Category: Search Engine

Unlike my other posts, this is not a new topic; however I wanted to blog about Adsense and Adwords as until today I did not understand the difference.

Google Adwords is a way that business’s can create paid ads that appear in Google Search. Typically paid search ads are situated at the top of a search or to the side and are distinguishable by their faded yellow background. Whereas organic search are shown below the paid search items; shown below.

The reason that Google Adwords is so influential for business’s is shown in the below image. The image demonstrates an eye tracking study conducted by Google; and demonstrates where consumer’s are most likely to look when they search on Google; and therefore it is beneficial for businesses to pay for the top ads.

On the other hand, Adsense is where a Web Publisher submits their website to Google. Once the website is approved based on its relevance, the Web Publisher chooses were they want ads to be situated on their web pages. Adsense provides relevant ads that are related to the website being viewed by the consumer, as shown below:

Therefore the difference between Adwords and Adsense is that Adwords allows businesses to pay for ads; and Adsense is where Web Publishers partner with Google to spread the Adword advertising whilst making a profit.

What is the Hummingbird? For those of you who are unaware, Google has recently updated their search engine, in what is supposed to be the ‘biggest’ update since 2001. Alex Morrison from 6S Marketing, states that the idea is to move the algorithm away from keyword matching; and towards contextual matching. Furthermore Amy Gesunhues explains that the algorithm update has two advances; firstly allowing the ability to deal with more complex questions; and secondly the search engine has become more ‘rational thinking’, in basic terms Google is thinking more like a human brain. In a way, when it is put into perspective, it can sound quite daunting.

Danny Sullivan demonstrates an example of the ‘conversational update’, by asking Google ‘how old is Barack Obama?’, in which Google replies with the fact at the top of the page; he then asks ‘how tall is he?’, not using Obama’s name in the second question, Google replies with the answer. This is an excellent demonstration of how Google has utilized rational thinking in a conversational form; one like two people would have face to face. Although is it starting to sound a bit like the development of the terminator..? Of course these updates assist consumers’ and business’ in everyday life; but have we reached the point of no return? Many generation Y’s, like myself, probably have reached the point of no return, a life without Google, I definitely couldn’t imagine.

Of course I am highly impressed with Google as a search engine, for instance little did I know the Hummingbird update had occurred about a month ago. To the untrained eye, I was already accustomed to the new updates such as photo’s in the search feed of fellow bloggers or that Google had improved answers to those absurd questions that I can’t answer. When friends ask me questions I can’t answer, I simply reply with ‘Google it’. To what extent are we becoming too reliant on search engine’s to form conclusions for us? Share your perspective..