[wkjagt]

Does anyone know when it started to be "ok" to disguise ads as search results? And I don't mean making them look more similar, but including them at all, even as the top results. I'm genuinely wondering how this started because it feels like such a bad idea, but everyone is now doing it anyway because we got used to it by adding it to our list of noise to filter out when interacting with anything connected to the internet.

[AuryGlenz]

It happened at the same time enough users trained themselves to mentally skip over the ads.

[davidjfelix]

It mostly seems like this was a response to the complex world of SEO. My perception is that SEO was seen as this pay-to-play 3rd party service that was offered by "experts" which allowed you to get the leg up on your competition. Search engines saw this as value being externally captured so they offered ads. Want to buy your way to the top? Quit paying 3rd parties to play the game and pay directly.

[morshu9001]

Google had sponsored links for as long as I knew about it, at least 2000. That section was at the top back then and is like that today, but there were times it was only on the right side.