Google Owns Huge Scraper

that's why they don't care

[incrediBILL]

I stumbled onto a huge directory scraper site today that I've seen before but never looked at too hard. It was just a page of 10 ads served up by google syndication, no content whatsoever, a list of "related categories" and "popular categories". After clicking around, the whole site appears to be nothing but ads and links to more ads and nothing else.

Of course I'm thinking this has got to be against Google TOS, to slap ads on non-content made for ads only sites, right?

So then I notice when I clicked on a link from the original domain it took me to Oingo, which is Applied Semantics, which is owned by Google since 2003:

[google.com...]

Now I know why Google doesn't care about scraper sites, they are one.

As for Google TOS on AdSense, it's obviously: "DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DO"

Just lost a whole lot of respect for them today.

[bird]

Where you may place AdSense ads is a matter of contract between you and Google. Different rules apply to different contract partners (such as some are allowed to place AdSense on search results, while most others aren't).

What you probably found was Googles Domain Park [google.com]. This has been known for a while, and follows yet another set of rules.

It was just a page of 10 ads served up by google syndication, no content whatsoever

How can it be a "scraper site" then? If there are only ads, then they clearly didn't scrape anything from anywhere, did they?

[Jenstar]

I have seen a few sites with scaped content on interior pages (but no AdSense on those pages) with DomainPark on the index page.

[indianads]

Is it not allowed to place ads in the search results of a website. Where exactly it is mentioned in TOS.

[incrediBILL]

Different rules apply to different contract partners

That's true - but it's not a partner anymore, it's Google itself now, has been since 2003.

However, my point was and still is that everyone complains about these types of sites in AdSense and wonders why Google doesn't shut them down when they are reported. It would be quite hypocritical of Google to shut them down and continue to run one of their own wouldn't it?

I don't even remember what I searched for that landed me on their site, but it's disconcerting to think Google themselves would not only condone a mess like this, but own it - must pay really well.

Cash is obviously king.

[europeforvisitors]

It would be quite hypocritical of Google to shut them down and continue to run one of their own wouldn't it?

Not necessarily. You can't use AdSense ads for e-mail, but they can use them for gmail. For a while, you couldn't use AdSense ads on search results, but now you can. Prohibitions against using ads on certain types of content may be for business reasons, not because of quality control, so they'd be well within their rights to shut down "scraper site" accounts if they felt that scraper sites were taking away revenue from their SERPs.

[indianads]

Thanks EFV. So I can use adsense ads in my website search results. I have gone through the TOS. I could'nt find any thing which implies that we should not use adsense ads in search results.

[europeforvisitors]

There used to be a rule against using AdSense ads on search-results pages. (That's why I used it as an example.)