Google is changing how ads appear in Search, slowly and carefully

[Alfonso Maruccia]

Editor's take: Despite the AI boom and other major shifts on the web, advertising remains Google's – and Alphabet's – primary revenue source. The company recently began a slow rollout of a new ads interface: a collapsible box containing contextual ads that stays pinned above search results.

Google recently updated its sponsored search results – those listings that typically appear above organic results in search engine results pages (SERPs) – with new navigation features. Announced in a brief note on its Ads & Commerce blog, the change groups textual ads under a single "sponsored results" label, giving users a clearer view of paid content and making navigation through search results more intuitive.

The label is designed to be easier to spot – even for the most absent-minded users – and remains visible while scrolling through results, ensuring that paid content is clearly distinguishable from organic listings. Google said the design aligns with its "industry-leading" standards for ad identification, helping billions of people use Search more efficiently and productively. Clear labeling also addresses growing scrutiny from regulators and consumer advocates concerned about transparency in online advertising.

Google is adding a control that lets users quickly hide paid listings, though they must scroll through the ads before accessing the new button. The search giant claims internal tests show users navigate SERPs more efficiently with the redesign, which keeps ad sizes unchanged and limits each group to four text listings.

The new "Sponsored" label also applies to Shopping ads and other paid placements. Google has begun rolling it out globally across desktop and mobile search. The header will appear above AI Overview results as well, maintaining consistent ad visibility across formats.

Sponsored search results have long been a key revenue driver for Google, but they've also sparked controversy over how the company displays them. At one point, Google attempted to blend text ads into organic search listings, a move that drew criticism and ultimately led the company to reverse course.

More recently, US regulators found Google guilty of maintaining an illegal advertising monopoly. The company must now grant competitors unprecedented access to its search index and related data – a ruling that could reshape the online advertising landscape.

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Google is changing how ads appear in Search, slowly and carefully

 

[Megalomaniac]

How difficult would it be for them to actually give me a survey or a series of surveys asking me about the type of clothes I buy, size of clothes/shoes I buy and the type of tech I buy?

Ebay recently started doing it - now I get targeted for clothes my size that I actually would consider buying DUH!!!

There are very few car brands I buy and my cycle of buying is years apart. Maybe, just maybe they should target me with ads infrequently when my lease or finance period is coming to an end from brands I buy - not brands I'd never buy from?

I have 3 properties with tenants in 2 of them. Maybe, just maybe, target me with ads relevant to my landlording?

I go on international vacations annually in business class for 2 months. Maybe, just maybe, target me with low prices to Asia, South East Asia, etc - during the time you know I'm planning to buy tickets?

This isn't rocket science.

They need to basically create a profile of me and my needs rather than targeting me with ads I'll race to close.

 

[Axeia]

Pro tip: Use another search engine and you'll actually find things. Ecosia, duckduckgo, startpage - it's all the same more or less.
Not like Googles ads are relevant, the only time they're relevant for me (but not really) is right after I've been searching for a certain product I wanted to buy to see if it's any good... and often the ads for it only start showing up after I have already bought it or decided against doing so.

I can appreciate Google for overturning how search engines worked. Initially it was a breath of fresh air. Now they're just a lingering stench that's getting worse and worse. It's a struggle to find the relevant results between the ads and sponsored results.

 

[p51d007]

I MIGHT use google search once or twice a month. Otherwise my default search engine is DDG.

 

[FF222]

"The company's new "sponsored results" label is meant to improve clarity "
No. It's meant to trick users into clicking on sponsored ads, by removing the "Ad" label which until now has appeared next to them. Now they just look like regular organic results.

 

[Mr Majestyk]

I MIGHT use google search once or twice a month. Otherwise my default search engine is DDG.

Yeah I mostly use DDG. Sometimes for research papers Google or Google Scholar is better.

Alas the whole search engine situation is a joke. We have Google, Bing, Brave and Yandex, and no one is using the Russian one. DDG is based on Bing. Some offer no AI and/or privacy focused versions of Google search, like Startpage and Brave is still limited IMO.

Apparently it costs many billions of dollars to set up a search engine and not even Apple has tried.

 

[dangh]

Pro tip: Use another search engine and you'll actually find things. Ecosia, duckduckgo, startpage - it's all the same more or less.

They are all the same, because this is just enhanced bing. Sure, you dont send your datq to Google... You send them all to ms advertisement group. While getting less relevant search results. It is not a real alternative.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Yeah I mostly use DDG. Sometimes for research papers Google or Google Scholar is better.

Alas the whole search engine situation is a joke. We have Google, Bing, Brave and Yandex, and no one is using the Russian one. DDG is based on Bing. Some offer no AI and/or privacy focused versions of Google search, like Startpage and Brave is still limited IMO.

Apparently it costs many billions of dollars to set up a search engine and not even Apple has tried.

Yandex is great when searching for copyrighted content that you want for free, but it sucks for things like image search or anything the likes of Russia or China dont really want you knowing.

It's not that they are not censored, it's that they are censored by different powers then Google and Bing.

 

[Phylop]

It’s pretty clear at this point that the powers that be are deliberately accelerating the enshittification of the old internet and classic search engines. They’re pulling back the freedom the internet originally gave us, pushing us onto AI-mediated platforms where not only will every click and keystroke be watched, but every piece of information we see and hear will be filtered before it reaches us.

 

[FF222]

It’s pretty clear at this point that the powers that be are deliberately accelerating the enshittification of the old internet and classic search engines.

Don't blame the companies, they're just doing what they've been created for and expected of! Blame the people who value and chase short monetary gains, or at least promise or hope of those above everything else and at all cost!

Those who vote right wing politicians into power, who in turn cut their voters' benefits and freedoms, and give themselves fat tax cuts. Those who gave up all their personal data voluntarily on social networks just so they could farm for likes with their manipulated photos. Those who idolize criminal musicians and playback puppets over real talents. Those who don't care about families getting ripped apart and people deprived of their human rights just because they have different skin color or speak a different language. Those who support wars on foreign territories and don't really care about their environment getting destroyed just so they can continue to have cheap oil and drive ridiculously big vehicles, merely for the sake of doing it.

Societies with no morals, just hypocrisy, and no actual values, just interests may get and edge over decent ones in the short term, but will destroy themselves, and their members will turn on each other in the long term.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Don't blame the companies, they're just doing what they've been created for and expected of! Blame the people who value and chase short monetary gains, or at least promise or hope of those above everything else and at all cost!

Those who vote right wing politicians into power, who in turn cut their voters' benefits and freedoms, and give themselves fat tax cuts. Those who gave up all their personal data voluntarily on social networks just so they could farm for likes with their manipulated photos. Those who idolize criminal musicians and playback puppets over real talents. Those who don't care about families getting ripped apart and people deprived of their human rights just because they have different skin color or speak a different language. Those who support wars on foreign territories and don't really care about their environment getting destroyed just so they can continue to have cheap oil and drive ridiculously big vehicles, merely for the sake of doing it.

Societies with no morals, just hypocrisy, and no actual values, just interests may get and edge over decent ones in the short term, but will destroy themselves, and their members will turn on each other in the long term.

It's always fascinating to me when leftists try to describe the "right wing" and end up just describing themselves.

 

[Northy]

It's always fascinating to me when leftists try to describe the "right wing" and end up just describing themselves.

People injecting politics into every conversation tend to have unreliable opinions, never-mind them.

"The company's new "sponsored results" label is meant to improve clarity "
No. It's meant to trick users into clicking on sponsored ads, by removing the "Ad" label which until now has appeared next to them. Now they just look like regular organic results.

Yeah they are messing with it to keep clicks and impressions high. Nothing about these changes are altruistic. It's like supermarkets that move all their products around the store on the regular, so then you don't know where your pancake mix or tinned tomatoes are and spend the next 20 minutes "discovering products" trying to find them.

They are all the same, because this is just enhanced bing. Sure, you dont send your datq to Google... You send them all to ms advertisement group. While getting less relevant search results. It is not a real alternative.

Already people are trending away from traditional search towards customized AI search engines like Perplexity, just to get a little transparency. G&M are implementing their own AI trying to outdo and outprofit each other. It spells the death of the internet as a reliable information source because people need to get paid to create information, and if AI is taking it all for free and providing condensed analyses no one is clicking. No one gets paid except AI. Game over.