An article in Search Engine Land today describes how “Ask.com Plays The Google AdWords Arbitrage Game“:
Rather than promoting its own product (as with the Cashback example), or drumming up some incremental searches for its site (as with the apples example, or by saying something like “New Hampshire Hotels? Try Ask.com For Better Results”), Ask is using specific text to make you think you can conduct and conclude a purchase at their web site, when you cannot. Instead, what you are far more likely to do is click on a Google ad that Ask carries, earning Ask money (and almost certainly more money than they paid to get your click from Google).
It’s clever, though pretty clearly in violation of Google’s AdWords policy. And at best it strikes me as a short-term play: it will annoy users–that is, if Google doesn’t shut this down sooner. But I am morbidly fascinated by this race to the bottom in the online advertising business.