The Blogvine strikes again. I posted an article a few weeks ago about a post on one of the message boards indicating that someone in the UK had spoken to someone from Google at an event, and that Google was considering banning search arbitrage and forcing advertisers to link to their own website instead of redirecting clickers through the standard affiliate redirect links. I thought I needed to further clarify what I have heard, because some of my merchants have started to contact me about making changes for the “impending Google policy change”. When I asked where they heard this was a done deal, they pointed me to a blog, that referenced another blog’s article, whose article referenced my original article. (The Blogvine…)

I called my Google rep, and she said this was the first she had heard anything like that. She said that if Google would ever make that kind of change they would announce it well in advance to give their advertisers time to adjust.

Here are a few points to consider:

1. Google is making a lot of money from search affiliates. As a public company, Google isn’t going to want to do anything that is going to hurt there existing revenue streams. The current policy gives Google a clear competitive advantage over their major rival, Overture.

2. Unlike Overture, who has this policy in place already, Google doesn’t allow you to bid for exact position. Google’s advertising system will automatically drop off non-performing ads, so the argument that these ads are hurting the search experience is not valid. If customers were not interested in the ads, they would not click, and they would disappear automatically.

3. Making this change would not only hurt affiliates, but would hurt the merchants that the affiliates are advertising. These merchants are often Google’s top paying advertisers. If affiliates were forced out, then these merchants would quickly see their competitors taking up the open slots. Google has already stated it’s policy of not blocking competitors for bidding on trademark terms, this policy has been recently solidified by their victory in their legal case with Geico. (See Geico vs. Google – Google Wins!)

So I believe that rumors that this change will happen shortly after the new year, are over exaggerated at this point, and I highly doubt we will see Google making this drastic of a change any time soon.

That being said, it can never hurt to expand your horizons and start building some websites and landing pages for your merchants. Overture has a lot of traffic to offer if you start making these pages now. Don’t hesitate to ask your merchants for co-branded or personalized landing pages, many of them would be more than happy to help you out.

Tell me what you think? Do you see this Google policy change happening?

Happy Holidays!

Adam