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02.16.2005

Pssst. Hey Buddy. Wanna Buy Some Used Pinot?

Thanks to some fellow bloggers and readers, I was clued into a funny phenomenon that's going on with the Google ads on the right side of the page. This phenomenon looks like this:

I guess when you're eBay and you're a 58 billion dollar company you go kinda wild with those niche ad placements. There must be at least one person in the universe who would buy some used Pinot Noir, so why not put an ad up? I'm thinking of that spit bucket scene in Sideways.

Listen if any of you readers out there are so desperate for some Pinot that you're thinking of clicking on that ad over there --> Stop. Relax. Take a deep breath, and give me a call. I'm sure we can work something out.

Posted by: Alder on February 16, 2005 10:09 PM: Filed under: Ramblings and Rants; Like this post? Share it! Digg it! - Add to del.icio.us - Add to Stumbleupon - Add to Reddit

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» What is eBay Smoking (or Maybe Drinking)? from Vinography: A Wine Blog

Tracked on November 12, 2006 6:46 AM

In order to bring you this amusing and puzzling anecdote, I must admit something. I google Vinography occasionally to see what comes up. OK. I've gotten that off my chest. Of course, I'm not super embarassed about that because everybody does it. C'mon.... Read more

Comments (11)

Tom Wark wrote:

02.16.05 at 11:42 PM

I like today's rendition:

"WINERY SALE
New and used Winery"

fortna wrote:

02.17.05 at 1:19 PM

Not to mention where and how these, "used and not so old new Pinot Noir", were stored? No I think bidding on, or buying any of these PNs would be an unnecessary risk of your change. But hey you got to know if there’s somebody out there trying to selling it–there’s somebody out there trying to buying it! Ain’t life just grand sometimes?

djb wrote:

02.17.05 at 3:02 PM

These are afilliate ads and are not being paid for by ebay. If an affiliate draws you to ebay and you register they get a couple of pennies every time you bid on something.

Mark wrote:

02.17.05 at 3:47 PM

djb is right. The affiliates have bid on just about every word and combination of words in the dictionary with links back to eBay - all they do is change the keyword in the ad. They get 10 cents if an already registered user bids or "buys it now", they can also get $20 if a new user registers and then bids.

Alder wrote:

02.17.05 at 3:53 PM

The internet never ceases to amaze me with different ways people try to make money.

fortna wrote:

02.18.05 at 2:07 AM

"money is the root of all ....."
or is it?
"money like leaves of a tree falling into the net?"

max wrote:

02.18.05 at 11:42 AM

A little late to this party, but: eBay UK did indeed sell an empty bottle of Yquem last fall (while not, of course, pinot, I believe this counts as "used wine"). To follow local parlance, some wanker payed 25 bucks for it.

Alder wrote:

02.18.05 at 11:50 AM

Wow. Must have been some marketing job they did on that one. I can see it now. "RARE RARE RARE. Empty bottle of the most famous dessert wine in the world. The label is actually readable, and we guarantee that you can still smell just a hint of the ambrosian liquid that you could never afford."

Pim wrote:

02.18.05 at 1:03 PM

EBay is advertising "New and Used Curry Pastes" today chez moi.

Oy!

Carolyn Tillie wrote:

02.18.05 at 2:25 PM

I'm terribly confused (and also very new to blogging, three whole weeks now) -- don't you have a choice whether or not those ads appear? Thanks for explaining the obvious to a neophyte!

Alder wrote:

02.18.05 at 2:36 PM

Hey Carolyn,

I've been reading your blog since day one. That's a lot of wineries in just three weeks !! ;-)

So the way these ads work is as follows. I sign up for an account with Google, decide what format (i.e. size and orientation) I want for the ads and they give me a small piece of code that I put into my web page there on the right, and then they automatically put the ads there based on the content of my pages (which Google sniffs out ever couple of days).

So while, yes, I do control whether the ads appear or not (I can always decide not to have them there) I have no control over the content of the ads.