Paid ads online, more is less...

It seems as though everybody these days is going to have their own paid advertising. There's nothing to stop the juggernaut of revenue which each search engine believes is the only way to make a dollar. I remember early on, something like 12 years ago, some of the search engines had a very all truistic attitude about search. Of course, that was at the time when people in education still ruled many aspects of Internet life. The question isn't whether paid ads are good or not, that's up for the consumer to decide. The question is when everyone has something like this how much has it devalued everything? I would guess that this is going to cause some searchers to be a little jaded always having to deal with ads not unlike having to do with banners or pop-ups. I imagine there will come a day when people will decide to work with the search engine based on whether they have ads are not. That will also create some opportunities for other kinds of exposure without advertising. It's a little like billboards along the roadway, you see them but you don't really see them. In some ways it's subliminal, but how effective are billboards to a mass audience. I know that search engines have a targeted advertising situation which is better but that's not what I'm questioning. Is the sheer numbers of advertising opportunities going to dilute the results of those already listing. To this I would say, yes.
Now MSN and Ask Jeeves are going to be diving into this whole realm of pay per click advertising, which may be a good thing. I hope it drives down the cost of the whole system of paid advertising. I would guess with increased competition that this is what will happen eventually although not right away.

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