Google ads and the blindspot debate

Abstract

This article renews Dallas Smythe’s ‘blindspot’ argument by examining the economy of Google advertising. I argue that Google sells at least three types of commodities: keywords, statistics of keywords, and search results. Through a vertically integrated system, Google sells to advertisers commodities that have no exchange value outside the Google ads system. Moreover, Google creates an ideology that the world’s information is at the users’ fingertips, which encourages users to search more, and hence view more advertisements.