GoTo.com. Those Were the Days

Fondly remembering the predecessor to Yahoo Search Marketing.

I was writing something down yesterday when my pen ran out of ink. I tossed it into the trashcan when a logo on the side of it caught my eye:

I think I was on a fresh features review panel as a GoTo client and they sent this pen to me.

This ten-year-old pen brought back memories…

…memories of a simpler time when all that mattered was your bid price, not your click-through rate or the quality of your landing page

…memories of a time when your bid amount was listed right next to your ad

…memories of paying only a penny a click

Ah, memories.

Of course there really wasn’t domain parking or Adsense, either. So although pay-per-click advertising has become more complicated and expensive at least there’s a way for domain owners and modest web publishers to profit from it.