And now a word from our (former) sponsor….
Regular readers of this blog may have noticed the appearance of ads served by Google to the right of this post late last year, and then their disappearance a couple of weeks ago.
I ran those ads through the Google Adsense program and saw a (very) modest return from them–until Google abruptly terminated my Adsense account with no other explanation than that my site had generated some type of activity that was against my terms of service.
Oh, and Google took back all the money that was in my account.
No explanation for exactly what the offending activity was. The email told me I couldn’t reply to the automated email, that I could only appeal the decision to cancel my account through a contact form on the Google Adsense website. The form in question had a required field disabled, again making contact impossible.
Did I mention that Google took all my money?
A somewhat testy note sent to Google’s press office resulted in another automated email a couple of days later reaffirming that I’d been canned by Google and I wouldn’t be allowed back. No mention of giving me my money back, either. In other words: “You just spent the last few months serving our ads for free. So long sucka! Nyuck, nyuck, nyuck!”
I’m not the only one who’s had this experience. See here and here for a couple of good blog posts. This article by Benjamin Cohen on the Times of London website gives an excellent account of this and other questionable practices by Google’s Adsense program. Anyone else have a tale of woe? Post it here.
Seems to me Google’s looking at a class action lawsuit when the number of us stiffed Web publishers reaches a critical mass. In the meantime, Cohen notes that Yahoo!‘s ad-serving program comes with the “right to speak to a real human being, 24/7.”
Michael,
Sorry to hear you’ve been Googled, too. About two years ago, I participated in their Adsense program by running the types of ads you post. I had set a monthly budget using their system – only to be shocked to find my credit card charged over four times my budget for two months in a row. I, too, had no recourse to action and, incidentally, discovered only too late that Google did face a class-action lawsuit brought on by other advertisers. The lawsuit charged Google with not responsibly monitoring the Adsense program and with not protecting advertisers from fraudulent use. Google “lost” in a sense, but, really, the advertisers lost since Google was required only to “credit” about 10% of the losses (no refunds). Yahoo suffered a similar lawsuit, but Yahoo officials were much more forthcoming with the litigants and developed a comprehensive new system to protect advertisers.
In 2005, a series of award-winning authors coupled with the Authors Guild sued Google for infringing on copyright laws by duplicating their books for an online library system. Google’s response? In essence: “It’s a pity these authors are suing us when we’re giving them a great service by making their books available to a larger public.”
-Jeff
I gave up on Google a while back. I never understood where the ads I got came from (they didn’t make any sense based on my site). I didn’t seem to make more than a few cents a month and I had no control over it. I have been pretty happy with Yahoo! add service. At least they let me set my area of interest for ads.