How annoying it can be, when you try to find information through a search of the Internet only to end up at web sites that have paid links to more web sites that have paid links to more web sites and on and on it goes.

Google is responsible for the creation of this nightmare and they and many others are making a fortune from everyone who has legitimately tried to find hard information on a specific subject, by misdirecting the searcher to valueless web sites.

Only on the Internet can such a situation occur, because if it happened anywhere else, the companies involved would be out of business. Imagine reading an advertisement for refrigerators in your local newspaper or hearing about a sale on the radio or television. You load the family into the car and off you go to the store. When you get there, to your dismay, you can’t find any refrigerators - this store only has 20 pieces of advertising on other stores that sell refrigerators. They make money every time they send a customer to one of the other stores. So you grab one of the pieces of advertising, load the family back into the car, and head off to that store, you really want to buy a refrigerator. Surprise, surprise, when you reach this store, they do not have any refrigerators, but they do have a list of 20 other stores where you can get refrigerators and guess what, one of them happens to be the store you went to in the first place.

This is exactly the way that Google AdSense and AdWords works. It is the way that EzineArticles.com makes money, I will admit that in the case of EzineArticles.com and some others, they are providing some information on route, but the key to their success is that someone, be it a visitor or author, will click on one of the Google ads that appear on every page of their website.

Many Internet companies pay for Google AdWord advertising to draw individuals to their site and all they offer in return is a larger group of Google Adword advertisers. The key to their profitability is that you will either click on many ads or click on ads of higher value, hence multiplying the return on their initial Adword advertising investment.

Personally, I find all this ironic and so hypocritical. Google, the Internet search company that theoretically demands fresh content in order to provide you with high search engine ranking, has no problem, if you pay, in directing individuals to web sites that have no true content what-so-ever, just more Google ads. Money really does count!

If you want to put an end or at least a dent into the system, instead of clicking on a Google ad, when you reach a site that is only ads, load the URL of the advertiser in your browser and go to the site in that manner. The company that is hosting the ads of other companies only makes money if you click on the ad, not if and when you load the URL into your browser.

Welcome to the Internet!

Robert Berman is a business consultant specializing in business development, strategic planning, acquisitions & mergers and international sales & marketing. He has been a columnist for the National Post Newspaper under the byline of "The Business Doctor" and he has authored "The Business Buyer's Manual". He is available as a keynote speaker in many areas of business. He may be reached at [email protected] or visit http://www.sbhc.ca