How Long Until Search Engines are the Biggest Affiliates

• MSN is considering adding images to their search ads.
• AOL recently showed graphic ads near their search results for some seasonal searches.
• The Yahoo! Directory offers image ads in some categories, like web design.
• Google sold Ford run of network AdSense ads for Ford Explorer.
• Google offers a distributed pay per action ad network which does NOT clearly mark their ads.
• Google is starting to offer interactive gadget ads.
• Google arbitrages their own search results with large ugly Google Checkout ads and video content from Google Video and YouTube.
• Marissa Mayer just hinted that Google is willing to consider selling graphical ads on Google.com.

How long until search engines are the biggest affiliates on the web? And when they do that, will affiliate marketing still be looked down upon the way SEO and domaining are? Better yet, will we have any way to know who is buying the ad or how it is priced?

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