digg

Join DiggAbout

Discover the best of the web!
Learn more about Digg by taking the tour.

The nonsense about AdSense

business.timesonline.co.uk — Benjamin Cohen, the former teenaged dot.com millionaire, has run into a problem as he tries to make his next million: Google won't pay him for ads run on his website.

Bury
show profanity settings
expand all
  • curiousjim, on 10/12/2007, -127/+13I was kicked out of Adsense for invalid clicks. I wrote a letter profusely apologizing for anything that might have been considered invalid, telling them that my family may have clicked on the ads in support of me. A few weeks later, they let me back, and I've had Adsense ever since! Whew!

    http://www.humanbeingcurious.com
    • elnerdo, on 10/12/2007, -3/+25If you didn't advertise your own site at the end of your comment, you probably wouldn't be buried as fast.
    • curiousjim, on 10/12/2007, -17/+13Point taken... Thanks for the feedback. I'm a Digg noob, and don't exactly know my way around here.
  • guna, on 10/12/2007, -91/+12Is there anyone (advertisers) that received money back from Adsense in such cases? Lets here some stories. That will help us understand as to how extent the Google guys go to pay back the money spent on fake clicks. I think they should start sharing more details with their Adsense partners so they can understand this.

    -G
    http://www.oozm.com
    • luchid, on 10/12/2007, -15/+2Why did this comment get so digged down?
    • Hanthus, on 10/12/2007, -7/+12advertise.
    • ajcannon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1yes, I have. Everyone who advertises gets money back in some respect. Google doesn't make you pay for all of the clicks that you get because they know that a small portion of them are fraudulent.
  • w0nt0n, on 10/12/2007, -4/+15Painful situation. I hope the nice folks over there take note that word can (and will) easily spread.
    • RareSaturn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3My account was banned too, I got the exact same emails, but I didn't get a chance to appeal! (ie. not email address for the appeals process was sent) I ony made about $150 bucks from Adsense in about a year, so I switched to Amazon affiliate program instead.
  • alliax, on 10/12/2007, -65/+4Why would we believe firsthand what someone write? It's easy to write the same, and it's not because no official at Google deny this that it is true.
    Maybe one of the staff clicked intentionnally on google ads for whatever reason, what I mean is that we don't know the reality of what happened, we only read one voice.

    http://www.senserely.com
    • noGoodNamesLeft, on 10/12/2007, -6/+35Unfortunately, the problem here *is* Google's opaqueness with respect to the process. Maybe someone in the office *did* click the adverts; maybe the guy sanctioned this. But maybe he didn't, in which case Google aren't helping things out.

      The problem is that there seem to be rather a lot of these stories, and whilst some scepticism is healthy, it's ultimately Google's responsibility to put their side of the story across- which they never seem to do.

      Whilst I'm not going to portray Google as the devil incarnate (because they're not), in the case of Adsense, they seem to be strongly tending towards the the faceless, uncontactable, potted-auto-reply corporation. Behaviour that would see other companies *not* given the benefit of the doubt to the same extent.
    • c0uchm0nster, on 10/12/2007, -12/+5I think the only reply necessary is the assload of websites you see participating in the adwords campaign.
    • koshak, on 10/12/2007, -4/+24Why not beleive them? Because it is Google? Digg is so quick to beleive other INDIVIDUALS with no proof when they have a problem with, say, Best Buy, or Dell, etc. Not only do they beleive them, they start publishing e-mail address and phone numbers of the person at the company responsible and say "Let's GIT 'em!" So where are the contact inforamtion for the Google people responsible. Let's GIT 'em!
    • shokk, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8My Google checks are just as small. My Adsense account was also disabled and I got the same form letter in email. In my case, there *were* invalid clicks generated because I had been testing an Adsense plugin for Mint. The dollar amount in question is very small but they didn'tlike it. I politely replied to Google asking for their appeal process and was immediately given an email address where I could explain the situation and the type of traffic my web site involves. A week later I had my account back and have not had a problem since.

      I was informed that the money that was considered "invalid" did indeed go back to the advertisers, but I could keep the remainder that was not involved in the period of the "invalid" clicks.

      That said, they are unconfortably secretive about the details, and a switch to Yahoo's service is not a bad idea.
    • corduroy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7My account was also banned by them. I emailed them and asked to work with them in order to find out the problem. They were of no help. They didn't even tell me what exactly the problem was. I cleaned up code, re-did placement and did as much as I could. I followed their TOS to a tee. They were of no help. They pretty much said; too bad, you're still banned.

      I was more than courteous and they simply don't care. The way I see it, they had an adsense lawsuit and the more people they could ban, the better they would look. I communicated with them via 6-8 emails. All I received were automated responses and responses that showed that they didn't read any of the previous conversation.

      My revenue jumped from the normal 6$ a month to nearly 50$ a month. That's what tipped them. I tried to work with them and do whatever but they didn't care. I'm hoping that they'll take the last month's check back of some 50$ because I don't want it.
    • Takteek, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I agree with shokk's comment..

      Personally, I don't like any companies that don't let you see the details of how you do business with them. Google should be required to show you the data of who actually did click fraud on your account.

      I also reeeeally hate companies that auto-respond when you try to ask them a quesiton.

      I'm only a short time a way from launching a new website, and just because of this I might have to use Yahoo ads. I still like Google, but they need to work on this.
  • cdf12345, on 10/12/2007, -4/+34I had the exact same experience, I had made maybe $50 in 2-3 months and I got the invalid clicks notice, then I was denied on appeal and give no basis as to how the clicks were occuring. I suppose if you really didnt like someone you could sabbotage them by "illegally clicking" on their google ads.
    • Peturbed, on 10/12/2007, -1/+19Not only did I have the same experience, I also got the exact same, word for word emails. When I replied asking for a personal repy, not an auto generated response, I got another automated one saying that it was from a real person.

      This is not new - I've seen lots of sites talking about this.
    • RyeBrye, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9I know someone who routinely "invalid click bombs" sites that he hates. Then he reports the sites to Google from a different IP.

      Unless more people start realizing Google is shady, and has NO appeal process, Google will continue to be this way.
  • chriskzoo, on 10/12/2007, -7/+36Google gets evil. Seriously, it sounds like that even though they will deny payment to Adsense users for click fraud, they apparently have no problem collecting from the advertisers for those fraudulent clicks. If nothing else, this deserves an investigation of some sort - perhaps a class action suit by those that have been denied payment for unsubstantiated click fraud.
    • dasil003, on 10/12/2007, -5/+9Whoah! Where do you get the idea that they don't refund fraudalent click money to advertisers?
    • chriskzoo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10From the article, Google is ambivalent at best:

      >This left a number of questions in need of answers. Such as whether the money earned by
      >PinkNews.co.uk was returned to the advertisers concerned. On this, Google was, at best,
      >ambivalent: "Unfortunately, due to our confidentiality restrictions", ah, those again, "we cannot
      >provide you with a written declaration that the remaining earnings of your account will be returned
      >to the affected advertisers.“However, please be assured that the affected advertisers will be
      >properly refunded in this way." Hardly reassuring at all, really.
    • romper, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14I'd sign up for that. Google suspended my AdWords account because my account was "related to an account previously canceled for invalid click activity." I appealed and upon investigating they re-instated my account, only to cancel it again a week later for the exact same reason (and refused to re-open it). I've only ever had one account, but never again.

      Google really is becoming evil.
  • Drumrboy, on 10/12/2007, -21/+8 digg just for the clever title.
  • kolbsoft, on 10/12/2007, -2/+17I agree with this. I just today moved away from Google Adsense. While I think Google comes up with some great stuff, Im a little ticked that I dont receive any revenue from people who click on the ads that are displayed on any of my sites. Their own reporting shows Clicks = XX, revenue = $0.00.
  • vvaduva, on 10/12/2007, -2/+26The exact same thing happened to me. Google sent me a check for $100 for the first month then they cancelled my program for "click fraud" - which is a bogus charge. I hardly have enough visitors to create such a problem, nor do I have the technical expertise to write software to take advantage of Google....and of course, have no motivation to do such a thing.

    I gave up on convincing Google of anything after emails went unanswered and nobody offered to help.
    • romper, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10Try Yahoo! Publisher Network for context ads. That's who I switched to after AdWords and so far they're pretty good.

      http://publisher.yahoo.com/
    • alliax, on 10/12/2007, -11/+2The problem is you need a valid US tax ID, which I don't have (and I'm not alone)

      http://www.senserely.com
    • airwalk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I feel your pain... the same situation happened to me. My AdSense account wasn't used for awhile after I closed a website I owned. Then, after by blog started to recieve a large amount of traffic, I installed the ads there. A few days later I was shut down for the same reason. I lost my $75 :-(

      If anyone is interested in the full story, search my website for it in my profile.
    • LukeDashJr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0How can you get $100 without visitors?
  • jorelv, on 10/12/2007, -2/+14My biggest problem with Adsense is that click fraud has seriously hurt legitimate ad publishers. We used to get paid quite well but now that everyone is using it (and abusing it) the payouts are nearly as good. I'm not implying that the writer of the article did anything wrong, I'm just saying that illegitimate clicks hurt publishers and advertisers both very severely.
  • fac3less, on 10/12/2007, -23/+7Hilarious as he still has their ads on his other site.
    SHAM!
    • Moocat, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9They aren't google ads smartass, he clearly stated he was continuing to use ads as well.
  • GuineaPig, on 10/12/2007, -2/+27It would be tough to have Adsense as one's primary income. Google can yank it for no reason with no appeal.

    There's really a business opportunity here to develop an open advertising platform with transparent logs and algorithms.
    • vvaduva, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Wanna get something going? :)
    • dasil003, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Click fraud is an arms race. If you think you can be totally transparent and defeat click fraud more power to you, but you can't.
    • saumanahaii, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6I disagree. I believe that, just like linux, an open advertising system could compete with the closed competition.
    • ig0r, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0It's a good idea - getting rid of click fraud would be secondary to being completely transparent and fair with both publishers and advertisers, count me in if you want to get serious with this idea, i'm gbasin at gmail, or just use AIM in my profile
  • MicroBerto, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6I'm thinking about publishing a few sites, 2 of which have the potential to be very high-traffic. Are there any good sites that rate different advertising firms? Which have worked the best?
    • jorelv, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7whatever you do, don't use yahoo/overture/revenue science. higher payouts then google because it's exclusive but horrible click-through rates.
    • slackor, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16The best firm is FastClick/Valueclick but they won't deal with you until you have traffic first. Too many people try to apply to a ton of ad agencies with their "next big thing" site and get rejected because they have 0 hits. Get the traffic first and the money will follow...
    • MicroBerto, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Thanks guys!
  • GameCop, on 10/12/2007, -6/+4I also had the same problem with Google Adsense and they disabled my account for "invalid clicks". It pisses me off since I probably sent them 2 or 3 email's apologizing. I even emailed them last week after 1 year and so far they have ignored my email to re-activate my account. Not only that, I never received a penny since I didn't fill out the Tax form.

    => Can anybody post some GOOD alternatives to Google Adsense?
    • Moocat, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7You might want to be clear on whether you actually did or did not create invalid clicks. Apologizing makes it seem like yes you were guilty, in which case everyone here will probably string you up by your intestines if they found you.
    • mrASSMAN, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6obviously you were apologizing because you know you did something against the adsense TOS. it clearly states that if you are caught breaking a rule that your account will be terminated and you won't recieve payment. i'm sure they get a million emails apologizing, they're not going to give everyone second chances after they don't abide by simple terms.

      edit: moocat got to it before me.
    • nayr, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Also: Tax? sounds like you deserve it.
  • mrASSMAN, on 10/12/2007, -4/+8OK his definition of click-fraud was very limited. click-fraud is not just "robot clickers", he must have not read the TOS very thoroughly (which is probably the most clear and easy-to-read TOS i have ever seen used by a big company).

    click-fraud also constitutes giving incentives to viewers to click ads (such as "please click these ads to support this site") which is illegal according to the TOS. other things such as clicking your own ads and tricking people to thinking that ads are part of your navigation system are also illegal.

    note that google does not benefit from shutting users off who use click-fraud. google has been under fire recently for not going after click-fraud suspects strongly enough. google is investing a huge amount of time and money to protect their advertisers' investment in adsense.
    • JohnBooty, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10-----------
      click-fraud also constitutes giving incentives to viewers to click ads (such as "please click these ads to support this site") which is illegal according to the TOS. other things such as clicking your own ads and tricking people to thinking that ads are part of your navigation system are also illegal.
      ------------

      What you said about the TOS is correct.

      However, try reading the article again (or perhaps the first time) and you'll see that he stated that he didn't do those things either.
    • mrASSMAN, on 10/12/2007, -11/+3i didn't read the whole article. i believe that if google determined that he used click fraud then they must have had a good reason to. that guy was providing a lot of ad money to google so there must have been a clear miss-step by him.
    • romper, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12@MrASSMAN I think you're over-estimating the new Google. They're not the nice, friendly Google we used to love. It feels like they've become so big that they don't care.

      "i believe that if google determined that he used click fraud then they must have had a good reason to."

      They don't need a good reason at all.

      It's true that defeating click fraud is an important thing to them (and all advertisers), but their approach is carpet-bombing everyone with no chance for appeal. They need to start treating their customers like, well, customers instead of criminals (hello RIAA/MPAA?).
    • PSPothead, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Except they DO make more money by shutting down small-time sites. When Google decides to terminate an account, they just get to keep all of the balance remaining in that account. For example, let's say this small publisher has made $60 since they started. Shutting them down equals $60 for Google plus their normal cut.
    • koshak, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1MrAssman...suck Google's ***** somewhere else. OR stay here and realize that if you truly beleive that "Do No Evil" is Google's Business Model and NOT just marketing, you are a ***** moron.
  • allthewhile, on 10/12/2007, -0/+16Google is facsist when it comes to the adsense program. I had the VERY same thing happen to me. I didn't click, there was no fraud. I'm sure they're okay with losing a percentage of legitimate content providers who are in the low range, just to make sure they don't have any cheaters. The problem is that their algorythms are OBVIOUSLY not perfect.
  • Potato, on 10/12/2007, -19/+3The same thing happened to me, allthewhile. I did not fraud my ads, but they shut me down anyways. I switched to clicksor and they're great.

    http://www.techtruth.net
    • Zonkzor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6What does that website have to do with your comment? Looks like spam to me.
  • Tucker666, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7I've been using Fastclick/Valueclick for years. And Adreporting too for some products, payout is high, clickthrough is good. Some months it pays the bills! AND I still haven't hit $100 on AdSense yet :)
    • kaitou, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I use fastclick/valueclick, but they are far from my highest paying company. I get more money from Burstmedia, and blue lithium then fastclick ever made for me. Plus Gorilla Nation and I do use adsense also. Most of these guys though do require you to have a certain amount of traffic before they look at you. (I pull in about 20k uniques/day and 400k + pageviews as a reference, but I was making a lot less than that when I was originaly accepted into most of these programs). It does pay the bills though.
      I wouldn't rely on any one company. Chain them. The best paying one first, then default to all others.
  • HaltingPoint, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4My problem is that I just don't get clicks...plenty of views though. Can anybody suggest any ad programs that offer better CPM rates than Adsense?
  • Potato, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4HaltingPoint, clicksor pays for views. It is like 30 views = 0.01 cents though.
  • n3il89, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4The exact same thing happened to me. I tried to sign up again but got denied. I decided to go over to Yahoo ads instead and so far has been pretty good, but I'm not getting the relevant ads that I once got with Google. After reading this, I'm going to apply again. Hope it works
  • Athens101, on 10/12/2007, -7/+1I have both Yahoo and Adsense on http://Athens101.com

    We don't get much far as traffic at best 5K page views a day. The odd thing is that Google at best shows 1K page views "ad impresions" while Yahoo shows 3-4K every day.

    And I wonder how I get 0.00 for 1 click one day and .12 for 0 clicks the next?!?!
    • PSPothead, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4You should be aware that it violates the Google ToS to display adsense on the same page as YPN
    • optikburn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I used JavaScript to rotate Adsense and YPN evenly.. and the truth is, Google really is way to low comapred to YPN.. it's like, I get 1.50 on Google, while on Yahoo I get 7.00 dollars per day.. that's why when I got kicked out for "fraudelent" clicks.. I did not bother to explain or appeal.. 50 dollars of balance is just 1 week to get in Yahoo (based on my site's traffic)...
  • Pimptastic, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I also got no explanation on click fraud. that $3 a day really showed how much I had to have been scamming.
    When is Microsoft coming out with their version of ad sense?
    • kalphegor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2soon, it's in beta now, MSN AdCenter
  • crawfishsoul, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I just received my welcome to AdSense email yesterday, and even though I am in the US, my site is a US site and the server is in the US, my adsense account is labeled as UK. After reading this article, I don't think I'll even bother trying to fix it with Google, I wouldn't want my first born taken from me for questioning...gotta go, black helicopters above my office.

    dugg
    • xlife, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I experienced almost the exact same thing. The biggest problem for me was that a simple traffic spike (like if my site had been dugg) triggered their click-fraud algorithms. This happened twice - the first they apologized and admitted they were wrong. The second time I received the infamous cold shoulder.

      If their click-fraud algorithms were sufficiently smart, they could simply use them to filter out fraudulent clicks rather than condemning the very publishers that they need to succeed. The reality is that their algorithms are deeply flawed, yet they use these flawed algorithms as the sole argument in passing judgment on publishers. Publishers have no right to appeal and no right to see the evidence against them. The judge is unseen and the sentence is eternal. In my eyes, this is as close to bureaucratic evil as you can get.
  • diggstar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Try AdBrite, a bit under the radar, but quite impressive and flat rate advertising eliminates clickfraud!
  • SirVanderhoot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Wired mag did a real nice round-up on both sides of the click-fraud issue a few months back (I'm sure it's online by now). It's a serious problem for Google, too. If someone does clickfraud without being caught, it could cost Google a lot of money. Not to mention the various other ways that clickfraud can affect both sides of the business.
  • evilNomad, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Same thing happened here, ran fine for like 8 months, then bam all of a sudden closed, no chance of getting a word out of google on what we did wrong other than they claimed we cheated..
  • Qtip42, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2So if a massive amount of people suddenly view your site (from a digg or whatever), can you email them (Google Adsense) before hand if you know you're about to get a lot of people to your site? Would that keep them from pulling the plug and losing any clicks?
  • WolfNinja, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I've heard of Google doing this to people in the past.
  • MASTERPL, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14I had a situation with Google Adwords that is along the same lines.
    I had ads out for my frugalname.com site, and was tracking ANY accessing of the main url.
    I had Zero traffic other than my own, and previous customers (which I knew by ip (about 7 ppl)
    Google charged me $170 for tens of thousands of clicks on my ad. Funny that Not one of those "clicks" actually made it to the url intended. I doubt everyone hit STOP on their browsers before the page loaded. I wrote and wrote and wrote, and got long canned replies back claiming they have sophisticated anti click fraud systems in place, and I am wrong. Not one page access from the ads, and not one sale. Had to pay them.

    • bani, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3sounds like google is committing criminal fraud. you should file a criminal complaint with the district attorney.
    • T0PS3O, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Did you stick in the correct URL? http:// is already there so if you copy paste a URL in there you get http://http://yourdomain.com which fails to load. Not Google's fault so they happily charge you.
  • superfriend, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Right on diggstar... I have a friend who is really happy working with AdBrite. Everything with AdBrite is transparent. Nothing is hidden, clicks, earnings, impressions - pretty cool - he showed me how he was approving ads before they ran on his site seemed user friendly and he has a live account contact. If he has a question it gets answered within an hour usually. He even runs both AdSense and AdBrite on his pages and it's cool.
    • alliax, on 10/12/2007, -10/+0OK, I've asked Google about that and their official answer is that it's against their TOS, so maybeyour friend will have his account terminated some day if they found out. in the mean time, it's cool.

      http://www.senserely.com
    • superfriend, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Posted by a man whose site and world is built around stoking AdSense. senserely.com ??! Are you kidding me? You get a double thumbs down digg for that!!!

      A feelin' lucky search of Google for Google working with AdBrite reveals two examples of Google's own AdSense advisor saying it's cool...

      Adsense Advisor allowing AdBrite - http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum20/4243-7-10.htm
      Adsense Advisor reviewing case by case - http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum89/10724-2-10.htm

      I understand your love for Google is strong, as evidenced by the online shrine you call your website but please give me break.

    • Junto, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I wish people wouldn't advertise their personal websites in Digg comments. I automatically Digg down any comments where people have linked to their personal website. That is mainly directed @Alliax, who has been Dugg down by almost everyone here, for his repeated lame attempts at self advertising. Grow up and be a part of this community rather than just trying to use it for your own advantage Alliax. We don't need people like you on Digg.
  • timmarhy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1i can't blame google. for one can you imagine the number of attempts at click fruad they would have to deal with. secondly cohen hardly has a shining reputation.
  • Potato, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4@romper, yes. clicksor does pay for views. i use them.
  • fireport, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2anyone else nearly click on the ads at the bottom of the article!? lol
  • Sortaburnt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6It really appears that this is an overwhelming problem for webmasters who are using AdSense. Has anyone considered contacting a lawyer? It seems like if so many of you have had an identical problem, it might be possible to file a class-action lawsuit against Google for deceptive businesss practices. I'm sure there would be plenty of business lawyers chomping at the bit to go after the tech giant. I haven't read the AdSense TOS statement. Does it seem as though it would be tight enough to hold up in any court?
  • Ninjamonk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I think people are gonna end up sueing them for accusing them of fraud soon if they are not careful. I don't think I will bother using them for my sites. Adbrite gets my vote they seem nice people.
  • dlvolk, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2how much do you get per click from adsense?
    • T0PS3O, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Ranging from $0.01 to $10 a click. Mostly (depending on subject of the page) $0.03 - $0.40 ish. Varies though.
  • saumanahaii, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4As any of my friends would tell you, I am often Google's biggest fanboy. Sadly though, I have had the exact same experience as all the rest of you. When I asked about what had caused the (ambuguous) click violation, they refused to tell me. I can tell you that I, the administrator of my site, had clicked on a ad at most 3 times. Something interesting to note. It is easy to sign up for adsense and put up the ads, but once they got you down for click fraud, the appeals process it 10x more arduous.

    Sadly, I decided to set up adsense on day one of my site, before it had any major traffic. Now, as our traffic increases, we cannot use Adsense.

    We were in no way violating the terms of agreement. I read them just to check to make sure of that. Yet they still cancelled the account. We never even got one check... Which we deserved, by the contract we made. And theres nothing I can do it.
    • Cputerace, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"I can tell you that I, the administrator of my site, had clicked on a ad at most 3 times."

      "We were in no way violating the terms of agreement."

      ??
  • Kazrog, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7More bad press for Google. They are quickly becoming the new Microsoft. So much for "do no evil."
  • bcrowell, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2Google is just doing what's in their economic best interests. They're not a monopoly -- the author of the article just went ahead and started using Yahoo's service instead. Nobody has a God-given right to force a company to do business with them.

    It reminds me of the credit card industry. The credit card companies are out to optimize their profits. Because of that, they do some things that make some people unhappy, e.g., if you're a business and someone commits credit card fraud on you, you can end up losing a lot of money and a lot of time. On the other hand, the way they handle fraud is also good for other people (card-holders).

    The only big difference I can see is that the credit card companies all have pretty much the same policies, so individuals and businesses don't have much choice, whereas Google's policies aren't the same for all other companies in the online ad business, so you really do have some choice. Just don't use Google.

    I don't see how Google's business model could possibly work if they paid people $10/hr benefits to talk on the phone with every irate web site owner who claims he didn't do click fraud. Realistically, all they can do is put a cut on the data, and kick out anybody who's on the wrong side of the cut.
    • bani, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1this is probably what google is doing. it's not "click fraud" they are terminating customers for, but rather google is cutting non profitable sites, using "click fraud" as an excuse.

      a great scam.
  • Haplo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6An important question, one I asked to Google:

    Is Google able to detect the difference between an AdSense user clicking on his/her own advertisements, and someone who doesn't like this user doing the same?

    In short: can one just click "away" the AdSense ads on someone else's site?

    I am afraid the answer is: yes.

    On a side note I am also amazed that many of the spam pages in Google somehow don't seem to have problems with AdSense. But maybe that's just me.
  • Artifez, on 10/12/2007, -11/+1Mine's still active, I can't really say I'm holding my breath though


    _____________________________________________________________________________________
    http://sarquad.blogspot.com/
  • tastycheese, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Click fraud is a HUGE problem for google, and everyone else. Behind closed doors, they are all talking about it, and nobody knows what to do. Frankly, I think google is just randomly shutting some accounts down, just so that they can say to the big ad companies and investors that they are actively fighting click fraud. But it's nonsense. They will never shut down the big companies, they are just going after the little guys enough to make it look like they are doing something.
  • Zonkzor, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14After reading all these comments I'm never going to use adsense. Word of mouth sure sucks doesn't it Google?
  • brandizzle, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3It seems like Google can't deal with fame too well...
    The last few stories I've heard about them have been about how much of an ass Google is (well that and a picture of their lunchroom).
    But seriously, they refuse to help anyone. I don't see how anyone can figure out the Google algorithms by Google telling him what he did that was against the TOS. Or how their security can be jeopardized by restoring one man's email account that was obviously important to him.

    Seems like since they aren't making enough money from the smaller users they don't care about them, but they sure have alot of money to lose if they anger them enough to get them to tell a few thousand people.
  • Juansito, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I got Ad-sense on my site i made about 120usd from my first like 5 months not that much traffic but now i got tons of traffic and I'm making like 300usd a month and they tried to hit me with a stop making people click the ads but they didn't lock my account they said they stopped serving my site.

    I just pulled the ads and awaiting my money then I'm going to adbrite or something thanks to this story!
  • Doak, on 10/12/2007, -6/+4 Google blows rabid moose-***** anyway.
  • chaosmachine, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9How to kill your competitors revenue stream: set up a bot to 'click' their adsense 100 times an hour. Even more effective: have your bot running through a couple proxies.. especially non-anonymous ones. Google will have no choice but to shut down their adsense account. Scary, but true.
  • NanoStuff, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2Click fraud is big business. Google has to be particularly cautious, and with that come mistakes and good people get the boot; fortunately a lot of bad people get the boot in the process. With the amount of AdSense subscribers that they have, it would be unreasonable to expect 100% satisfaction.

    I sure hope nobody made the assumption Google intentially screwed the people, that's certainly not the case.
  • xRaph, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4adsense for publishers or how to scrap a good reputation, google karma -10 , they probably make way enough money with gmail and google searches greedy bastards, but im done using gmail, dont be evil ... whatever! *****!
  • Fetching more discussions...
    Show 51 - 83 of 83 discussions
  •  

    Login or register to add a comment

    Create a new account or login to join in the conversation on Digg. You'll also be able to Digg stories to help promote things you like.


© Digg Inc. 2008 — Content posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain.
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.