Forum Moderators: martinibuster
(sonny suggested this in the thread:
[webmasterworld.com...]
It's truly disgusting what you see in the serps. Lots of sites flagrantly violating the TOS. Amazing that google doesn't even make this easy an attempt to catch violaters.
[edited by: Brett_Tabke at 10:29 pm (utc) on Mar. 12, 2005]
[edit reason] thanks...no specific searches. [/edit]
I never thought about the legalities of it... I suppose the links could be submitted confidentially into a database, that only an administrator could see and then forward to google if necessary... I still believe the site could provide a lot of useful information and could help out google by a truckload.
For legal reasons, Google would ignore your emails. They have no idea who you are, what your motivations are, and who you work for. For all they know, you could have hundreds of scraper sites with "click on these ads" on them and you're trying to eliminate your competition or you could be blackmailing the sites you're reporting. Besides, why do Google's job for them? Don't you have better things to do with your time?
I will email Google, and ask for permission to use their name, etc...
You're a dreamer.
If you run across an adsense violator - let google know - the end.
In the best of worlds the above would be true.
Let me get this straight. Someone will make a site to "out" adsense violators. Then they will report them to Google, whose employees will then decide whether or not the site does indeed violate Adsense TOS.
How is this different from reporting a site directly to Adsense?
Must be nice to have so much free time on your hands.
I am sorry - but this whole concept is just beyond me, and I've reported plenty of extreme adsense cheats - in the normal course of my casual perusal of the internet.
I suppose none of you remember the thread from a few weeks ago, where some blogger claimed that a member's site was an adsense cheat because the adsense ads didn't contrast with the site design?
She's a witch- Burn her!
[edited by: PatrickDeese at 5:50 pm (utc) on Mar. 12, 2005]
It's always possible we are not correct in alleging this, but nevertheless we strongly suspect (contrarily to what some here may believe re "G clearly going after them") G is actually doing a very poor job of TOS violation issues called to their attention, or easily found by a simple search as some here referred to.
You can find spammers on Google's SERPs, too, but that doesn't necessarily mean that Google will penalize the offending sites when they're reported. Google prefers algorithmic solutions that can be "scaled up," and its spokesmen have said that spammers' pages may be left in the search index for QC purposes. (It's hard to test filters if you've already removed the junk that you want to filter.)
I'd guess that AdSense is using the same approach except in blatant cases of click fraud. Maybe Google is trying for a double whammy--i.e., to filter worthless pages from its SERPs while using the smart-pricing or compensation algorithms to make junk sites less profitable.
Google prefers algorithmic solutions...
There is no effective algorithmic solution for this. It's one of those things that is simple for a human and next to impossible for a computer because it involves understanding language. You can't ban any site that has the word "click" on it. But, you sure can do a search and use a human to scrutinize any site that says "click the ad" -- it would take a human all of 5 seconds to make a judgement, while a program would be mis-banning people left and right.
If I recall, there was a similar problem on a secondary site (I went and checked everything) so I fixed it. And about a week late received a similar request - so clearly they are going through some sort of cached set of fetched pages when they do this.
Again - very polite - I advised the problem was already taken care of and they were fine with it.
Here's how it's different. You do the site and make it slightly humorous, i.e. Today's offenders are....
ex.
Ronie's Mesothelioma site
fraudulent action: The statement above the ad bar that says, "This site is wholly supported by by Google. Please clicks these ads".
posted here: 3/5/05
action taken by google: no action taken as of yet
Fill up a website with this kind of stuff, have weeks or months go by with no action by google, post followups on the site regarding no action by google----and send the url to the usatoday reporter who just wrote the article on adsense
i highly doubt google would outsource a service like this because that would mean giving up confidential information and probably the keys to their algo on fraud detection.
You're a dreamer.
I've probably reported 20 or so such sites through the AdSense reporting form over the past couple months.
When I go to check up on the sites, they are still running AdSense. The difference is that the language requesting clicks has been removed. It is clear that Google is much too easy on AdSense publishers and is giving them WARNINGS. This is not acceptable.
Here's what I want:
When a site has language that requests clicks, the publisher is kicked out of AdSense FOREVER.
Every site that publisher owns is banned from AdSense FOREVER. I don't care if the publisher has 200 sites and only one has offending language. They should ALL be kicked out.
Any sites owned by people with the same mailing address are banned from AdSense FOREVER.
Any sites owned by people with the same last name in the same zip code are banned from AdSense FOREVER.
These policies may punish some innocent people, but so be it. This is necessary to put some teeth into Google's policies.
NO MORE WARNINGS.
I am sick and tired of reporting sites that violate TOS only to find that they have been given warnings.
Google's laxity and pandering to publishers at the expense of advertisers drive me crazy.
No warnings when clear fraudulent intent is involved and that is clear from the language.
I don't know about setting up a Anti-Adsense-Scam website. If I had the extra time, I would much rather spend it building another new website. Think of your bank or credit card company, how many millions of dollars/pounds is stolen in credit card and banking scams. Yet the banks still continue to make billions every year and our accounts keep working as normal. Those who are effected are refunded.
The fact is these Adsense Scams are costing the advertisers, which means they are effecting Google and therefore us Publishers. But Google have set aside compensation for invalid clicks by reducing our commission percentage in the begining. This has been going on from Day One. Google is a multi-billion-dollar company. They probably don't know by name any publishers outside their top 10 earning and they likely never read in detail every email from every publisher. I say report these sites to Google and then get on with your webmaster role. It's more Google's problem than ours...
I am sick and tired of reporting sites that violate TOS only to find that they have been given warnings.Google's laxity and pandering to publishers at the expense of advertisers drive me crazy
Then stop worrying about it.
There are lots of different degrees of this - and I think I agree that in some cases - a warning may be sufficient. My guess is that site with quality content is more likely to get a warning.
If you had seen the site belonging to this chap [webmasterworld.com] - that kind of abuse should most certainly be shut down and was.
I think this is really what smart pricing boils down to. Penalize the honest webmaster who really wants to create and provide good and useful content...because they (G) are simply too --bleep-- to devote some manpower to screening sites and rooting out blatant TOS violaters and crap sites.
Hopefully, yahoo will do it right and webmasters will make more money because of it.
Perhaps the problem is people who use inflammatory language, substitute words like 'effecting' for 'affecting' (no offfence Tony, just an example of common mistakes), and come across as generally unprofessional in their 'spam' reports.
I guarantee you if you make a concise report of abuse, written in the Queen's english, they will do -something- about it. It may not be something you see, but it will be a whole lot more effective than coming across as someone who trolls SEO boards all day and would like nothing more than to wipe out some more competition.
The fact is these Adsense Scams are costing the advertisers, which means they are effecting Google and therefore us Publishers. But Google have set aside compensation for invalid clicks by reducing our commission percentage in the begining. This has been going on from Day One. Google is a multi-billion-dollar company. They probably don't know by name any publishers outside their top 10 earning and they likely never read in detail every email from every publisher. I say report these sites to Google and then get on with your webmaster role. It's more Google's problem than ours...
I think this is really what smart pricing boils down to. Penalize the honest webmaster who really wants to create and provide good and useful content...because they (G) are simply too --bleep-- to devote some manpower to screening sites and rooting out blatant TOS violaters and crap sites.
Or too short-sighted to give the advertiser the power to opt-in (or out) to individual publishers. This single change would eliminate most of the low quality sites from the AdSense program because no one would choose to place their ads on them. This should be a no-brainer.
But instead of the highly effective low-tech method of allowing advertisers to determine for themselves the value of receiving clicks from a publishers site, Google has taken the "automated" route where an automated route cannot possibly work in a satisfactory manner (smart-pricing).
No offense, but I love when grammar nazis make spelling errors in the very post that they are criticizing someone else's mistakes.
No offense, but I love when grammar nazis make spelling errors in the very post that they are criticizing someone else's mistakes.
Automation makes you an automaton---detached and out of touch. Granted, they need this, but a little hands on wouldn't hurt either.
As Diamondgrl stated, it wouldn't be that difficult to root out a fair number of fraudsters on a rolling basis...if they had the will to do it.
I would guess many people submit spam reports as they submit messages in a forum: thinking that due to the impersonal context that omitting info, using bad grammer, and generally not being thorough will suffice.
Woops again... that should be grammar!
My grammer always preferred "granny."
I would never get sick of working for Google. Well especially if I had been an employee from the beginging... I would now be driving around the US in my shiney new Red Ferrari after cashing in all my shares :-)
Wow - I really am drunk tonight! Sorry I best get off the computer now before I do something stupid!
