Search Engine Irony
I was pulling together some information today for a client's Adword program, and happened across a dandy bit of irony. Appearing in the list of Adwords on Google was an Adword for...Bing! Yes, Microsoft is using Google to advertise its own new search engine! This is (a) the ultimate compliment, or (b) the height of irony, perhaps both. In actuality, Bing will most probably bring some added attention by Google to its own offering and features; they've had the field to themselves for so long the folks at Google may have forgotten what real competition looks like. Not that FireFox is bad, but MS has tons of cash and is clearly throwing plenty into Bing, including a mass-media push.
The new Google Adwords interface is not without its bugs and problems. The Bing Adwords interface is actually a real pain to use. It's not intuitive at all, and getting the hang of perfectly ordinary activities takes too much time. It in most respects replicates Google's functionality, but it's clunky. Over time, it may improve. I'm testing ads to compare cost per click and may move more activity to Bing if the cost per click is lower, after all, "all clicks are equal." Unless, that is, they are made by a competitor. So the question arises, will Google advocates or MS haters click on the Bing ads on Google? Oh, the irony.
