October 4th, 2006

Google’s Eric Schmidt Admits to Polluting Online Content

by Scott Karp

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Buried in the Time interview with Google CEO Eric Schmidt is an astonishing admission:

Another example of a question that we are debating right now is: we have this amazing product called AdSense for content, where we’re monetizing the Web. If you’re a publisher we run our ads against your content. It’s phenomenal. How do we make that product produce better content, not just lots of content?

Not “lots of” content but “better” content.

AdSense has provided an incentive to produce content that makes people click on ads, but not necessarily content that best serves users’ needs and interests. AdSense made online content much more profitable — but it didn’t necessary make GOOD content more profitable.

It’s very telling that Google now sees taming the Made for AdSense beast as one of its main strategic challenges.

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Topics: AdSense | Google | Media Economics

  • somaking
    Scott,

    A great observation. But what drove them down that path? Economic incentive.

    Where there's economic incentive to create good content, it will flourish.
  • tclimb, Eric Schmidt said that AdSense is leading to the production of "a lot" of content, and he wishes it were "better," i.e. it's not good content. So the web is getting filled with "a lot" of content that could be "better."

    Pollution, n. the act of contaminating or polluting; including (either intentionally or accidentally) unwanted substances or factors

    We can quibble over terms, or we can just call a spade a spade.
  • tclimb
    I think you are overstating what was said..."polluting online content" is a stretch.
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