Is This Within TOS?

using a top frame bar

[maxgoldie]

I don't know that sending your visitors to other websites within a top frame bar (but showing your Adsense in the top frame) is against the TOS anywhere -- could this be ok?

Any thoughts on this would be appreciated (good idea/bad idea).

[Car_Guy]

That's a great way to alienate yourself from every site you add a link to.

[koan]

Hotmail and About.com used to do this and it annoyed me to no end. Here's some Javascript that I use on my sites to prevent people from doing it:

if (window!= top) top.location.href = location.href;

[europeforvisitors]

Why not ask AdSense Support?

[jomaxx]

If you read the T&C and the program policies, I think you will in fact find a variety of clauses that it could be considered in violation of.

It also seems likely to tick off users, infuriate the websites you link to, and result in you being responsible for ensuring that THEIR content is compliant with the AdSense TOS. It could actually result in lawsuits, which is one of the main reasons I doubt Google would stand for it.

[maxgoldie]

Maybe it might make some people mad, but then look at a site like about.com. That is a great site with loads of good content, and it doesn't seem to alienate their users. I have a site with thousands of articles on it. Most of these schemes have a "close frame" button too.

I should ask them though, just to be safe.

[vincevincevince]

I'm fairly sure that this would count as showing ads on someone else's site without their permission.

[Lagamorph]

From my reading of the tos it is clearly not allowed. But it's done by many. One site used to do this to me even though I was displaying adsense already, my adblocks would target to their keywords and 2 publishers end up with adsense on the same page.

From a legal & moral point of view you are making money off of other peoples property without their permission for that use.

[jomaxx]

I don't agree it's done by many. I can only recall one time I have seen this done with AdSense, and that was a case that surfaced here rather than something I stumbled across randomly.

If Google allowed it, everybody and I mean everybody would be doing it, regardless of ethics. Heck, I'd seriously consider doing do it myself. But I'll never have to face this dilemma as I'm sure it would not be allowed.

[abbeyvet]

You shall not display any Ad Unit on a page that contains Ads associated with another Google AdSense customer (e.g., Your Web hosting company), unless authorized to do so by Google.

Although strictly speaking when the page is framed it is not the same page, that is really semantics. I would definitely interpret this as meaning it is not allowed unless you have permission from Google.

The intention would be the same - to piggy-back on the content of others.

[Lagamorph]

Hi Jomaxx, I'm talking about places like i-am-bored, jengajam and all the funny video/stuff to look at while at work kind of sites. I tend to find my content with my ads and copyright captured in their frames with their adsense around my content.

I consider these sites scrapers on my bandwidth.

[matt52]

Putting someone else's site in a frame and serving your ads on it is, in my opinion, unethical and a nasty trick generally. I don't allow my sites to be put in this position.

I wouldn't even consider doing this, if I were you.

Why not work on your own content instead of focusing your energy on using the fruits of other people's labours?

[UserFriendly]

Yeah, that sort of behaviour is pretty disgusting. Just say no.

[maxgoldie]

I guess you are right -- the more I think about this today, it is a bad idea. (I am looking at it from a "what if everybody did that" perspective)

[Car_Guy]

To me, frames have always represented bad Web design. I would never use frames on any site for any reason.

There are a lot of sites I visit regularly. None of them have frames.