TELKOM FAIL! 8ta uses Google Custom Search with sponsored results

[iCubed.Saajid]

Have you checked out the 8.ta website at www.8ta.com?

The site makes use of the free version of Google Custom Search (http://www.google.com/cse), which populates search results with sponsored links. So a search for "iPhone" returns no results from the 8.ta website, but about 10 different sponsored links, one of which is Vodacom.

I wonder who their web development agency is. Definitely a bunch of idiots. For 100 USD a year, you can get a business account, which doesn't show sponsored results, and allows you to do a whole lot more.

Seriously, its only 100 USD per year.

UPDATE: The Custom Search is also poorly implemented. You need to make use of 2 different search buttons. Here is an image of the search results:

http://i51.tinypic.com/14n1wm.jpg

[wndrbees]

lol, that US$100 would only have been: 1.17e-5 % of their R6bn investment (http://www.moneyweb.co.za/mw/view/mw/en/page292671?oid=511421&sn=2009+Detail&pid=287226)

[Budza]

Awe inspiring.

[VioAdmin]

Hey, money is money! They are probably making an easy $2,000+ USD a month from those search engine results and will increase as the traffic and customer base grows! It's about the dollar for Telkom! Zuma needs to pay off his million dollar house payments somehow.

[wndrbees]

Hey, money is money! They are probably making an easy $2,000+ USD a month from those search engine results and will increase as the traffic and customer base grows! It's about the dollar for Telkom! Zuma needs to pay off his million dollar house payments somehow.

Some way or another they will take from vodacom, creative solutions :)