Google Doing Paid Reviews via AdSense? Why not!

134 responses..

I had an unconfirmed resource emailing me that Google Adsense will be testing a paid review service within the next couple months to beta testers via Adsense. I promptly emailed contacts at Google to confirm/deny with nothing back yet.

At first I wanted to just dismiss the email as hogwash (and it probably is) but I can think of many reasons why Google would jump into the paid review industry.

Publishers - Google already has a amazingly huge database of publishers.

Advertisers - Nobody has no online advertisers then Google AND now they they have taped into the news, magazine and radio network they have access to tap even more advertisers on the shoulder to pay for reviews of their service.

Blogger - Google already owns the biggest blog network in the world and they seem to already have a relationship with wordpress for easy implementation of Google AdSense on wordpress.com (that would make sense anyway).

Metrics - Between Google toolbar, Adsense, and Pagerank data Google has by far the best metrics to price a site for a review. They already use these metrics for Adwords in selling contextual ads and links.

Google has pretty much destroyed ReviewMe and PayPerPost (the competition) and launching there own seems like it would solve all of their problems. The big issues Google had with paid reviews was the linking issue and now they can control all of that PLUS get a chunk of the revenue.

So again…. there is no credible source that is saying Google is getting into the paid review marketplace but it would certainly seem like it would be a very good business move for them.

What do you think? Could we see Paid Reviews via the Adwords/Adsense system in 2008?




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  • posted on January 28th, 2008:
    Written By: ShoeMoney

    134 Comments

    @January 28, 2008 7:37 am

    Google is ridiculous. It would only make sense if they made this kind of move. Next they will be buying Al Gore, just to make sure they really do own the internet.

    Justin Dupre
    http://www.blogosis.com

    @January 28, 2008 7:44 am
    Eric Odom Says:

    Well, considering the fact that Al Gore actually owns a good chunk of Google, I would assert this isn’t a likely scenario.

    That being said… Google sucks. I still love it though.

    It’s like an addiction that society finds acceptable, even though we all know it will eventually be very bad for us.

    @January 28, 2008 9:22 am
    Erica Says:

    I totally agree. I actually recent wrote a post on How I have a love/hate relationship with Google. I hate it. But they’re addicting. And great.

     
    @January 28, 2008 9:26 am
    Erica Says:

    I totally agree. I hate Google. With a passion. But i love it! It makes my life easier and its just great. I even wrote a recent post about my love hate relationship with Google

     
    @January 28, 2008 9:27 am
    Will Says:

    yea lol. you gotta hand it to google for shaping what the internet is today.

     
    @January 28, 2008 4:08 pm

    The relationship most people have with G is indeed interesting: most don’t agree with their business model yet couldn’t imagine surfing without it :)

     
     
    @January 28, 2008 2:37 pm
    sukosaki Says:

    yea, but why do people hate them? are those people mad because Google CAN do what Google wants? Are they mad they are getting away with interweb monopolization? Are they mad because the toolbar is too simple and doesn’t cause their browser to crash? What is the real reason people “hate” Google?
    I myself, like Google, search, that is. I appreciate their excellent business sense, but I can’t help but feel they are getting away with something. Nonetheless, this service would be no surprise to me, or to others that posted here I see.

     
     
    @January 28, 2008 8:00 am
    raj Says:

    I smell link bait ;)

    I don’t think so they will introduce something like this

    @January 28, 2008 8:53 am
    Anon Says:

     
     
    @January 28, 2008 8:10 am

    I don’ t understand why Google has to be anonymous when contacting you.

    @January 28, 2008 2:27 pm

    Plausable deniability. It lets them advertise a new product without actually advertising it and allows them to deny everything until they actually release it. And on the other hand they are getting publishers excited and ready for the product before its release without ever hurting their image.

    Large companies do this all the time.

     
     
    @January 28, 2008 8:27 am

    [...] Googles going for Paid Reviews? [...]

     

    [...] Read more of this article at ShoeMoney.com [...]

     
    @January 28, 2008 8:33 am

    It wouldn’t surprise me if Google were to get into the paid review market. They’re more intent these days on dominating than they are anything else. Putting other businesses out of business like ReviewMe would be like being Wal Mart. Whatever happened to “Do no evil”? Frickin’ Google!

     

    [...] ShoeMoney® - Skills To Pay The Bills - By Jeremy Schoemaker wrote an interesting post today on Google Doing Paid Reviews via AdSense? Why not!Here’s a quick excerpt I had an unconfirmed resource emailing me that Google Adsense will be testing a paid review service within the next couple months to beta testers via Adsense. I promptly emailed contacts at Google to confirm/deny with nothing back yet. At first I wanted to just dismiss the email as hogwash (and it probably is) but I can think of many reasons why Google would jump into the paid review industry. Publishers - Google already has a amazingly huge database of publishers. Advertisers - Nobody has n [...]

     
    @January 28, 2008 9:05 am

    Totally depends on their implementation. I could see this being done in a few ways where it would be good and a few where it would be bad. I first want to know why they don’t have a stumbleupon or digg alternative that is successful. Once they have that in place I see the paid reviews sitting nicely on that platform. Otherwise I don’t see where they would implement it (unless it is like adwords). Also would they give “good” reviews all the time?

     
    @January 28, 2008 9:16 am

    What?! You’ve got to be kidding me?! If this goes through then Google will have reached their most evil point. They punish other companies who are just trying to make it big and then go behind their back to turn a profit. Ridiculous.

    Although, I could see some revenue from this, so I can’t complain. :-)

     
    @January 28, 2008 9:24 am
    Erica Says:

    Wow. Google just may very well take over the world. Of course that’s been said before…

    @January 28, 2008 12:46 pm
    jim Says:

    No…. really? By whom? :)

     
     
    @January 28, 2008 9:26 am
    Will Says:

    Dang google sure knows how to divide and conquer.

     
    @January 28, 2008 9:27 am
    Lee Says:

    This would not surprise me at all. If it is a paid review service on other sites might surprise me. But really what is Knol except a paid review service? Look at how full of paid reviews Squidoo is.

     
    @January 28, 2008 9:37 am
    Ben Says:

    I’m getting sick of Google targeted all these niches and destroying other peoples businesses. Can’t they just stick with perfecting search and bringing my Google AdWords costs down :(

    @January 28, 2008 4:11 pm

    In the end, it’s their business and they have the right to make whatever decisions they see fit but will, of course, have to live with the consequences.

     
     

    [...] a reason: there’s talk that Google may soon be offering paid reviews via AdSense, although as Jeremy Shoemaker points out it’s all speculation so [...]

     
    @January 28, 2008 9:57 am
    Mubin Says:

    Well it will be very interesting to see how this turns out.

     
    @January 28, 2008 10:03 am
    Hyder Says:

    Can anybody say hypocritical, if they did that?

    @January 28, 2008 10:13 am
    samo Says:

    Everyone will — but nobody will do feck’ all about it! Everyone just bends over and takes anything google has to give. They could say: “do not do any paid reviews, or you’ll be dropped from google!” and people will stop!

     
     
    @January 28, 2008 10:09 am

    [...] came across this interesting post at Shoemoney blog, according to the author of the blog, Jeremy Schoemaker. Google might be about to [...]

     
    @January 28, 2008 10:09 am

    [...] Google might get into paid reviews service [...]

     
    @January 28, 2008 10:09 am
    alanj878 Says:

    It is possible but they may create a special button that bypasses google paid review filter and also believe Google if cannot control he real world they would go to the next best thing the net.
    http://nonimarketingsuccess.blogspot.com/

    @January 28, 2008 2:30 pm

    No, all they have to do is say “use nofollow on all reviews”. Or, they will just spit out a bit of javascript required on every page reviewed. They will probably do the ladder.

     
     
    @January 28, 2008 10:13 am

    I don’t really see Google doing this through Adsense/Adwords necessarily, though I suppose it is possible. Typically, if Google expands into a niche they purchase a company that is already successful in the niche in order to do so. Blogger is a good example. I guess they could simply incorporate a system into Adsense/Adwords instead, though. Much more likely that they purchase whichever competitor survives through all the penalties, though, and wrap it up into their ever-expanding online monopoly.

     
    @January 28, 2008 10:18 am
    Holly Says:

    It would make sense for them to try this out. I mean they have taken over everything else. I guess we will just have to wait and see.

     
    @January 28, 2008 10:21 am
    marhgil Says:

    why not? but i’m sure, they will require the nofollow tag on all the reviews if this is true.

    @January 28, 2008 10:31 am

    well of course =P

    @January 28, 2008 2:31 pm

    I think it is more likely they will say to use a bit of javascript. They are javascript whores.

    @January 28, 2008 4:13 pm

    Most likely since let’s face it, offering paid reviews which contain seo-friendly links would simply be too much, even for G :)

    (Comments wont nest below this level)
     
     
     
     
    @January 28, 2008 10:34 am
    Adam Says:

    Well, this is the first showings of monopolistic action that I’ve noticed from Google. First they lay the smack down on pay per post / ReviewMe / Text Link Ads under the guise that its “gaming their system”. Ok, so they try to destroy a subset of advertising out there. I guess I can see that it might be people taking advantage of their system.

    But…then they turn around and release their own little version? This just looks like they destroyed a profitable tactic for ad networks just to turn around and create their own for profit.

    Looks shitty if you ask me. Do no evil my ass.

    @January 28, 2008 5:28 pm
    sean Says:

    right and it isn’t the first time they have used one division to kill competition while another exploits the gap.

    @January 28, 2008 6:44 pm
    Adam Says:

    Well its the first I’ve noticed. Doubt itll be the last either.

     
     
     
    @January 28, 2008 10:50 am
    Marisa Says:

    If it’s true, it practically guarantees an anit-trust suit against them. Surely they can’t be this stupid. The DOJ will have a field day with it!

    @January 28, 2008 2:32 pm

    On what grounds? They only punished those who wrote the reviews and didn’t put nofollow on the links. If you used nofollow, you were safe… although you probably didn’t get any buys.

     
     
    @January 28, 2008 10:53 am
    RacerX Says:

    Why wouldn’t they do it? There is a market there already, and if Google does it it legitimizes the practice. They will put the spin that these are 100% actual reviews, no positive for positives sake.

     

    [...] é oficial mas existem rumores de que o Google poderá vir a arranjar um estratagema de colocar reviews pagas no seu serviço de [...]

     
    @January 28, 2008 11:28 am
    Sander Says:

    Also another rumor.. I’ve read somewhere that matt has launched a script that scans all email within gmail for ‘link buying / paid reviews’ and so on. They scan the emails and ban/downgrade the domains (websites) doing paid (review/link) deals.

    Big brother is watching you!

    @January 28, 2008 4:14 pm

    As strange as it may sound, nothing would surprise me as far as G is concerned :)

     
     
    @January 28, 2008 11:43 am
    Maurizius Says:

    I Think Adsense is a serious thing but the people in the world who have a really possibility to earn something are not very much, i wanna use it on my blog wich is
    http://guadagnare-senza-lavorare.blogspot.com/ What do you think about?

     
    @January 28, 2008 11:49 am
    Paul Says:

    They are monopolizing the internet in all aspects. If they continue to do this people are going to stop using them. Free market my ass they are communist in all facets. It is just a shame that the millions of us that have made them rich are now taking it up the @$$!!!!!!!!

    @January 28, 2008 4:17 pm

    After each controversial decisions of theirs you’ d think that people would stop using them but that hasn’t been the case up until this point and I doubt that it will be in the near future.

     
     
    @January 28, 2008 11:53 am
    Linda Tong Says:

    Well I guess they will try and corner the market on paid reviews. Anything for profit and since they are trying to control what the bloggers are doing. Something they havent exactly cornered yet or have a thumb on. Especially since they tried to track down paid reviews for PR and gave a few bloggers a 0 for such reviews.

     
    @January 28, 2008 11:54 am

    The reason a lot of people pay for reviews is to get link juice passed back to their site. I would honestly be shocked if Google entered the paid reviews space. Matt Cutts wrote a post recently about how paid posts spam up Google’s SERPS.

     
    @January 28, 2008 12:11 pm

    Google将推出收费评估吗…

    最近有消息说Google将要退出paid review,就是收费评估,或者收费评论,国内叫做口碑,或者话题的广告形式。 Google通过自己的搜索引擎,已经成功的把Review Me和PayPerPost打压的抬不起来了。 这…

     

    [...] = “http://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-entering-paid-reviews-business-via-adsense/6297/”; Shoemoney has published a tip coming from a secret source that Google is going to be offering paid reviews via their Google [...]

     
    @January 28, 2008 12:46 pm
    jim Says:

    It’s just another avenue of advertising I suppose! It does really go against the Do No Evil mantra though…

     
    @January 28, 2008 1:08 pm
    Will Says:

    wasn’t google offering affiliate products to battle with affiliate networks awhile back? what happened to that?

     
    @January 28, 2008 2:05 pm

    I would like that those rumors would be true. Then Google will just get my website’s pagerank to the real one so I can make them increase their profits.

     
    @January 28, 2008 2:20 pm
    Stealth Says:

    I don’t think Google would do that. Also they have to be careful now there becoming a monopoly so the government intervention axe will be coming swinging down Soon.

    @January 28, 2008 2:29 pm
    blackysky Says:

    Agree you cannot slap compagnies and then offer the same service. It doesn’t make sense at all…. They will have the same microsoft problem
    Internet explorer vs nescape and others
    Windows media player vs others like real player…
    Let’s face it google search engine become a standard like windows was…..
    I still love google … the walt mart of internet. You find everything at cheap price ahahah

     
     
    @January 28, 2008 2:31 pm

    i have a close contact at Google and i asked him if this is true. Here is his response

    “In terms of a paid review service through AdSense, I certainly haven’t heard of any such product. I’ve done some searching around the web and found some speculative reports that were the first I’d heard of this product. ”

    The reps at Google have not heard of this product yet, so i assume its just rumor. He said he will also speak with some of his superiors to see if he can get additional information on it.

     
    @January 28, 2008 3:24 pm

    Seems too hypocritical. There would be a lot of backlash from the people who had their PR deducted (or removed).

     
    @January 28, 2008 3:25 pm

    [...] Shoemoney ist nun ein interessanter Blog Beitrag veröffentlicht worden. So gibt es derzeit Gerüchte, das [...]

     
    @January 28, 2008 3:58 pm

    That would bve kinda cool if you ask me :)

    Maybe google could also bring back the “free toys” in the ceral boxes :)

    @January 28, 2008 6:24 pm

    Haha, I wish. But, they’d have to know they would be able to make a ton of money off them before doing so. How would Google Cereal taste anyways?

     
     
    @January 28, 2008 4:05 pm

    Now that you put it this way, sounds possible. I wouldn’t have thought about it.

     

    [...] Google Doing Paid Reviews via AdSense? Why not!, ShoeMoney [...]

     
    @January 28, 2008 4:15 pm

    I would love it if they get that gig and why not - don’t they pretty much own the internet now?

    How much internet does Shoemoney own?

     

    [...] alterarían demasiado. Sería interesante ver qué es lo que pasa. Esto es comentado en el blog de ShoeMoney, quien supuestamente ha recibido información de un contacto el cual le ha revelado los planes de [...]

     
     
    @January 28, 2008 4:37 pm

    Looks like google will dominate another industry. I think it will be good news for bloggers as more contracts now … because i am sure google will have plenty of advertisers to help us all ;)

    lets see how this works out.

     
    @January 28, 2008 4:38 pm

    Paid reviews are certainly the next step in advertising and google must get a piece of the pie. It will be interesting to see if they are going to keep a large % of the money paid for the review. But in my opinion - direct negotiation is the best - eliminate the middle man (or company)

     
    @January 28, 2008 5:07 pm
    Colin Joss Says:

    Those reviews could perhaps generate some public interest and increase the quality of the ads. The only CHALLENGE for google is to get genuine reviews, so I am thinking that google could get real buyers and consumers to do the reviews.

     
    @January 28, 2008 5:18 pm

    Why not just buy the competition? They seem to do that a lot anyway. It sure seems easier that re-inventing the wheel each time.

    @January 29, 2008 2:47 pm

    It would be far too funny to see them buying one of the paid review companies they have tried their best to eliminate from the equation :)

     
     
    @January 28, 2008 5:21 pm

    Google wants to bring us EVERYTHING we may want but I don’t think they have any interest in paying bloggers to create more reviews when there are millions of reviews on the net already. Especially paid reviews.

    @January 28, 2008 6:22 pm

    If they’ll make money off of it- they’ll do it.

     
     
    @January 28, 2008 5:24 pm
    sean Says:

    who gives a cr#p. I am getting close to jetisoning google from my life. They will overreach and then decline.

     
    @January 28, 2008 5:53 pm

    If a paid review system from Google is coming, then I surely will test it. But, certainly, it would be a hypocritical attitude from Google after they have criticized those systems so much.

    @January 29, 2008 2:49 pm

    Actually, they didn’t criticize the reviews, they criticized the paid links which came with the “package” so that, if they were to launch something like that, the links would not carry any weight as far as SEO is concerned.

     
     
    @January 28, 2008 6:06 pm

    I think review service may work for very high traffic sites - specially pulling traffic from English Speaking countries.

     
    @January 28, 2008 6:08 pm

    So, how does you become a beta tester? :)

     

    [...] received an emailed from an unconfirmed source claiming that Google will be testing a paid review service within the next couple months. If anyone else posted this, I would have said it was linkbait. Then [...]

     
    @January 28, 2008 6:20 pm

    This would be awesome if they did this. Google has TONS of interested advertisers via adsense, so finding an interested advertiser for a paid review would be easy as pie.

     
    @January 28, 2008 6:30 pm
    Shane Says:

    If they do it they should just buy PPP or RM and create a Wordpress plugin that links a review post to your review account - that way, they can automatically verify the review was done and even apply no-follow to the links if they want. Bottom line though is they have to allow the market to price itself to some degree. If there isn’t decent money in it for publishers, it’ll be a total waste of time.

     
    @January 28, 2008 7:07 pm
    Keith Cash Says:

    This explains why they kill everyones PR a few months back. Maybe I will catch back up in a few months my PR will be back up.

    Tell Google to sign me up.

     
    @January 28, 2008 7:16 pm
    BrinkStow Says:

    This would be very surprising. I guess that if they did this, they would be no-following the links. Otherwise, it would be EXTREMELY hypocritical.

     
    @January 28, 2008 7:16 pm

    LOL…Google Cereal…..They could have colorful letters and the marshmellows - could be a blog, an adsense…..etc…;)

     
    @January 28, 2008 7:29 pm
    Louis Says:

    Why are you talking about them possibly doing it? They already ARE doing it.

    Google has their own referrals/CPA offers in Adsense. There is nothing to prevent you from blogging about a specific offer peppered with a few of these referrals. Unfortunately for Google, their referrals are not proving to be popular.

    A natural extension would be to allow come up with a post with 3 to 4 links and you are either paid a flat fee for the post OR you paid for the referral or even clicks in the post.

     

    [...] I don’t believe it. Google is against paid reviews, right? Shoemoney got an emailing that Google is doing a beta test for paid reviews via [...]

     
    @January 28, 2008 10:51 pm
    Emil Says:

    Are there any easy setup web sites where you can place ads on your web site then make profit every time someone clicks on an add? How can you make money off myspace by posting ads on bulletins! or messages?

     
    @January 29, 2008 12:07 am

    That’s great. I would like to get paid reviews back on my blog. I didn’t get very good results with Review Me.

     

    [...] today, Shoemoney made a post entitled “Google Doing Paid Reviews via AdSense? Why not!” Shoemoney stated the he received information from an unconfirmed source that Google is going [...]

     
     
    @January 29, 2008 3:59 am
    Elmo Says:

    A Google free world is easy (nuttin tuit honey). Try it …. the only thing you have to lose, is your wooly coat and bleating voice :-)

     

    [...] this world of speculations above reasons, the web world is afloat with another buzz published by Shoemoney. He has reported that Google is going to offer paid reviews through its AdSense system and is [...]

     
    @January 29, 2008 6:07 am
    Goldie Says:

    This sounds really sus, and it doesn’t sound legal - if it’s true.

    This sort of behaviour, building up a monopoly and crushing your competition only to get into their business, is what Microsoft has been in trouble for. I’d expect the, now ruined, competition to start pushing for anti-trust lawsuits.

    In fact, I’m kinda surprised no-one has sued Google already.

     
    @January 29, 2008 7:21 am
    Beasiswa Says:

    Are there any easy setup web sites where you can place ads on your web site then make profit every time someone clicks on an add? Are you sure??

     
    @January 29, 2008 8:03 am

    [...] Some points on why Google would do this: [...]

     

    [...] it has essentially wiped the floor with the paid posting services is to become that entity itself. Shoemoney has a post up on his site that goes into some more detail and I’m sure he’s got some [...]

     
    @January 29, 2008 10:58 am

    Google become a giant in advertising program and now will increase their market share once the paid review is launch. Maybe Google will hold back since they will consider the monopoly issue if raise by other competitors?

     
    @January 29, 2008 11:02 am

    Google become giant in advertising program for adwords and if the paid review is launch, probably google market share will increase. Maybe Google will hold back to consider some monopoly issue if raise by other competitors?