I logged into Gmail today and saw the following message:

Ironically a second later I got the following email from a client:

So you probably already know this, but thought I would share.  I am working on an email to past customers, and in the process of testing it, I send a copy to my work email, and aol email and a gmail email.  Apparently when you send to an email hosted by the great google gods, they decide to add paid search results to it, so I am now helping get someone else’s word out when trying to get my own word out-UGH.  That’s annoying.  Hope all is well.


Irony, thy name is Small Business Internet Marketing.

Share This Story!

About Author

4 Response Comments

  • dee oneal  April 9, 2011 at 3:26 pm

    You’re right, I’ve noticed that too. I don’t know what kind of tactic is that but obviously it would generate them more income. On the other hand, I just hope that it also benefit us at some point. They call that relevant one let’s wait and see.

  • Dragan Nikolic  April 10, 2011 at 4:39 am

    I’ve noticed this, too. Switched to “plain HTML” mode.

    Some people may find it poor in options, but those options are not really mail related, so…

    Cheers

  • Marissa  April 22, 2011 at 8:45 pm

    That really bites! Maybe if you only send images instead of text and use something like gocodes redirects that don’t give anything away (like maybe from another site). See if you can trick them into posting irrelevant ads that won’t take away from your own ad. If that makes any sense. These guys (and Facebook) are getting very nosy, and even following your links to pull relevant keywords from your site! It all makes me a little uneasy, like in a pre-“Minority Report” way. 😉

  • LinkMasters4All  April 29, 2011 at 10:40 pm

    Google probably targets the clients geographically to serve them the ads relevant to their area.