With google, you, as someone who wants to advertise, are entered into an auction for a particular search term (although they are most often in packages).

IE: I want to pay for advertisement on google for the search term "window replacement San Francisco"

The other people interested in that term (again, that would be in a package that contained all like-terms) would enter into the auction with Google. I say, "Im willing to pay 2 dollers a click",
Asshole -a- responds "3 dollars!"
Asshole -b- "3.50!"
and so on... The rank of sponsored links is then determined by the amount the company was willing to pay-per-click.

Not a surprise. Google simply gives better search results than other engines. I occasionally try out other engines, and they are pretty crappy.

On the plus side for Microsoft, Yahoo's long-term purchase price is getting cheaper by the day. How long until that declined friendly takeover becomes a hostile takeover?

Stupid question... ok that makes sense... thanks!

Ok so isn't there a conflict of interest if a company paid Google to rank their website page higher than what it's suppose to be. Does this happen?

(sorry meant to reply to post #3)

YARRRRRRRRRRR!

www.talklikeapirate.com

The advertisers pay. If I look for say, Amazon, and click it via Google, they get a micro transaction based off the probability that I will buy something.

Interesting to note that this is a good way to mess with smaller advertisers. A bot net can search for a page, and cause the owner to incur major charges without buying anything.

Who pays Google when people search on it? Is it our individual ISP?