birdstuff - 9:30 pm on Aug 2, 2004 (gmt 0)

Why should they spell out their algorithms (and the rationales behind those algorithms) any more clearly after they've gone public?

It makes perfect sense to keep their "secret sauce" for ranking web pages a secret because there are so many ways for webmasters to manipulate the results ans simply throw away a domain when caught.

It makes no sense whatsoever keeping their rules for what is acceptable with AdSense pages a secret however. Clear, distinct do's and don'ts can only help everyone. There is no real downside that I can see.

Clearly defined rules would help webmasters by:

1 - Giving them a sense of security in that as long as they abide by those rules they have no need to fear being kicked out of the program. This would help build long-term publisher loyalty.

As it is now, many publishers have a "get a much as I can while I can" mentality because they half-way expect the dreaded email to arrive any day.

2 - Encouraging them to concentrate on building high quality, useful pages (since not doing so would lead to an automatic expulsion from the program).

Clearly defined rules would help Google by:

1 - Allowing them to concentrate the bulk of their customer service resources to real customer service issues instead of responding to tons of "Is this site in compliance?" emails.

2 - Eliminate the vast majority of emails from webmasters "reporting" a site that falls in a gray area (usually in the hopes of getting it booted).

If the rules were laid out and well-known, the only sites reported would be those that were clearly in violation of the rules. Google's workload in handling these inquiries would diminish by a factor of a hundred or more in all probability.

And, as stated earlier, when loopholes are found, a simple addendum to the TOS would close them immediately.

The notion that somehow Google needs to favor advertisers over publishers isn't a valid one IMO. They can be fair and equitable to both.

The bottom line is this: AdSense is a very lucrative program for publishers, and I believe very few of them who make any serious money from it would place their accounts in jeaopardy if:

1 - They could sleep at night without the constant fear of getting kicked out.

2 - They knew where the line was and that crossing the line meant immediate, permanent expulsion.