May 5, 2008

Fish Wrapper Advertisements

How does Google provide advertisements for its subscribers? In theory, it works the way that Brin and Page designed Google -- it's supposed to figure out what everyone looks for with certain queries and guide you to the most popular results based on the query you've made.

Well, apparently if you don't make a specific query, but instead are browsing through another website that references Google, you might see some links that you aren't accustomed to. For instance, if you were (like me) reading the Fish Wrapper online today, and were curious about what had happened to the "Pico East - Olympic West" initative (an idea which started back with Dick Riordan first ran for mayor, way back when I was in law school), you would have gone to this article by way of a headline link on the Fish Wrapper's website's front page. And there you would have seen the the collection of advertisements that I've screen-captured for the upper left of this blog entry.

You'll have to take my word for it, I have not used my computer to search for information about having plastic surgery performed on my labia. Ever.

But apparently, this is a common sort of thing for other readers of this particular website to be looking for, or someone figures that it is a common enough thing to be made the #1 search link for anyone reading the Fish Wrapper. I wonder what the same thing would be at the Gray Lady.

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