GoTo served up text ads designed to look like search results, but which were paid for by advertisers who bid for position. It was an eBay-like auction model. For any given keyword, a company could pay whatever it cost to rank first for that search term. If you wanted to show up first on a search for “flowers,” you could bid, say, 10 cents a click. If someone bid 7 cents, they were listed second. Bidding a nickel might get you third place, and so on.
