TOS Breakers

[ganderla]

I found a site that is clearly breaking the AdSense TOS by labeling thier ads as ads. I know this is been on this site before, but I really don't think it is cool at all for some people to get away with it. I am also not a big fan of sending an email to google from my email. Any suggestions?

[deejay]

hotmail account.

[Blue_Fin]

I'm not sure that indicating the ads are advertisements is a violation. Calling them Sponsors is, but that's not the same thing.

You can anonymously report violators by clicking on Ads by Google and providing feedback in the Comments box.

[loanuniverse]

Calling google ads "advertising" is in my humble opinion no rule breaker. I do find it a little redundant since they are labeled "ads by google" to begin with. It is no different than your local newspaper labeling some whole sections of their print "advertising section". It is a tool used by editors to differentiate regular content from paid "content"

I guess it would be kind of something one will do in order to make sure that the integrity of the site is mantained. I still think is redundant and silly. Who knows, you might end up pulling google adsense ads about advertising by doing so instead of the content of your site, which would only work great if the site is about advertising.

[junaidkhan]

hello,
i dont think its breaking of TOS to have advertisement written on Ad column.
Also i think reason for google not to allow "Sponser" written as word "sponser" can be intimidating and also can give wrong impression as advertiser whose ads appear on your site dont know you and in no way he is your sponser.

but on the other hand writing "advertisement" may work for advertiser and against publisher as user who is going to click on Ad knows he is clicking Ads not a link and most of them will do that when they like the ad and would spend more time on Advertisers site benefiting advertiser as other who just clicked the link wihtout knowing its an Ad.assuming they didnt Notice "Ads By google".

i had been doing this since begining and i have never seen any affect of word "Advertisement" on Ads Appear they perfectly related to my content.
but now after going through these kind of posts here i have given up on this and dont show "Advertisement" as who knows may be google has another idea.

[robho]

clearly breaking the AdSense TOS by labeling thier ads as ads.

I can't find anything in the TOS that says ads may not be labelled. The nearest is in the Policies: Web pages may not include incentives of any kind for users to click on ads. This includes labeling the ads as sponsors as well as asking users to click on the ads or to please visit the sites.. Labelling them simply as ads doesn't violate that.

Having said that, I find blending the ads into the site as much as possible works best for me. Highlighting them in any way seems to lead to ad blindness.

[Candleman]

The TOS is Google's TOS and can be changed at any time by them. Everything written in the TOS is subject to interpretation by Google and Google alone. The language of any agreement is subject to interpretaion. Asking other webmasters whether they think what you are doing is ok with the TOS is insane. Ask Google if in doubt.

I think the best way to keep your Google account is to let the ads be as they are. Do not bring attention to them using any additional wording such as advertising. The ads speak for themselves and when used properly can bring in extra money for all.

[4eyes]

Sadly, its irrelevant what you or I think.

I wasn't sure from the wording of the TOS, so I asked Google specifically, they said it is not allowed. No point in splitting hairs, its their bat and ball whether we like it or not.

End of story
(unless you wanna take a risk)