Google Including Ads at the Top of News Result Pages

I’ve been using Google News for quite some time and earlier this year, Google - the dominant search engine - began including ads on the right column of its news search results pages. But today, I noticed something new … at least it was new to me.

My girlfriend will be the first (of many) to tell you that I am not exactly the most observant person in the world when it comes to certain things. So, perhaps I simply overlooked the fact that Google is now including paid ads, or “sponsored links,” at the top of its news search results pages. Check out the screen capture below:

I’m not sure how I feel about this. My initial reaction is that it dilutes the credibility of the results being returned. Having worked in news (TV, radio and print) for more than 10 years, I cannot help but compare the new revenue strategy to a TV station leading a newscast with a story that was “sponsored” and produced by an advertiser.

Yes, TV is saturated with commercials, but the advertisers do not mandate, much less produce the content. They pay for ads based on the ratings of the newscast, but assuming the news director and station manager are standup news people, they won’t bend to the pressure from advertisers.

News is meant to be unbiased and while I can accept the unobtrusive ads in the right column, I think Google has crossed the line by adding ads to the top of the news search results pages. If I’m looking for news, I’m looking for trusted sources, not sources that paid to get their content at the top. If your news is relevant to my search parameters, it should show up in the results and if it isn’t, then call me and I’ll give you a quote for my SEO consulting services.