Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Sponsored Links

I was a little taken aback when I learned about the demise of comedian Richard Jeni, an entertainer that has always, well, entertained me. It always saddens me when someone who has made me laugh and enjoy my life a little more than the moment before passes, even though I did not know them personally.

Apparently he died last Friday, but I did not learn of this until last night, Monday night. So when I got on the internet the next time, I did a Yahoo! News search on him to find out a bit more. What I found was how bizarre the sponsored ad links can be.

Here is the page with the search results, listing the recent stories on the passing of Mr. Jeni (I know that its too small to read):



What I've blown up below are the sponsored ads that appear on the right of the page. These sort of ads look at the subject of the search and incorporate it into whatever it is they're advertising.




So here is a search results page full of links to articles documenting this comedian's passing. What are the ads for? Click here to buy tickets to see him. Click here to go to eBay to buy him. (Looking for him? We've got him right here!) Eww. They actually have him for sale? Is it the coroner behind this? Is TicketMaster selling tickets to the wake? What's up with that? Are they really that vulturous?

I'm sure that he would get a chuckle out of this if he were here to see it. Thanks for the final laugh, Richard.