computers
work. They don't spend weekends putting together a computer from scratch, and
setting up a LAN at one of their friends house.

This is not a criticism, that's just how it is. I remember vividly getting my
first VCR. When it was broken my dad and I were able to open it and somehow
fix it up (to a point :), now who can do that?

The whole "they were born with it, they just get it" is a myth and totally
backward, the more you take a technology for granted the less you understand
it.

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dovdov
A review of latter South Park episodes. :D

~~~
nmc
I had the exact same thought!

The timeline is almost puzzling:

• Episode "Sponsored Content" (s19e08), in which advertising disguised as news
is first mentioned, aired on November 18.

• The Ofcom report was published on November 20.

Maybe the report was announced early, Trey Parker and Matt Stone heard about
it and got the idea from there?

~~~
xemoka
Maybe, except this entire season has been leading up to it...

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kpozin
On the other hand, I know a two-year-old who starts to cry when ads interrupt
his truck videos on YouTube.

~~~
nitrogen
Get that kid a uBlock Origin for Christmas (or whichever holiday is
appropriate) ;-).

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InclinedPlane
This has always been the case for the majority of "normal" people, teens or
not.

~~~
nmc
Can you reference a scientific study to support that claim please?

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dudul
"Does... does she know? Does she know she's an ad?"

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bwooceli
Seems flawed to me, but haven't seen the actual screenshots they showed. The
possibility of the top result being both an ad AND the most relevant result do
not seem mutually exclusive to me.

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TheCapn
Yeah, on multiple occasions I use Google to find the website of a piece of
software only for the top ad result to be a link to the website I wanted
anyway.

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radiowave
Of course in some sense the ads _are_ search results, just biased ones.

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rokhayakebe
Teens? How about "Most."

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askew
Google exec: "Mission accomplished".

/glib

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debarshri
Or may be people are getting dumber?

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SpaceInvader
Not dumber, they just live in a different world. We had to use google the
proper way, because there were no other tools, or at least not that many. And
that became a habbit of ours. This is totally normal thing to me.

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thomas998877
They've got ads on Google?

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SQL2219
Google is worth a bazillion dollars and it's customers are paying for
chimpanzees to click on ads?

