Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy

by Tim Harford

products, more confident that they’ll find a market. This all sounds like excellent news for consumers and businesses. But there are problems. One problem is those advertisements. Typically they function as one might expect—if you google “craft beer,” then you’ll get advertisements for craft beer. But if you’ve lost your wallet or need to rebook a flight or need a locksmith, you’re a prime candidate for an AdWords scam. Fly-by-night companies will pay Google handsomely to appear next to certain kinds of searches; they’ll gladly take your money and provide little or no service in return. Some are outright fraudulent; others cleverly tiptoe up to the line without crossing it. Nor is it clear how hard Google is trying to stamp out these dubious tactics.8 Perhaps the bigger issue is that this seems to be Google’s responsibility alone, because the company dominates the search market. Google handles close to 90 percent of searches worldwide; many businesses rely on ranking high in its organic search results.9 And Google constantly tweaks the algorithm that decides them.