Our friends at 5 Star Affiliate Programs found a gem in on the UK Affiliate Forum.

Apparently Google is testing out a new page format. On the left hand side are bars that show the number of items in other Google search areas.

Here it is:

I think this is a cool design. It reminds you that there are other Google resources you might want to search (with those enticing bars that are showing you other results to click on), and it leaves more space on the first page for search results.

What is getting the people in the UK to shift into doomsday mode is the Froogle link. Froogle is Google’s shopping portal, and it’s nothing special. What worries the forum posters is that it might create mega-awareness of Froogle and kill affiliate websites. After all, as one poster says Google’s survival depends on killing affiliate websites.

Whoa there. Google makes a ton of money through AdSense on affiliate websites. And if it wanted to promote Froogle, it could put a huge Froogle banner at the top of the billions of search page results it produces each month.

Do I think Google wants to steal your affiliate business? No. Do I think they want a bigger piece of the shopping pie? Don’t we all.

I think shopping.com (aka Ebay) has more to worry about than your affiliate site.

[The screen shot is from ARS Technica]

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This entry was posted on Thursday, March 30th, 2006 at 5:55 pm.
Filed under Uncategorized, Google / Adsense, Affiliate Marketing, Your Site.
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