Thats like really bad, a big no-no.

If that story is substantiated, that really is "shit, meet fan"..and potentially "Larry steps aside"..

Marrissa, and her new COO must be relieved to be out of the line of the storm that rule breaking like that can release..

Google is still making a boatload. the issue is that the boat was a little lighter than expected.

The problem is that since they don't pay a dividend, and ordinary shareholders get little/no say in how the business is run, investors only bought those shares in the first place because they expected the price to keep on rising. If they may be starting on a long downward slope those shareholders could start getting very upset indeed, with increasingly good reasons.

Better companies than Google have been brought down by 'innovative' financial schemes of this kind.

Some VCs and investors may well begin asking for the return of control to Eric..

I never use there adwords its just to expensive.

@sevencubed - its not just one quarter, its the fourth consecutive quarter of diminishing revenues from their only meaningful revenue generator - AdWords

Alright thanks for pointing that out. So now that it's obviously getting bad their accountants can get creative to keep propping it up. I don't know, for example the difference that they rake back from publishers of AdSense compared to what they refund to advertisers, less the "administration fee". It won't be the webmasters in general that will suffer next. It's more likely to be the AdSense folks.

It's still not their demise but since I'm here I'll raise a glass with the rest of you...here's to a brighter future, I sense better days are ahead for us. They can only run from karma for so long 'till it comes back and bites them.

My woman just said, well they have shot them self in the foot, be cause all those who got hurt by panda now also dont have money for adwords.

be cause all those who got hurt by panda now also dont have money for adwords.

That's kind of non-sequitur because while they aren't mutually exclusive, people relying on SEO probably don't use much PPC in the first place and people that reply solely on PPC wouldn't be phased by Panda.

I'll raise a glass with the rest of you

Um, no, because toasting someone else's misfortune is totally bad karma and just plain tacky.

Wall Street is looking at this:

Average cost-per-click, which includes clicks related to ads served on Google sites and the sites of our Network members, decreased approximately 15% over the third quarter of 2011 and decreased approximately 3% over the second quarter of 2012.

Click prices heading down are not good for a company whose near-sole revenue source is paid clicks. I expect more algo "improvements" in the near future as the only way to make up for lower CPC is to ramp up paid clicks.

Um, no, because toasting someone else's misfortune is totally bad karma and just plain tacky.

Ummmm, no, I'm toasting our potential better future -- not their bad karma.

@incrediBILL

Look back at my other post before you lunge. I clearing indicated this may simply finally be a turning point. I've clearly said this is not their demise. How you managed to interpret that as me thinking it's their misfortune is beyond my understanding. It should be plain to see that I am proposing a toast to the leveling of the playing field hence the "little webmasters" may now finally have a chance...yep that's worth toasting, a brighter future. Google's misfortune, gimme a break, oh the drama!

*UPDATE: CNBC's John Fortt returned to the air about an hour after his initial report to clarify his remarks. He said that Google had not called analyst to give "guidance" about the quarter.

Read more: [businessinsider.com...]

...so instead of making 999 bazillion millions every year, now it's only 900 bazillion millions. oh no

big brands got good rankings with help of panda and penguin, so they don't have to spend loads of money on adwords anymore.

Ad revenue is falling, reasons why : [bbc.co.uk...]

Google Q3 2012 Earnings Call

Here Larry here:

[youtu.be...]

monetization per query...

and a few other things every SEO/webmaster should be aware of.

I just read that mobile revenues are up
substantially from google play and that's their second big revenue play beyond adwords

Fyi
[finance.yahoo.com...]

I just read that mobile revenues are up

The BBC analyst mentions that revenue from this is harder to manifest than desktops. Simply less slots available.

I expect a major acceleration of Google tactics to turn this around in key exisitng revenue areas whilst slower strategies are made to engage, like mobile, further down the track.

My hunch is more advertising space in the SERP's will occur as it's the easiest to turn on.

Just goes to show that technology can be easy come , easy go.

Um, no, because toasting someone else's misfortune is totally bad karma and just plain tacky.

In business? I think not! :(

Google have been systematically and knowingly destroying many legitimate businesses with each algo update and with each takeover. They have been celebrating these for years. Isn't this tacky?

Their arrogance and contempt for the little guy is such that when I hear about their problems it feeds my natural sense of vengeance. Can't help myself. ;)

Two things:

- More users migrating to mobile = less AdWords slots and lower CPCs
- Motorola division made a huge loss

I wonder what will happen to the share price today.

My hunch is more advertising space in the SERP's will occur as it's the easiest to turn on.

I agree with Whitey on that that but it's a very short term solution to G generating more income.

So they stuff their SERPS even more with paid listings until even Jo Public cottons on to the poor quality of the results. Jo P will go somewhere else if it just gets too bad.

What they should be doing is devoting every shred of their efforts into working out a way to monetise smartphones and tablets. That's the way forward, that's they way they can stop Microsoft and others getting in on their act.

Someone on this forum asked a question about starting up a UK based search engine - my answer is forget it. But a search engine for smartphones and tablets may be a very good business proposition. It's the future and a not too very distant one. Anyone got a spare £billion to back me?

big brands got good rankings with help of panda and penguin, so they don't have to spend loads of money on adwords anymore.

blackpixel, I think you hit the nail on the head.

The more Amazon (and the likes) show atop the organic search results, less their ads will be clicked. I've always said that Google's creators have absolutely no business sense whatsoever.

We have already seen image advertising make its way into google, I wouldn't be surprised if logos/banner ads are introduced as an incentive to the top ad spots.

Google have been systematically and knowingly destroying many legitimate businesses with each algo update and with each takeover. They have been celebrating these for years. Isn't this tacky?

Their arrogance and contempt for the little guy is such that when I hear about their problems it feeds my natural sense of vengeance. Can't help myself. ;)

With you on that one. When I heard about the share price fiasco last night on the news I actually smiled.

How can mobile can be blamed, if total clicks are up 33% over last year? Cost per click is down 15%, so something else is going on IMO. Sounds like people are clicking, but they aren't concerting. How many power advertisers removed targeted Adsense units because of Panda "shallow content" concerns? What about people like me who were spanked so hard by Penguin, they lowered their Adwords budgets?

Google have been systematically and knowingly destroying many legitimate businesses with each algo update and with each takeover. They have been celebrating these for years. Isn't this tacky?

Destroying business? Really? Those businesses have decided that they want to make money based upon some other company's algorithm. That's not a business, model that is gambling.

When you start a business dependent upon the whims of another company, how can you blame them for your failure?

@travelin cat, Your logic is the same in this case as saying lets cut all the trees in the world because we can. Its a closed loop. Its not a decision or a choice its THE WAY of doing business online.

[edited by: Donna at 6:22 pm (utc) on Oct 19, 2012]

Exactly Donna.

I think everything is down folks. I have had some really intresting conversations with company owners in different areas of a related industry. Ususally the last 4-6 months is their time to shine, but from all reports it is way down. I have asked them all for a reason all of these companies are seeing a big drop. No one has a reason other than the election.

I have to wonder could this be a possible reason for this decline?

BTW this industry is the largest and employees the most people in the USA probably the world. All I have are US companies I have spoken with.

UK here so deffo not the problem. Sure the economy is not great but I have been in touch with people from the USA & Germany too, they all see periods of on/off (most of the time at the same time as us!).

Wow.
And it may have something to do with this as well.

E.U. Pressures Google Over Privacy Policy:
May Have Global Impact
[webmasterworld.com...]