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October 11, 2006
AdSense negligence
AdSense negligence: I want Google AdSense to stop polluting blogsearch by sharing their trusting advertisers' money with scammers (see "Google must shape up")... here, Ben Edelman shows that some of these advertisers are out-and-out scammers themselves, and that Google accepts money to defraud consumers as well. "Notwithstanding Google's possible legal defenses, I think Google ought to do more to make ads safe as a matter of ethics. Google created this mess -- by making it so easy for all companies, even scammers, to buy Internet advertising. So Google faces a special duty to help clean up the resulting problems. Google already takes steps to avoid sending users to web sites with security exploits, and Google already refuses ads in various substantive categories deemed off-limits. These scams are equally noxious -- directly taking users' money under false pretenses. And Google's relationship with these sites is particularly unsavory since Google directly and substantially profits from their practices, as detailed in the next section. Even self-interest ought to push Google to do more here. Google may make an easy profit now by selling ads to scammers. But in the long run, rip-off ads discourage users from clicking on Google's sponsored links -- potentially undermining Google's primary revenue source." Google has a responsibility to its shareholders to make their advertising program less vulnerable to scandal and collapse.
Posted by JohnDowdell at October 11, 2006 07:55 AM
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