> Definitely a dark pattern and results in a lot of garbage clicks if you overlook that setting.
I really don't get this part. What's Google's interest in pointless clicks? Short term they could get some extra charge for those, but if they don't convert they lose a customer. On the other hand, for quality clicks they could just charge 5x the price and nobody would complain.
> What's Google's interest in pointless clicks? Short term they could get some extra charge for those
Because there are humans in the loop, and "Google" isn't a monolithic all-seeing entity. Sales guys, devs, etc. are rewarded on a quarterly (or yearly) basis, and short-term gains are prioritized over long-term effects ( I mean, how _do_ you measure the fact that, say, after getting 9 months of pointless clicks, the advertiser decided to cut their Adwords budget by 30%?)
So, someone runs an experiment (replace the obvious radio button with a hidden drop-down box, say), the clicks on the advertiser's ads go up, so the experiment increases revenue week-over-week by, say, 3%; and voila, everyone involved gets a pat on the back and a nice phat bonus come the next eval cycle, and maybe a promotion too.
> "I mean, how _do_ you measure the fact that, say, after getting 9 months of pointless clicks, the advertiser decided to cut their Adwords budget by 30%?"
Oh man, this is _the_ problem with metrics. We must find a way to measure and demonstrate aversion (instead of conversion).
> Short term they could get some extra charge for those, but if they don't convert they lose a customer.
They _might_ lose a customer — I suspect that they've determined that enough people either simply don't review their results closely or increase their spending to make it a net profit for them to do this. That would fit with the general pattern of hubris you see in many of their decisions where they've been coasting on their old reputation for at least a decade and don't seem to be fully aware of just how much loyalty they've sacrificed.
Plus they are a near monopoly/duopoly. So if the customer spends for wasted clicks they still get some good clicks as well. Google could optimize it for them better but the customer can not really tell if they could get a better result by some other means.
I really don't get this part. What's Google's interest in pointless clicks? Short term they could get some extra charge for those, but if they don't convert they lose a customer. On the other hand, for quality clicks they could just charge 5x the price and nobody would complain.