Forum Moderators: martinibuster
(sonny suggested this in the thread:
[webmasterworld.com...]
It's truly disgusting what you see in the serps. Lots of sites flagrantly violating the TOS. Amazing that google doesn't even make this easy an attempt to catch violaters.
[edited by: Brett_Tabke at 10:29 pm (utc) on Mar. 12, 2005]
[edit reason] thanks...no specific searches. [/edit]
I confess to being a little mystified why such sites are still in such great abundance. I personally would have endless fun looking for and stopping such fraud.
If I worked for Google, I would think I could find, investigate and terminate the accounts of, say, 4 an hour. (Since finding the frauds with effective Google searches is like shooting fish in a barrel, it could go much quicker but ass-covering due diligence and paperwork would slow things down a bit.) Then assuming you worked 8 hours a day (not the normal Google 10-14), you could get rid of 30 a day, about 500 a month. A diligent investigator could surely push that to >1000 a month.
Sure, I'm simplifying it but it seems like a few dozen people could do an amazing job at terminating many hundreds of publishers a day. Automated procedures should probably catch another few thousand a day. Wouldn't this be enough to keep the program fairly clean?
Hey! Pull that website over to the side of the internet.
I need to see you whois, website text and IP location, mister.
Oohhhh, I see English is not your primary language...
2 of them were anime sites and many were forums.
I sent Adsense an email, of course. I want to help preserve a program that is important to my income and one that I still want to be around 10 years from now.
Self preservation from idiots that can ruin it for those that play by the rules.
Sometimes I think I'd like to start a site just to showcase some of the best quotes here at webmasterworld.
Also, I think diamondgrl's workplan for ridding bad sites from adsense sounds great. Obviously, google is NOT doing this.
I find it shocking that we can find so many so easily and Google hasn't done anything about it. They must be either very much asleep at the switch or willfully ignoring these websites.
[edited by: Jenstar at 5:52 pm (utc) on Mar. 12, 2005]
[edit reason] No URLs as per TOS [/edit]
On another point though. What if these Scams were to put the following on their pages "We need your support. Therefore if you see any advert for a product or service that you are genuinely interested in, then please click to visit that advertiser"
I personally would never do anything like this as I'm far too scared to be kicked off the Adsense program but I suppose it could be argued that there is nothing wrong with the above statement!
Just totally disgusting the flagrant abuse.. Should send that out to all ADVERTSORS ..that is who G wil listen to ..that's who needs to be raisng H over this kind of nonsense .
"We need your support. Therefore if you see any advert for a product or service that you are genuinely interested in, then please click to visit that advertiser"
It's covered in the program polices:
[google.com...]
IncentivesWeb pages may not include incentives of any kind for users to click on ads. This includes encouraging users to click on the ads or to visit the advertisers' sites as well as drawing any undue attention to the ads. This activity is strictly prohibited in order to avoid potential inflation of advertiser costs. For example, your site cannot contain phrases such as "click here," "support us," "visit these links," or other similar language that could apply to any ad, regardless of content.
I don't know. One of my sites have had several manual checks by Google in the past, resulting in polite requests to remove this and that about AdSense. So why not these sites?
Then, the only site that has been manually inspected by Google AdSense reps has been the main site for my account.
diamondgrl: Maybe we should just form a company and offer Google our services?
Sort of like bounty hunters. Bring 'em in dead or alive.
call it "click fraud hunters"...feared throughout the land.
Additionally frightening is that many of these enticements appear on video game-related sites, frequented by click-happy teenagers.
I wonder if this kind of thing is a reason why publishers in some topic areas are seeing dropping EPC and CPM while publishers in other categories haven't been affected? Not too many click-happy teenagers are running sites about Elbe river cruises or honeymoon resorts in the Poconos, and it's unlikely that many publishers of sites about paper engineering or machine-tool parts have "Please click the ads to support our site" on their pages. It stands to reason that there would be a larger exodus of advertisers in fraud-prone categories than in categories where most AdSense impressions and clicks are legit.
It would be a public way that we can all report these sites and put a little pressure on Google.
I'm sure they are trying since I have seen them ban a number of sites I have turned in, but they have also not kept up with this. Clearly they are being overwhelmed with reports and aren't getting to them, or have just decided to let a lot of people skate by because they are small-time cheats.
I don't see the point of this.
If you run across an adsense violator - let google know - the end. They can check all the sites run by the owner via his publisher ID.
[edited by: PatrickDeese at 5:29 pm (utc) on Mar. 12, 2005]
diamondgrl-
That is an excellent idea, I'll get right to it, and i'll keep everyone updated! :)
[edited by: kodaks at 5:41 pm (utc) on Mar. 12, 2005]
someone suggested creating a web site to "out" Adsense violators
Google knows. If they don't know, they're stupid. I doubt they're stupid. Starting a website like that would be a huge bundle of problems (ranging from legal problems with the sites you're reporting to people coming after you for reporting them).
> someone suggested creating a web site to "out" Adsense violators.I don't see the point of this.
If you run across an adsense violator - let google know - the end.
I think by starting a site, it sort of "scare" adsense fraudsters to think twice about cheating...
About 2 months into Adsense, I had a polite email from Google asking me to remove it, which of course I did.
Unfortunately when there is a lure of "easy money" it is going to bring out all the crooks... Very sad, and frankly I think an underlying reason for a lot of the problems we see with the program.
Google knows. If they don't know, they're stupid. I doubt they're stupid. Starting a website like that would be a huge bundle of problems (ranging from legal problems with the sites you're reporting to people coming after you for reporting them).
I never thought about the legalities of it... I suppose the links could be submitted confidentially into a database, that only an administrator could see and then forward to google if necessary... I still believe the site could provide a lot of useful information and could help out google by a truckload.
I will email Google, and ask for permission to use their name, etc...
Several times I wrote G asking if I could also do what a competitor was doing, especially adding to//changing their javascript code, and I got the distinct impression the supt people did not even understand the basic issue or see the problem, let alone investigate it or take action. A long time later (months later) I look at those sites and see they are still blatantly violating the G TOS, so obvioulsy G did nothing.
If you run across an adsense violator - let google know - the end.
In the best of worlds the above would be true.
I'm not so sure any longer. But agree on the outing. It shouldn't be necessary.
About 2 months into Adsense, I had a polite email from Google asking me to remove it, which of course I did.
doingthistoolong: Was that on your main site (as in the site associated with your account)?
It sounds pretty much as what happened to me, but I have a feeling that other sites, not listed with the account aren't checked as thouroughly.
