Call from Adsense competitor

[Celicaphile]

I just got a call from Seachfeed obviously trying to get me to use their service. When I mentioned that I do quite well using Adsense and other methods, he said that I could use their service in conjuction w/ Adsense and gave me a sample site to look at. It has Adsense skyscrapers down the right side and in the main content area has their ad block that looks nearly identical to Adsense - a clear violation in my eyes. They also have little to no content to speak of... He also suggested using their form of adlinks & I had to explain that Google had already told me that we're not allowed to do that on pages using Adsense Search. I told the guy in several different ways that I'm not going to risk losing what I make w/ Adsense and if I can't make $$ w/ Adsense on a particular page, I wouldn't make anything w/ their service. I suppose I could use them as alternative ads, but that would require changing a ton of code, but I won't consider using their service if they're this shady. I'm wondering if Google is aware that Searchfeed is encouraging people to violate Adsense TOS....

[edited by: Jenstar at 4:12 pm (utc) on Sep. 1, 2005]
[edit reason] corrected company name [/edit]

[Jenstar]

It wouldn't be the first time an AdSense competitor has claimed it is fine to run their program with AdSense. What they really mean is that their terms say it is fine, but choose to ignore the fact AdSense says it isn't fine. At least one other competitor has said they "had approval" from AdSense to run theirs and AdSense on the same page.... however, that was not true.

If in doubt, check with the AdSense team.

[BriGuy20]

Celica:

I'd stay away from Searchfeed, it would (IMHO) just drain potential revenues away from AdSense. The payouts from Searchfeed are atrocious (pennies per click), I'm considering taking them off my site.

[Celicaphile]

Thanks for moving the thread...

I told the guy flat out that they couldn't match what I made w/ Adsense, but I guess he has a job to do too... Oh well, he said he'd just email me more info - it's easier to ignore an email, but very frustrating when they waste my cell phone minutes ;)