Forum Moderators: martinibuster
You do raise an interesting point, though, and that's whether data from Google search might be used in any way to influence "smart pricing" or, for that matter, publisher compensation. The idea makes a lot of sense, IMHO.
Let's say that Google search were to assign a "spam score" to a domain based on various factors (nature of inbound links, SEO techniques that go beyond the Google Webmaster Guidelines, use of duplicate content, presence of "scraper site" characteristics, and so on). Now let's say that AdSense used the "spam score" to boost the advertiser discount for that domain, to serve a higher percentage of lower-bidding ads to the domain, or even to cut the publisher's share of the revenues. This would tend to make low-quality or shady sites less profitable for the publishers, but it would do so without reducing AdSense inventory.
This would tend to make low-quality or shady sites less profitable for the publishers, but it would do so without reducing AdSense inventory.
That right there is why I think they are doing it (AS is tied, to some degree, with PageRank).
I could bring out an antidote based on personal experience as to how I came to the PR/AS connection, but it would all end with conjecture and circumstantial evidence.