I guess online businesses can make money three ways—transactions (buying/selling something), advertisements (pay per click), and subscriptions (monthly fees). What amazes me is that the pay-per-click advertising model works so well for search engines like Google. As for me, I ignore all the advertisements and only make use of the search results, just as I ignore all those Google ads embedded in most blogs and websites thanks to the Google AdSense program. When it comes to ad-clicking, I must be in the minority because Google is doing fine with the pay-per-click advertisements. Nevertheless, I was wondering if Google would someday introduce a subscription-based premium search service of some sort—not to replace its ad-based model, but to augment it. I don't mean the "ask a question, set your price" model of Google Answers, but a straightforward subscription-based access to some premium content. Sometimes, when I have trouble finding relevant material from Google searches, I almost wish for a subscription-based Google search. I think I'd go for it if the subscription fee is not prohibitive and if I could try out and see that the searches produce better results.
Tags: search advertisement Google google transaction subscription payperclick adsense
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