Oh NOW I know why everything is so bad for us.

[coachm]

Hitting upside head. Ah. So I figured I should start monitoring the sites where my adcodes appear, and perhaps find some problems accounting for low ctr. Like maybe...oh I dunno.

When I restricted to just my domains, income dropped again.

So, no dummy, I. I enable a few of the rogue domains on which my ad codes are appearing: businessweek.com, entrepreneur.com, and a few other famous sites.

Ah. Things get better.

Since I really have come to the conclusion that google adsense and search algos are so complex, that not only is there not ONE person who can understand most of it, but that even a large GROUP of googlyites can understand them OR predict what will happen when they make changes, it doesn't surprise me a whit to discover, my adcodes do better on other people's sites than they do on mine.

Never mind there's no way to know how they got there, where they are, etc (Lordy I did try).

It's just so hard to take google seriously. I've always liked google as a company, but really, I don't think it's humanly or organizationally possible for them to understand what their creations are doing.

Which is scary, because there is no solution to that problem.

[Freedom]

The sheer amount of negative "chatter" about Google, Adwords, and Adsense that has occurred on WebmasterWorld this year, and last 2 months, could fill the Grand Canyon. I've been with Adsense since 2003, and I've never seen it so bad.

I've been seeking out other networks as I can see the writing on the wall. Google is the next Housing Bubble.

When the #1 ad I see everywhere is Google's own Adwords ad with a $75 coupon, I know they are in trouble. That ad is like those home spy cam ads that flooded the internet a few years back.

It doesn't look good.

[MrFlex2600]

I've been with Adsense since 2003, and I've never seen it so bad.

I've been with Adsense since 2005 and I've never seen it so bad either.
I've been though up and downs but at least I had some explanation to what was happening back then.
This time is different and it looks like it's not going to get any better any soon.
It's time to start thinking about new strings of revenue from our sites.

When the #1 ad I see everywhere is G's own Adwords ad with a $75 coupon, I know they are in trouble.

Yes, I see this ad very often. Does it mean that G is the higher bidder and you are getting paid big $ is someone clicks on this ad? I don't think so. This ad looks more like spam to me.

All this Panda/AdSense thing is getting very stressful lately. And the worst part there are no explanations at all, only wild guesses from multiple "pandalized" webmasters.

Maybe it sounds childish, but I changed all my home pages to BING and changing them for my customers too. Unfortunately I don't have any G stocks to dump.

[tangor]

Perhaps this is because Bing and others are looking better? (And less Draconian...)

[MrFlex2600]

Perhaps this is because Bing and others are looking better?

Because Bing doesn't display 3 stupid YouTube videos (full of annoying $75 AdWords ads) on the first page for each search I'm interested in.

[mysticalsock]

I echo the above sentiments regarding adsense.
I started to use bing as a search engine when google brought in 'personalised' search results, since then it's become impossible to find anything on google plus their cookie stalks me from site to site bombarding me with ads for the last thing I (or whoever else was using my pc) searched for.

[Scurramunga]

I've been with Adsense since 2005 and I've never seen it so bad either.
I've been though up and downs but at least I had some explanation to what was happening back then.
This time is different and it looks like it's not going to get any better any soon.

Ditto. Except that I have pulled all my ads for the time being a least.

Maybe it sounds childish, but I changed all my home pages to BING and changing them for my customers too.

It's not childish at all. If enough webmasters did this then it is reasonable to assume that more visitors will discover and use Bing. If this were to occur on a large enough scale and user behaviour shifts on a massive scale then our traffic and hence livelhoods (in some cases) wouldn't be largely dependent on Google for traffic.

Time for change. Time to re-educate the masses.

[derivative]

You may all be seeing those AdWords adverts due to the fact that you're using AdWords, etc. Just standard retargeting.

[netmeg]

If you think Bing or Microsoft is any better, then you are fooling yourself. But go ahead.

[jimbeetle]

So, no dummy, I. I enable a few of the rogue domains on which my ad codes are appearing: businessweek.com, entrepreneur.com, and a few other famous sites.

I'm either confused or a bit slow on the uptake today. How are your ad codes showing up on those domains?

[Edge]

It's just so hard to take google seriously.

Not for me....

[MrFlex2600]

@netmeg,

If you think Bing or Microsoft is any better, then you are fooling yourself. But go ahead.

I don't think Bing is any better but I wish there are 2-3 different equally powerful competitors on the market.
If I check my website logs today what do I see? 95% of all searches coming from G! This is a monopoly. And we have created that by telling to all our not so tech-savvy and relatives to use G. It means we can change it.

I don't think they would make any crazy changes to their search engine algorithm if they had only 50% of the search market. At least they would think very carefully before making so drastic changes.

@derivative,

You may all be seeing those AdWords adverts due to the fact that you're using AdWords, etc.

Never used it and never will.

@scurramunga,

Except that I have pulled all my ads for the time being a least.

I'm removing G ads from my premium locations and replacing them with Chitika. And you know what? I'm seeing very very reasonable eCPM. I think after more optimization I can make it even better.
You can call Chitika, you can email Chitika, you can talk to a real person. And this is great.

[walkman]

If you think Bing or Microsoft is any better, then you are fooling yourself. But go ahead.

There's a lot of "my site is down, not my fault so Google sucks" or my "cheesy site full of ads is up, so Google is the greatest and other 'webmasters' aren't as smart as me" but that Bing has closed the quality difference, that has been obvious since 2009 in blind tests. Now it's all about branding and serving the results. Some niche may be better in Bing and another in Google but overall both serve good enough results.

Pretty much everyone in the countries that matter is online, now it's a zero sum game. If you think that user after user using and promoting Bing and Bing ads doesn't add up, you are fooling yourself. But go ahead.

[netmeg]

Actually, I don't think it adds up. There's been some interesting press in that regard too. (I won't add insult to injury by telling you to "Google it")

[walkman]

Actually, I don't think it adds up. There's been some interesting press in that regard too. (I won't add insult to injury by telling you to "Google it")

What me and you think doesn't matter at all, numbers from Comscore, Quantcast, Hitwise and trends do. And as for interesting press, sure, Obama was born in Kenya, his long form certificate is a fake and Bin laden is still alive. Google or Bing them and see for yourself. Some people will always be like that, but facts don't change.

Fact is that Bing is gaining and Google is losing. Fact is also that Twitter, Facebook and even Linkedin are a threat.

[Scurramunga]

I don't think Bing is any better but I wish there are 2-3 different equally powerful competitors on the market.

Exactly. In a perfect world all search engines would equally share market presence/power.

[super70s]

Because Bing doesn't display 3 stupid YouTube videos (full of annoying $75 AdWords ads) on the first page for each search I'm interested in.

I'm getting sick and tired of Google's cutesy custom logos on the home page for National Pirates Day and such (only mildly exaggerating). I use an older browser and the one they had Sunday with the "magnifying glass" even prevented me from typing something in the search box. I may start going to Bing first all the time after that.

[coachm]

I'm either confused or a bit slow on the uptake today. How are your ad codes showing up on those domains?

I have no idea, and I'm not spending one second of my valuable time trying to find out. This is one of the problems with a black box accompanied by zero "customer service". There's nobody to ask who might know and who will respond, and that's Google in a nutshell, as it is for most other similar companies.

[swa66]

Coachm,

Why do you expect your adsense code getting on a 3rd party site would be something Google could/would know the reason of?

Why not expect the 3rd party itself to tell you? Did they copy other content of you as well?

Those thinking that Microsoft gives support: try calling them for support ...

[tangor]

Those thinking that Microsoft gives support: try calling them for support ...

Works a treat for me... have you had an adverse experience?