Ads I Actually Like

In the course of shopping for the parts for my replacement server, I had occasion to use Google quite a bit, searching for information and vendors. One of the things I noticed was that I occasionally found more useful pointers in the ads than in the results, I was actually clicking on the ads to learn more.

And then I was shopping for, of all things, popcorn. Not just any popcorn, mind you, but the popcorn, oil, and seasoning packs to go with our Whirley Pop popcorn popper. The combination produces popcorn that’s infinitely better than microwave popcorn, and virtually identical to movie theater popcorn (of which I usually eat two bags when I see a movie).

I had started at Amazon.com, which carries the popper itself, but not additional popcorn packs. So I searched Google for “whirley pop popcorn” and got a slew of results, none of which was actually useful in finding a place where I could buy the packs.

Ah, but the ads! Of course, the ads are from people who want to sell me something — something I want to buy! And indeed, there were about a dozen ads from different popcorn supply companies. I clicked through a few of them, looking for the right package, and placed an order at the third store I visited.

It won’t be every day that the ads are worth more to me than the results, but I sure am glad that someone has figured out how to make advertising valuable to those viewing it, instead of a pain in the ass to be avoided any way I can think of. Kudos to Google!