Do I support Google ads?

Do I contribute to a price increase if I click on the google sponsored ads at the top of the search page? Of course.

When you click a pay-per-click ad, you cause a transfer of money to the site running the ad (Google), from whomever bought the ad (the store, and indirectly, the store's customers). Whether this is a good thing depends on who you ask, of course. :)

If you own Google stock then I'd suggest clicking on the "paid" links if given a choice.

I was going to say that, as a user, you might try to avoid clicking on paid search results. My experience, at least, is that paid search results are at least a little bit more likely to be inaccurate, useless or misleading (and by misleading, I mean that they link to data-miners and privacy-invaders and disreputable merchants and so forth). Maybe you've had better luck with 'em, though.

As a general rule, I click on ads if they're relevant. I'd like to support Google's text ads so that they don't have to resort to something more obtrusive. For the same reason, I click text ads on sites that I like, even if I know what the destination is or don't particularly care.

Click on whatever gets you to what you're looking for the fastest. Don't worry about the money part. If you see a sponsored ad and it points you to exactly what you're looking for, then click it. That is precisely why the site paid to put it there.

I'd like to support Google's text ads so that they don't have to resort to something more obtrusive. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/20/technology/20google.html. mbrubeck pretty much nailed it, but I'll ad that I'm pretty sure that the blue-tinted "sponsored link" is the https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=6546&topic=7093 versus the links in the right column, which pay Google the most at the top and the least at the bottom. It's all but impossible to determine what the pay-per-click rate is for a given ad, without signing up and doing one yourself, but you can usually guess. Most of them are in the general 50-cent range. Technically you could imagine that you're contributing to a price increase by making the advertiser, who is selling the product you want, pay Google for your click-through -- but it isn't that simple, since this is a fluid market. On the one hand, you are forcing a specific payment to take place -- but on the other hand, you are also contributing to the bottom line of the business, and AdWords are arguably (this is unproven as a general rule AFAIK) more cost-effective than most other types of advertising. You could say you're saving them money doing other types of advertising, and by helping them make a sale (assuming your click does lead to a purchase), you're giving them more money to find more customers. It isn't a closed system, in other words -- the upside for the advertiser is theoretically unlimited. Google AdWords certainly do make or break many small online businesses.

If it's a big company (Best Buy) I click the ad , if it's a little company (Little Billy's Electronics Depot) I click on the free one if the option is there.

If it's a big company (Best Buy) I click the ad , if it's a little company (Little Billy's Electronics Depot) I click on the free one if the option is there. Thus pruning the tree so that only the thickest branches survive. You would rather all your ads be from Best Buy? Either do what comes natural or ignore all ads equally. Gaming the system produces unexpected and often undesired results.