Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Recently, a friend of mine asked me if someone can get someone else banned from Adsense, and this question has been running through my mind...
As we all know, the Adsense code is Javascript, which can be seen if someone views the source of a certain page.
What if someone were to take that code, and make a site that is against the TOS with that adsense code, a porn site let's say. If Google detects that site, won't it ban the owner of the adsense account? Doesn't google have measure against this?
Or what if someone else just keeps clicking on the ads of a certain site, won't google ban that site?
I mean, these days it is very easy to create a website, so it shouldn't be very hard to make something like the things mentioned above. Or is it?
Discuss please.
CWizard.
So in your hypothetical situation, Google would likely contact the publisher associated with the AdSense account and advise them to remove it. The publisher will advise them that the site is not theirs. At that point Google can issue a new ID.
Took me months to get back in. IMO it is possible for anyone to make a porn/hateful page and display your ADS in it, report it, and get YOU banned.
[edited by: joaquin112 at 6:33 pm (utc) on June 17, 2006]
I have heard of a lot of situations where Google bans someone without warning...
I have heard of a lot of situations where Google bans someone without warning...
If you are speaking of personal experience, you may be hanging around with the wrong crowd. Change your scenery.
If by heard, you mean you read it in forums, I would say that it probably happens, but I personally know of people who have simply received a warning, and it has been posted here as well.
The jails are full of "innocent" people, as is the Banned from AdSense Club.
Nope. That is wrong.
Ugh, let me clarify. I said Google tends to. I didn't say they absolutely do. And I said that Google would likely contact the site owner, I didn't say that this was their across the board policy.
When I said "That doesn't seem to be the kind of thing that will get someone kicked out." I was addressing that specific hypothetical situation, knowing there is a possible solution for defeating the hypothetical solution.
I personally know of some people who were told to remove ads from pages that were adult in nature. But I believe you that under certain circumstances they might decide (rightly or wrongly) you're no good and boot you straight away. But as your experience shows, you can get back in, which is my point, that they can appeal it in the above hypothetical situation.
The publisher will advise them that the site is not theirs. At that point Google can issue a new ID.
[edited by: martinibuster at 7:17 pm (utc) on June 17, 2006]
Yes it can happen under the context that anything can happen, here are some examples:
- Someone hacks into your PC, gets your Google ID, logs in several times over a period, and then starts clicking like crazy.
- Like all of us you use a non fixed IP, an attacker uses your very same ISP, gets your IP, clicks like crazy on ads and poof goes your account.
- You are a new publisher, you barley make cents a day, someone attacks your ads over days and days, your earnings suspiciously jump, and poof goes your account.
- Your wife, husband, ex-girlfriend, cat, dog or pet rabbit has access to all your details, do you in easily..
These are all possible but unlikely, a one in ten thousand possibility for most of you, so generally I advise people to not panic, and allow yourself to worry only enough to be careful, and trust that Google in most cases is smart enough and resourceful enough to get to the bottom of suspicious behavior, nothing more.
It's hard to argue much further than that, because Google (taking a page from VP Cheney) simply declares all aspects of their anti-fraud measures "secret", thereby disallowing any technical debate on the subject. Thus, they can try to imply that they have discovered some "secret" means of preventing such attacks. They also regularly claim that measures of the degree of on-going click fraud are inflated -- but once again, declare their own measures of click fraud "secret", not for public viewing, let alone independent auditing.
It's reasonable to assume that bad guys can and do get competitors banned from AdSense, and it's also reasonable to assume that this is currently a fairly infrequent occurrence. Bad guys are normally way more interested in giving themselves fraudulent clicks that inflate their income, and rarely have the patience to build a profitable legitimate AdSense business that could benefit greatly by destroying a competitor (and which runs the risk of getting the bad guy banned instead, or of convincing the bad guy's advertisers to quit using the Content network).
But if Google says a competitor "can't" get you banned, I believe this is either hubris or outright fibbing.
Your wife, husband, ex-girlfriend, cat, dog or pet rabbit has access to all your details, do you in easily..Please do not spread these kinds of malicious rumors about bunnies!
I, like most of us, have read all these stories and gotten a bit paranoid myself. After reading a whole bunch of them though I think getting banned is like getting lung cancer, it's usually the smokers who get it but bad luck gets a few also but that's rare. That said I bet I could get someone banned, but I'm not that kind of rabbit.
As far as using someones publisher id on a TOS-Violating site. I would go with martinibuster on that one. In any case you should be able to prove it's not your site and get back in.
Yes it can happen under the context that anything can happen
The thing that keeps me sane is that if someone wanted to kill my account they'd have to (a) have a motive, and (b) leave fingerprints all over my site and Google's servers. Those things make it likely that they could be identified, traced and caught, in which case they'd be subject to civil damages and likely criminal charges as well.
As far as using someones publisher id on a TOS-Violating site. I would go with martinibuster on that one. In any case you should be able to prove it's not your site and get back in.
But how would you know?
You would only get the standard, no-details email, and never know about the other site.
You can't know, search or control other sites displaying your publisher ID...
But how would you know?Because you know you are right, and you raise hell until you get an explanation.
You would only get the standard, no-details email, and never know about the other site.
You can't know, search or control other sites displaying your publisher ID...
A good safeguard will be to use channels to track all your ads, and maintain a list of which channels belong to which domains that you own. That way, if someone else places your ads in another domain, and you detect higher than normal impressions or clicks on a particular channel, you can immediately report to G.
Of course, an even better way is if G allows you to indicate which domains should be activated to run ads under your account, as mentioned in other threads here.
So in your hypothetical situation, Google would likely contact the publisher associated with the AdSense account and advise them to remove it. The publisher will advise them that the site is not theirs. At that point Google can issue a new ID.
No offense, but this could be a nightmare for a publisher with many domain names even using SSI pages. I like this post -->
Of course, an even better way is if G allows you to indicate which domains should be activated to run ads under your account, as mentioned in other threads here.
Google needs a way to protect us publishers from this type of crap.
Because you know you are right, and you raise hell until you get an explanationa great idea, but of course Google will either just "blank you" or stand behind their(no doubt lawyer checked) e-mails which don't actually say/tell you anything.
A good safeguard will be to use channels to track all your ads, and maintain a list of which channels belong to which domains that you own. That way, if someone else places your ads in another domain, and you detect higher than normal impressions or clicks on a particular channel, you can immediately report to G.
What I wanted to say is: you'll have a stronger case if you can show G that you have a neat way of tracking all your domains using channels, which can have names that correspond to the domains. G can easily verify the presence of the odd domain when you report unnatural impressions/clicks.
Of course, an even better way is if G allows you to indicate which domains should be activated to run ads under your account, as mentioned in other threads here.Or, perhaps, Google could manually approve all domains running Adsense.
Quite frankly, this would be the responsible thing for them to do. Adsense is literally choking the internet.
I know I'm new to this, but to me, Google has very much improved our ability to search for what we want to find. (I've always considered Yahoo! to be horrible. And does anybody still remember AltaVista?) The AdSense program provides a means for many people to finally survive from their quality sites that they have put their hearts into.
But the system is horribly managed by Google.
The problem with the search engine results that Google is currently having is not due to the algorithm that they are using to improve search engine quality but rather due to the way that the Google AdSense Team is managing, or more appropriately, not managing AdSense.
There are always people who will ignore the Google Guidelines and game Google by putting up AdSense sites. The Google AdSense Team could stop this and improve search engine quality immediately if they took it upon themselves to start paying attention to what is going on.
The recent instance of billions of pages being inserted into the Google search engine by one person only highlights the incompetency of the Google AdSense Team.
Global management should be looking at the top AdSense income sites every day and looking to see if those sites meet the Google Guidelines.
They can surely have a trigger that sets off a notice system when a site suddenly finds itself at the top or suddenly increases AdSense income.
Since they have human-resources now reviewing AdSense sites for compliance they can shift that compliance you to looking at the top income generators and immediately deleting the sites that they see as spam sites.
They can also flags the top income generators that are valid sites, such as news sites, so that they do not have to review them every day.
They do not have to get into a routine of approving AdSense sites before the AdSense sites go online. All that they have to do is look at the top generators that are there and eliminate those that do not comply with the guidelines on a daily basis. It will not take long for them to start taking down the top sites and getting down to the smaller AdSense spam sites.
Google is wasting its time trying to stop the spammers. The spammers have more resources than Google and they have more talent as a group than Google. They will always be one step ahead of Google and Google is fooling itself if it thinks that it can cure the problem with an algorithm.
It would seem that a competitive search engine to Google would be strongly concerned about allowing sites that have AdSense in them into their search engines. There would seem that they would somehow detect if a site had AdSense in it and either reduce its position in the search engine or eliminated completely.
So it is quite possible that the mismanagement by Google of its AdSense system might not only affect its search engine but it might affect websites that want to get into other search engines. Web Masters might consider strongly to not include AdSense in a website that is a real content website and to focus on AdSense when they are only considering a spam site.
Stopping fraudulent clicks is YOUR responsibility.
Yeah, right. Like I have any control of other people?
Yeah, right. Like I have any control of other people?Agreed, you don't. There are some things you can do, but you can't stop everything. I was speaking TOS-wise.
I'd say if anything is choking the internet, it's garbage sites with copied or dubious content, and advertisers that are dirtbags.You're absolutely right. More often than not, those sites are paid for with Adsense. And don't get me wrong, I use adsense, and at least a part of my future hinges on it's continued long term success. That's why I would like to see the bar for entry raised a little (a lot) higher.
<snip>
[edited by: martinibuster at 7:39 am (utc) on June 21, 2006]
[edit reason] Removed Email Excerpt. TOS [webmasterworld.com] [/edit]
Quite frankly, this would be the responsible thing for them to do. Adsense is literally choking the internet.
Hopefully this will happen eventually. This is not only the responsible thing for them to do but considering the adverse effect it has had on the Internet it is also the ethical thing.
I'd say if anything is choking the internet, it's garbage sites with copied or dubious content, and advertisers that are dirtbags.
And Adsense is directly responsible for this. They provide them with the incentive to do this unchecked.
