Key words a-go-go

According to this article, attorneys are bidding up the value of some keywords in search engine ad placement systems like Google (which powers the ads on my pages) and Overture. The top ranking apparently goes to “mesothelioma attorney”, which costs from $40 to $90 per click. That means if you see an ad with those keywords in it, and you click on it, the attorney who bought the ad ends up getting soaked for the cost of dinner. Wow. (n.b. I am certainly not suggesting that you click on these ads randomly, especially not if they appear on blogs or other places where they might seem out of place. That damages the value of the keywords, of course, and we can’t have that.)