NEWS: Google Advertisers Mad As Hell

Google Advertisers Mad As Hell

Some big-name advertisers are mad at Google (GOOG) for not cracking down on a controversial advertising technique called "piggybacking," the WSJ reports. What's piggybacking? One example: A small company using a bigger rival's brand in their ad to draw traffic to their site. Like a travel booking engine titling their Google ad "Holiday Inn Orlando."

So what are advertisers going to do? American Airlines has sued Google over the practice. But pretty much everyone else is just blowing hot air. It's possible that some advertisers may pull their ads from Google, but probably not for long -- or at least as Google's owns the search market.

For what it's worth, Google says "piggybacking" is against its policies, and tries to stop it whenever it can. Until American Airlines can figure out a business model that doesn't involve advertising -- and a search advertising model that doesn't involve Google -- we think that'll be good enough.