Microsoft crowds search results with more ads
If you wondered why Google continues to relentlessly gain market share, look no further than Microsoft's boneheaded concept of progress. "Good news," crows Microsoftie Carolyn Miller, announcing the addition of a fourth ad spot above Microsoft's Live Search results. That brings the total spots on Microsoft's search-results page to nine. But the search results and ads on a simple query — say, "flowers 94103" — remain useless. Adding more space for ads means less competition for the spots — and thus less economic pressure on advertisers to only buy carefully thought-out ads relevant enough to perform well. If Microsoft were serious about beating Google, it would show fewer ads, not more. This was a decision made by an accountant, not an algorithm.