Type in virtually any first and last name into Google and you’ll almost certainly see an AdWords placement from Intelius with the alluring headline “We found [David Rodnitzky].” You are then sent to page where you can pay money to get information about this person, though I’m not entirely sure how accurate this info is, since this is clearly an auto-generated ad. Today, however, I saw an Intelius ad that didn’t quite hit the mark, though it did hit the “Mac.” See below:

Over the last few months, Google has released a series of enhancements to AdWords that have enabled advertisers to see the full value of their AdWords spend. In particular, there are two improvements to the AdWords user interface of note: “Many per click conversions” – you can now see if a user has purchased more than once from your site during the AdWords cookie window; “View through conversions” – when someone sees a banner ad on the Google Content Network, but doesn’t click, and then later converts on … Continue reading →

It’s a common technique for flogs (fake blogs) to use photoshopped pictures to misrepresent their product or business. I’ve shown examples of this in the past with the “American Anti-Aging Association” and their ever changing headquarters building. Recently I’ve been getting a pop-up of a Google Cash scam with a hilarious photoshop. The company is called “Internet Payday” and their headquarters building is quite impressive. As you can see from the screenshot, they’ve got “Internet Payday” on the entry way at the bottom of the page and then … Continue reading →

I love those ads in in-flight magazines purportedly ranking the top steakhouses, seafood, Italian, or brewpub eateries in the US. The concept behind these ads is simple: get 10 restaurants to pay you to rank them in the top ten, then pay about 50% of what they pay you to the airlines – you make money, the airlines make money, and the restaurants get people coming through the doors. So what if the ad obscures the fact that this isn’t an actual ranking of quality, but rather a … Continue reading →

Looks like for the second year in a row I am not going to win the Biggest Search Geek contest. I got 68% right, so a D-!