Google Monitoring....

visits from corp.google.com

[markus007]

I've noticed i'm on some google employee's "unassigned" list in his email and every couple of days "he" comes by to check on my site late evenings PST. Should i be scared? My site earns a LOT of money each day so maybe google is just going around checking high earnings sites? Has anyone else noticed visits from corp.google.com ?

[Jenstar]

GoogleGuy had commented on this before, and said their employees, just like employees at other companies, will surf from work (although I am sure it is only on their breaks ;) )

Could there be a reason why an employee would access your site on a regular basis on non-Google-business matters? Have you tracked what page(s) this person visits?

Personal visits from Google always seem to raise alarm bells, but it could be just that - a personal visit.

[markus007]

One of the visits was from

gnome.corp.google.com/adsense/docs/Binder/ApprovalPolicies/index.html

[billegal]

I think that Google is following up to see that Adsense ads are placed on pages that meet certain criteria. I don't want to be more specific, but my belief is based on an issue I'm experiencing with Google now.

[Jenstar]

Hmmm, I guess that definitely isn't an employee surfing your site for personal reasons. Does this site/page have content that could potential stray into the forbidden "site may not include" areas that would require repeat monitoring? Does it feature dynamic content that could be causing an issue with the mediabot? Or could the mediabot be reporting back to the AdSense team about certain trigger/stop words [webmasterworld.com] (ie. the kinds of words that usually spark PSA ads)?

It would seem that someone on the AdSense Team is checking something to do with your site, and I am guessing that there will be some members here checking their logs to see if they have any referrals from gnome.corp.google.com too.

[EliteWeb]

That URL was in my logs also but I was happy I was accepted that day I forgot to post about it :) the gn0me one that is.

[freeflight2]

I just checked my logs and I am seeing tracken.corp.google.com for almost every day since Dec 5... does anybody know how long it usually takes from a visit to receiving of one of these scary emails if there's something wrong?

[loanuniverse]

I think this was mentioned once before and someone said something about an email application. A quick web search in google of course revealed that gnome is a whole productivity suite that seems to have its origins in open source.

GNOME Office is a meta-project, with the mission to coordinate productivity applications for the GNOME Desktop. We intend to produce a productivity suite composed of entirely free software.......

Taking into account the geeky origins of Google, I would not be surprised if the makers of the Google Adsense monitoring portion of the program created a system based on this architecture, which leaves a telltale sign as a referrer in our logs.

I would not be too worried... if you are a high earner? high volume? particular topic? or just happen to throw up some kind of flag.... you might get the visit. You can only do something about things that you have control over. Just make sure that those are covered and chances are you will be fine.

[markus007]

seems like a browser error to me, not clearing the cache.

For my site to appear on a page like this...
/adsense/docs/Binder/ApprovalPolicies/index.html

I'd have to be one of their example sites. Looking at their folder naming convention it seems like a step by step guide on approving publishers.

[nakulgoyal]

Probably the approval team or the team that takes care that no unfair means of advertising or clicks are used. Some people in the beginning used to give away some money to their members to generate some clicks and they had their accounts closed. I read them somewhere on the forums.

So keep your stuff fair and as long as Google Team can see a lot of impressions and a normal CTR, they would never be bothered. But suddenly if your CTR rises above a certain level, their red lights seem to get on!

[phaze]

Do you have reason to be scared markus? Not cloaking are you?

[markus007]

Do you have reason to be scared markus? Not cloaking are you?

Adsense now brings in large $$$ for me so i'm paranoid :) As for cloaking etc i wouldn't even dream of it, many google employees are members of my site so it wouldn't be a bright idea.