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Ads in search results? — Parallax Forums

Ads in search results?

SeairthSeairth Posts: 2,474
in General Discussion
Have there always been ads in the search results, or is this something new?
Screen 2016-06-07 11.02.jpg
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Comments

  • Courtney JacobsCourtney Jacobs Posts: 903
    This is the result of using a Google-powered search engine. You'll notice that the ads display much the same as they would in a normal Google search.

    The ads belong to Google, not Parallax.
  • MikeDYurMikeDYur Posts: 2,176
    I have seen it for awhile now, harmless and not quite on subject, but if they can sell you something while you research, they win. Google wants inside your head.
  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    I don't see a problem with it. Before the forum switched to Google search, I was using Google anyway, in lieu of the forum search tool, and there were, of course, ads there, too. But with a little mental filtering, you don't really notice them after awhile.

    -Phil
  • SeairthSeairth Posts: 2,474
    If Parallax is fine with it, I'm fine with it. I just hadn't encountered it before, so didn't know if this was a new thing or not. Sounds like "not".
  • Courtney JacobsCourtney Jacobs Posts: 903
    Of our options, the Google-powered Search was the fastest method to bring a better-than-stock search feature to our forums. You may recall how awful the standard Vanilla search was.

    With Google search inevitably came Google ads, which is unfortunate. Parallax doesn't sell adspace on its websites and we do try to keep it out where we can.
  • Ron CzapalaRon Czapala Posts: 2,418
    Courtney Jacobs wrote: »
    Of our options, the Google-powered Search was the fastest method to bring a better-than-stock search feature to our forums. You may recall how awful the standard Vanilla search was.

    With Google search inevitably came Google ads, which is unfortunate. Parallax doesn't sell adspace on its websites and we do try to keep it out where we can.

    I appreciate the Google search - it is certainly easier to find threads...

  • WBA ConsultingWBA Consulting Posts: 2,934
    Interesting. I did the same search on the forums for "pnut source" and don't have any ads. I am using Firefox with the Ghostery plugin, but the Parallax site is fully whitelisted.
  • kwinnkwinn Posts: 8,697
    edited 2016-06-07 17:50
    WBA Consulting wrote: »
    Interesting. I did the same search on the forums for "pnut source" and don't have any ads. I am using Firefox with the Ghostery plugin, but the Parallax site is fully whitelisted.

    It looks like the ads are "targeted" based on what is searched for and "pnut source" had no ads that met the targeting criteria.
  • WBA ConsultingWBA Consulting Posts: 2,934
    Don't think they are at all targeted and the OP searched for "pnut source" in his example.

    I redid the search in Chrome and IE and both results yielded ads. Guess that's why I love Firefox.......
  • GordonMcCombGordonMcComb Posts: 3,366
    The ads can be turned off if the site is non-profit, or pays Google for the service. If you use the free basic search engine, as most people do, the ads are the way Google makes their money.

    Some people might find that visits to Parallax competitors (which is something Google can track) will bring up ads for these competitors. For this reason, it's usually a good idea to just pay Google their annual fee and do away with the ads. The cost, based on number of searches, is not insignificant -- about $1-2K a year for a site that gets a decent amount of traffic.
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