Why the :/ ? DDG isn't taking away anyone _else's_ affiliation, right? This isn't really any different than leaving the referer-id in there, except that it shoehorns "referer" into the "affiliate" api that Amazon et al are geared to pay money for. (Right?)
I don't like a search engine that messes with results. Keep the ads separate. Just my opinion though.
We're talking about the organic results here. I was, anyway. Amazon (et al) show up there even without a paid ad.
It creates an incentive for DDG to favor Amazon, or other affiliate pages in their rankings.
A search engine where you pay for Ad placement is very different to a search engine where you (effectively) pay for rankings.
They just use yahoo/bing/google results and redo the links where they're an affiliate. Which means the search rankings are decided by a third party who has no hand in the affiliate pot.
That's right because no one pays for their google ranking. oh wait...
Who pays for their Google ranking? People might pay SEO companies to help them rank better, but I am skeptical that they are paying Google for it.
As an Amazon referrer, doesn't it mean they have to track you, too, until you make the sale? I thought they said there's no tracking whatsoever.
Amazon is tracking you regardless of whether you clicked on a referrer link.