Change in Google ADs?

[Brent]

I googled "Mormon" and the first (ad) response was "Mormon.org".

The second was "From Mormon to Catholic--Whyiamcatholic.com"

The third was "What is Mormonism" from Tri-Grace.org.

Fourth was about alternatives to missions..."http://www.ilp.org/volunteer/"



Ummmm...when did this start happening? I don't recall ever seeing anything but LDS.org links before...

[Dravin]

Keep in mind that Google search results are not neutral and they aren't universal*. They are biased by your past search history. For example, when I Google "mormon" my results are:

Sponsored: Mormon.org
1st: LDS.org
2nd: Wikipedia-Mormons
3rd: Wikipedia-Mormonism
4th: Wikipedia-The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

While it is possible that a change in search results reflects a reordering of a 'neutral' search result, it's also possible that Google's algorithms have decided to reorder results to give you what it thinks you're looking for when you search a certain term.

*Which is why when someone online is asked for a citation and they respond with, "Google it." or "Google 'XXX', third result." I get a little stabby.

[Brent]

The Ads are marked as ADs . These are the purchased placements, the church pays to have them pop up first...I cannot figure TriGrace would somehow out spend the church. LDS.ORG is still top of the money pile but I've never seen anything other than Church sites appear in the paid content.

[wtfluff]

The Ads are marked as ADs . These are the purchased placements, the church pays to have them pop up first...I cannot figure TriGrace would somehow out spend the church. LDS.ORG is still top of the money pile but I've never seen anything other than Church sites appear in the paid content.

I don't get any paid content when I Google mormon

[Random]

I don't get any paid content when I Google mormon

I didn't either.


The hits on the first page were (in order):
Mormon - LDS.org
Mormons - Wikipedia
Top Stories (with links to: 'James the Mormon getting a good rap [East Idaho News] - Mormon church to undertake sweeping survey on missionary safety [The Salt Lake Tribune] - On Mormon spring break, hooking up means getting hitched [Vice News] - and a link under if I want "More for Mormon")
Mormonism - Wikipedia
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - Wikipedia
Mormon.org | What is the Mormon Church and Religion? | Mormon.org
The Mormons . Watch the Full Program Online | PBS
A Mormon Woman's Choices - Modern Love - The New York Times
Is Mormonism a cult? Who cares? It's their weird and sinister beliefs ...
Additional Topics | Mormon.org
Who Are Mormons? | Mormon.org
LDS News Releases | Latest Mormon News Stories and Articles


(I linked one because it looked like it might be interesting, but I didn't read it. It looked like it was probably a post about Romney, though.)

[moksha]

I think with all the search manipulation know-how available to the Church, you might need to click on page 2000 for the really juicy stuff like NOM 2.0.

[RubinHighlander]

There's no doubt the COB spends a healthy chunk of tithes on trying to control the online narrative.

When I searched for Mormon in Firefox (I think it used an Yahoo search), four paid for placements popup at the top of the list: mormon.org, ldsplanet.com, book-of-mormontickets-center.com kindle.amazon.com with all the mormon related books.

The first web results are wikipedia, mormon.org, lds.org then exmormon.org.

[Corsair]

Try putting your web browser into incognito mode before testing a search like this. It then returns results based only off the Google algorithm and is not supposed to be affected by your known search history. These are the results I got a few moments ago:

1. (Advertisement) Mormon.org‎
   www.mormon.org ‎(877) 537-0003
2. Mormon - LDS.org
   https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/morm?lang=eng
3. Mormons - Wikipedia
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormons
4. Mormonism - Wikipedia
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormonism
5. Mormon.org | What is the Mormon Church and Religion? | Mormon.org
   https://www.mormon.org/
6. What is Mormonism? Overview of Mormon Beliefs – Mormonism 101
   www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/mormonism-101

The LDS church has clearly put some effort into search engine optimization. This would be a lot of time and money to get consistent results like this. Objective, but slightly less flattering news stories appeared below. But no domains like "cesletter.org" or "mormonthink.com" or "exmormon.org" appeared in the first page of results. The search images on the right hand side were from the Book of Mormon Broadway musical, however.

[Red Ryder]

Try putting your web browser into incognito mode before testing a search like this. It then returns results based only off the Google algorithm and is not supposed to be affected by your known search history.

Oops! I forgot to go incognito and got these results:

101 ways to build furniture out of food storage cases.com
Hotels near Palmyra
Sacrament bread recipes
Garment porn
Top 24 ways to give your bishop the slip
Chapel cleaning tips
LDS.orgasm

[Corsair]

Try putting your web browser into incognito mode before testing a search like this. It then returns results based only off the Google algorithm and is not supposed to be affected by your known search history.

Oops! I forgot to go incognito and got these results:

101 ways to build furniture out of food storage cases.com
Hotels near Palmyra
Sacrament bread recipes
Garment porn
Top 24 ways to give your bishop the slip
Chapel cleaning tips
LDS.orgasm

It seems your religious life is a comedy, not a drama.

[Random]

Try putting your web browser into incognito mode before testing a search like this. It then returns results based only off the Google algorithm and is not supposed to be affected by your known search history.

Oops! I forgot to go incognito and got these results:

101 ways to build furniture out of food storage cases.com
Hotels near Palmyra
Sacrament bread recipes
Garment porn
Top 24 ways to give your bishop the slip
Chapel cleaning tips
LDS.orgasm

You crack me up.