# Do you/will you click on the Google ads **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [October 12, 2005, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-will-you-click-on-the-google-ads/325974 "2005-10-12T22:17:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![alterego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6bbea6/32.png) [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-will-you-click-on-the-google-ads/325974/21 "2005-10-13T17:58:10Z")
Out of principle, no. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-will-you-click-on-the-google-ads/325974/22 "2005-10-13T18:39:25Z")
Got 'em adblocked, so no. ---
**Author:** ![NE\_Texan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e99b99/32.png) [@NE\_Texan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NE_Texan)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-will-you-click-on-the-google-ads/325974/23 "2005-10-13T19:02:29Z")
I would be willing to click on an ad for something I was interested in that seemed promising. I have yet to find a google ad that I’ve wanted to click on, though. ---
**Author:** ![JimOfAllTrades](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@JimOfAllTrades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JimOfAllTrades)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2005, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-will-you-click-on-the-google-ads/325974/24 "2005-10-14T02:34:40Z")
Yeah, I’ve clicked a couple on purpose, and a couple by accident. Haven’t bought anything based on one, and I usually don’t buy from ads. But you never know, if one was on point for something I had in mind, I might use it to buy. Might as well give the SDMB a cut if I’m buying anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2005, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-will-you-click-on-the-google-ads/325974/25 "2005-10-14T04:02:07Z")
I have clicked a couple on purpose. They were relevant to thread. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2005, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-will-you-click-on-the-google-ads/325974/26 "2005-10-14T04:03:58Z")
I mean, really, if you post a thread along the lines of “Where Can I Get a Copy of the Bible?”, and there are ads saying, “Cheap Bibles, Free Postage”, you’d be stupid not to click. ---
**Author:** ![Hokkaido\_Brit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/d26b3c/32.png) [@Hokkaido\_Brit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hokkaido_Brit)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2005, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-will-you-click-on-the-google-ads/325974/27 "2005-10-14T09:41:21Z")
I haven’t, and I plan not to. I have kept out of this so far, but I am disappointed with the SD for doing this… (Should anyone be keeping count of opinions.) ---
**Author:** ![gum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bbe5ce/32.png) [@gum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gum)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2005, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-will-you-click-on-the-google-ads/325974/28 "2005-10-14T13:11:42Z")
I don’t mind the ads and I’ve clicked on some interesting ones. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2005, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-will-you-click-on-the-google-ads/325974/29 "2005-10-14T13:25:27Z")
I rarely even notice the ads. I would click on one if indeed I noticed it and it was of interest to me. ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2005, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-will-you-click-on-the-google-ads/325974/30 "2005-10-14T14:55:26Z")
> [@Arwin](#): > > I think for once that the ads are amusing, so I actually prefer to see them. > > However, sometimes they scare me. Not the ads themselves, but the social impact of some of them: > > Molestation Records Info > FBI Records, Sex offenders, & More Search our huge database today! > [www.CourtRecords9.org](http://www.CourtRecords9.org) > > I don’t even dare click on them, but when I do, I suspect it will be limited to ips within the U.S. > > But I should think something like this skirts the limits of the law … or no, I should hope, at least. Scary stuff. Court documents are public records. As they should be. This allows the citizenry to act as a check on the limits of the gov’t. What would be scary, would be a gov’t which could prosecute its citizens without telling anyone what they’re doing and why they’re doing it. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-will-you-click-on-the-google-ads/325974/31 "2005-10-15T11:03:55Z")
Ad Block enabled ---
**Author:** ![Burnt\_Sugar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee59a6/32.png) [@Burnt\_Sugar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Burnt_Sugar)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-will-you-click-on-the-google-ads/325974/32 "2005-10-15T11:39:11Z")
> [@NoClueBoy](#): > > Ad Block enabled Yup, and I would never click even if I did see them. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-will-you-click-on-the-google-ads/325974/33 "2005-10-15T11:48:10Z")
never have and never will. Intrusive crap but easy to ignore. I don’t think I’ve ever clicked on an internet commercial link ---
**Author:** ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-will-you-click-on-the-google-ads/325974/34 "2005-10-15T11:48:20Z")
I’ve clicked a few Google ads on other sites (and occasionally still do), but I adblocked the SDMB’s Google ads, so no. ---
**Author:** ![Dog80](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6bbea6/32.png) [@Dog80](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dog80)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-will-you-click-on-the-google-ads/325974/35 "2005-10-15T11:50:29Z")
I actually removed my HOSTS file so I can see them. I have clicked those that I find interesting/funny/weird. I believe however that the ad content should be filtered somehow. It is ironic that in a thread debunking homeopathy you are going to find ads for homeopathic hemedies. Fighting ignorance and all that. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![galen\_ubal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/galen_ubal/32/4440_2.png) [@galen\_ubal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galen_ubal)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-will-you-click-on-the-google-ads/325974/36 "2005-10-15T11:52:33Z")
I usually surf with Firefox and Adblock, but I’ll open the SD with IE from time to time. I figure I owe the ads, in a way. You see, I can see who is getting all angry about them, and those who self-righteously declare they’ll never click an ad ‘out of principle’ ( :rolleyes: ). This lets me know who to ignore. If your principles are triggered by small ads at the bottom of a web page, then your moral outrage is calibrated way too friggin’ low. The list of people who are complaining bitterly about the ads could be profitably used as a guide for the Ignore function, if I cared to research it that closely. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-will-you-click-on-the-google-ads/325974/37 "2005-10-15T22:41:48Z")
I’ve deliberately unblocked them because it’s kind of interesting to me to see how the AdSense bots react to our yammer. I’ve never deliberately clicked on a banner ad on _any_ other website. That being said, I have an unreasoning loyalty thing going on with both the SDMB and (to a lesser degree) Google – so my consumer resistance is substantially lowered in this case. If a product is worthwhile, and a sponsor of something that I appreciate, that does effect my purchasing decision. Sometimes surreally. (I exclusively buy _Lux_ soap cakes, for instance, out of gratitute for many, many hours of entertainment made possible by sponsorship deal that they had going [seventy years ago](http://www.radiohof.org/adventuredrama/luxradio.html), and which most consumers have probably long forgotten about. It’s good soap, it’s cheap, and it gets the stink off. Everybody’s happy. I would never consider buying Lever2000, made and marketed by the same company, because it’s crap soap and the commercials annoyed the hell out of me.) I have clicked on a few Google ads here. So far there have been few things that looked attractive enough to merit much consideration. (I don’t do a lot of online purchasing.) The closest I came to actually making a purchase was when a link for _Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story_ came up in a _Family Guy_ thread. It went direct to the Fox online outlet, and looked pretty solid. I considered the price, though, and decided that it more of a rental thing, for me. I thought about it though, and I don’t feel put out in the slightest that my contemplation of the purchase represented an incremental little benefit to Google and to the SDMB. I like Google. I like the SDMB. If I ever see anything that that I _must_ have, it looks solid, and the price is competitive, I wouldn’t hesitate to buy it through an SDMB Google ad. ---
**Author:** ![Bearflag70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Bearflag70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bearflag70)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-will-you-click-on-the-google-ads/325974/38 "2005-10-15T23:01:11Z")
Not only do I refuse to click on the ads, I refuse to click on threads about the ads. :dubious: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-will-you-click-on-the-google-ads/325974.md?page=1)