It seems obvious – of course Google should use its own advertising system, AdWords. Placement of “house ads” has always happened, and it must be a good thing if Google experiences its own products as a user.
Perhaps not. PC Pro reports Eric Goldman, a law professor at Santa Clara University, California, has attacked Google for a “conflict of interest”. The problem is due to the way AdWords are sold – in an auction. Clearly the organisation running the auction could get unfair advantage over other participants in the auction due to their greater knowledge of all parties’ bids.
In reality we can’t see any serious challenge to Google using its own system to place adverts. It may not be entirely fair, but there are no signs of serious abuse (Google does make internal charges for the advertising), and personally I quite like the fact that Google gets to experience using its own product as a customer.
