Breakdown of the new AdSense Terms

Changes made October 16, 2003

[Jenstar]

Well, they made it a little easier this time to note their changes to the terms with the handy notice at the top ;) The section on Confidentiality grew quite considerably, to reflect the fact that some of these figures need to be given to the IRS.

The changes are:

Under Prohibited uses, they removed the clause You may not run multiple Ads linking to the same or similar Web site on the same Site Web page.

Under Confidentiality, the following was added:
Nothing in this Agreement shall prohibit or limit either party's use or disclosure of the U.S. Federal income tax treatment and U.S. Federal income tax structure of any transaction contemplated by this Agreement and all materials of any kind (including opinions or other tax analyses) that are provided to it relating to such tax treatment or tax structure, except where confidentiality is necessary to comply with applicable federal or state securities laws.

Under payments, they added the word valid to the following clause (bolding is mine):
You shall receive a payment related to the number of valid clicks on Ads displayed in connection with Your Site(s) as specified in the FAQ

Also under payments, a fifth notation of was added under the part of "Google shall not be liable for any payment based on":
(e) impressions co-mingled with a significant number of fraudulent impressions or fraudulent clicks described in (a) above, or as a result of other breach of this Agreement by You for any applicable pay period.

The part of the payment section regarding tax information has been changed:
For U.S. taxpayers, this information includes without limitation a valid U.S. tax identification number and a fully-completed Form W-9. For non-U.S. taxpayers, this information includes without limitation either a signed certification that the taxpayer does not have a U.S. presence or a fully-completed Form W-8 or other form, which may require a valid U.S. tax identification number, as required by the U.S. tax authorities.

Under publicity, the following was added:
If You wish to use Google's trade names, trademarks, service marks, logos, domain names, and other distinctive brand features ("Brand Features"), You may do so, so long as such use is in compliance with this Agreement and in compliance with Google's then current Brand Feature use guidelines, and any content contained or reference therein, which may be found at the following URL: [google.com...] (or such other URL Google may provide from time to time).

New information has been added about issuing press releases, in the Miscellaneous section:
Except as required by law, You may not, without Google's prior written consent, issue any press release or make any public statement about the subject matter of this Agreement or use or display any Google logo or trademark in any manner (except as otherwise provided to You by Google as part of an Ad Unit).

The last of the Miscellanous part of the agreement as been changed. The following line has been removed:
This Agreement shall be construed as if both parties jointly wrote it.

As always, some interesting changes. Tax issues were clarified (or confused?) further, and changes made within the AdSense account state that tax information must be submitted by November 30th or there could be a delay in payment.

The new PSA alternative is a wonderful feature. It would be nice to see reotation of these banners, or allow a different banner for each domain within an account.

They mention new publicity guidelines, yet added the section to the terms about not making public statements about this agreement. Which raises the question if any mention of the terms in the AdSense forum is considered a "public statement". Because it is a members only forum (you have to be logged in to view the newer messages) I do not believe this forum would be considered a public statement. But I am seeking clarification to this, since the terms tend to get referenced daily here.

[nutsandbolts]

Jenstar - you're an absolute star! Thank you so much for the detailed summary...

[Jenstar]

LOL, I do my best amd sleep as little as possible ;)

There are some really great changes in here, and some that the jury is still out on, lol. Time will tell, particularly with that Ads may not be placed on pages published specifically for the purpose of showing ads, whether or not the page content is relevant. one.

Anyone else with any other interpretations of what this new policy means?

[Sense_able]

I have written to google for clarification over the pop-unders and their reply was

If the pop-ups or pop-unders are limited to 1-2 pop-ups on your site, then this should comply with our policies.

Now this is in direct contradiction to the policies

Site Content
Site may not include:

Pop-unders or exit windows

This all seems rather incongruent to me so I have wriiten back for double confirmation.
All I want to do is serve my Fastclick pop-under. It is worth a few dollars a month.

[Blue_Fin]

Regardless of what you were told by AdSense Support:

To uphold the quality and reputation of Google AdSense, all publishers who apply are reviewed according to these program policies. We also monitor sites after they begin running AdWords ads under this program. If a site is found to be in violation of our policies at any time, we will warn the publisher or suspend or terminate the account.

Please note that we may change our policies at any time, and pursuant to our Terms and Conditions, it is your responsibility to keep up-to-date with and adhere to the policies posted here.

Is it worth "a few dollars a month" to risk termination from AdSense?

[Sense_able]

Is there the possibility that support are not as up on the new policies as one might think?

[Jenstar]

It could be possible that not all of the support team has gone through the new terms, policies and FAQ with a fine-tooth comb like I did ;)

In your follow up, did you point out the change in the policies that made you ask? Their response does very much sound like the one you would have received prior to today.

[Blue_Fin]

What difference would that make? The issue is that the policies are clearly stated and if you choose to circumvent them, you risk termination. In my view, it's foolish to even pursue this any further.

[Sense_able]

You could well be right. I did not specifically say that I was writing in reference to today's changes.

I am just a bit annoyed.... It is not about the loss of revenue from not serving pop-unders. (I hate them too), it is just that I do not feel like a webmaster any more.

I know that we do not have to partake in the adsense program but ...... ...... I am starting to feel like a webslave instead of a webmaster.

I feel like I have been lured in with a massive four figure carrot on a string, only for someone to start nibbling at the carrot.

What are we going to have next month..

Program policy 1st November....

• Sites with blue backgrounds must change to polka dot
  
• checks will only be posted out after saying pretty please
  
• we reserve the right to move the goal posts when ever we feel like it
  

[div01]

Use FC pop-ups instead.

[woop01]

it is just that I do not feel like a webmaster any more.

On the contrary, IMHO you are doing exactly what MONEY MAKING webmasters are supposed to do, keep the client happy.

[Sense_able]

Use FC pop-ups instead.

You know I have been so busy moaning to even consider that. I am off to FC to have a think

Thanks div01

[Silver Surfer]

Pop-ups are allowed but pop-unders are not?

Now can someone please explain the logic of this one to me?

[Visi]

Well about the pop unders....click on an ad...get redirected to paying advertiser, close the window....where did pop up come from? That's why IMHO no pop unders, but pop ups allowed.

[Jenstar]

I suspect because pop-unders and exit windows could reflect poorly on the advertiser. With pop-ups, it is quite obvious that those pop-ups belong to your site, since it would obscure the browser window with your site.

But pop-unders pop-up UNDER the current browser window. And because of this, a visitor to your site could click one of your AdSense ads and end up on the advertisers site, then close that window and see the pop-up, mistakenly thinking that it came from the advertisers site, not the AdSense publisher's site.

Same goes with exit windows - people could mistake an exit window as a pop-up coming from the advertiser.

I suspect this change came about specifically from Advertiser feedback, and possibly due to some of the free hosting networks using adwords with pop-ups, pop-unders and exit windows.

[1Lit]

But... can you have pop-unders on pages of your site not showing the Adsense ads? Or can the entire site not have a single pop-under, even if there is not actually an Adsense ad on the page launching the pop-under?

[Blue_Fin]

Hmmm, did you read Jenstar's post that began this topic? ;)

[Jenstar]

From the policies:
Site may not include:
Pop-unders or exit windows

If you want to use these on your non-AdSense pages, you might want to drop the AdSense team a message. They might just assume that everyone is running AdSense on all pages, thu why they say "site" and not "pages displaying AdSense" ;)

[1Lit]

Sorry, I did read Jenstar's VERY helpful posts.

Just find it very hard to believe that Google feel able to dictate to us what we may do on our entire sites. Some of these are hundreds of pages big and only have a few Adsense ads on them (just testing the waters because we don't trust ANYONE on the net). We use pop-unders very rarely (on every 20th page), but now we'll either have to remove them - or the Adsense ads :(

[Jenstar]

Just find it very hard to believe that Google feel able to dictate to us what we may do on our entire sites.

That is the privilege Google gets when they pay us for displaying their ads ;)

As always, if you find you don't want to agree to some of the terms Google has for running AdSense, the decision is yours whether to agree and display AdSense or not.