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How we fought bad ads in 2015

googleblog.blogspot.com

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Re: How we fought bad ads in 2015

#21

Post by kaybe »

boomzilla wrote: post #7
microtonal wrote: post #3

When ads are good, they connect you to products or services you’re interested in and make it easier to get stuff you want. They don't make anything easier. If I want something, I will get it, otherwise it's just annoying. It's great that they are working to make ads safer (which is obviously in their interest as well), but they have already lost me (and I guess many others). Even AdSense ads are obnoxious these days…

There is value in advertising: as an information source and a mechanism to establish trust. The former value has been diminished by the internet (which some people call the information age). Advertising is still valuable for establishing trust between the two unknown parties though. Ads in Google work partly because of Google the brand name. Ads on Reddit r/HateSomething will not because, well, you know why. So it's…

There is value in advertising for me when I do not know where to buy something I need, or what I need. That however is almost never true for consumer goods, only tech things we need for science. Heck, just knowing the suppliers puts you in some kind of secret club sometimes.

Re: How we fought bad ads in 2015

#22

Post by AJ007 »

gbasic wrote: post #10
Someone1234 wrote: post #9

Go to Google right now and search for "passport renew" I see twelve sites which offer the service with no affiliation. All they do is ask for sensitive personal information, charge you an additional fee (on top of the passport fee) and file on your behalf. Unfortunately I've had friends & family fall for this and similar scams (see also "birth certificate copy" "criminal record" "arrest record" "US travel authorisati…

What do you think are additional things that Google could do? I can imagine how hard this is to police. For example: - Let people mark different links as spam - Hire a larger team to police this

From a different standpoint:

- How much money does Google make from 'bad' ads? (Or how much does Alibaba make from 'counterfeit' product ads? Or Amazon, etc.)

- How many false positives will 'good' actors tolerate before they substantially reduce their spending on your platform?

- How many resources do you put on the problem while making sure you continue to earn a large % of revenue from the 'bad' actors while minimizing negative consequences from your users or regulators?

Re: How we fought bad ads in 2015

#23

Post by gbasic »

AJ007 wrote: post #22
gbasic wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you think are additional things that Google could do? I can imagine how hard this is to police. For example: - Let people mark different links as spam - Hire a larger team to police this

From a different standpoint: - How much money does Google make from 'bad' ads? (Or how much does Alibaba make from 'counterfeit' product ads? Or Amazon, etc.) - How many false positives will 'good' actors tolerate before they substantially reduce their spending on your platform? - How many resources do you put on the problem while making sure you continue to earn a large % of revenue from the 'bad' actors while minim…

One point I make is that even if Google makes significant money from bad ads, they still may be incentivized to ensure the experience is not substantially diminished (i.e., there's value to their reputation)

Re: How we fought bad ads in 2015

#24

Post by kaybe »

AznHisoka wrote: post #17
dcneymh57 wrote: post #2

Do you know if Adsense tried to make any agreement with ad blockers? Their ads are not so bad.

The content of their are OK, but their placement in a lot of blogs is not. Ruins the user experience tremendously.

I also hate the heckling coming with ads unrelated to the site content. It's another significant load on my attention. If it was related to the site content, it might even be helpful.

Re: How we fought bad ads in 2015

#25

Post by sp332 »

Someone1234 wrote: post #18
gruez wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Go to Google right now and search for "passport renew" I see twelve sites which offer the service with no affiliation. https://i.imgur.com/iimLjyW.png Can't reproduce

You appear to be seeing no ads at all. Do you happen to have adblock installed? I can reproduce 100% of the time: http://i.imgur.com/9KJ4LSm.png

Do you have malware injecting malicious ads?

Re: How we fought bad ads in 2015

#27

Post by gbasic »

Someone1234 wrote: post #20
gbasic wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you think are additional things that Google could do? I can imagine how hard this is to police. For example: - Let people mark different links as spam - Hire a larger team to police this

> What do you think are additional things that Google could do? Certain searches should NOT be monetised at all. When people are looking at entering sensitive personal information (e.g. passport, visa, birth certificate, arrest record, tax filing) it is too dangerous to allow adverts which may contain phishing scams into the mix. Too many people click ads thinking they're search results.

Do you remember when ads were called out in gray? Now most non-techy people I know seem to click on the first entry (the ad), converting good SEO into a payment to Google.

Re: How we fought bad ads in 2015

#28

Post by eveningcoffee »

For me, they did not, as they introduced the video ads in my region.

These ads push unrelated content in an unwanted way by aggressively interrupting the normal flow.

This is not acceptable - Internet is not a TV.

I think that the video ads are a huge detachment from the initial way Google handled the ads.

Re: How we fought bad ads in 2015

#29

Post by hrktb »

billmalarky wrote: post #19
Sir_Substance wrote: post #12

>When ads are good, they connect you to products or services you’re interested in and make it easier to get stuff you want. Dear marketing departments, I do not want relevant ads. I don't like unknown third parties influencing my decisions. If I must see ads, I'd rather see ads for tampons and sports cars and business real estate, because I'm not going to buy those things, so you're not manipulating me. Please stop p…

You think all ads are irrelevant to you? Do you not use goods and services to raise your quality of life? Don't tell me "I just google for something if I want to consume it," because truly innovative products and services are outside the realm of general imagination, that's what makes them innovative. And all the great products and services you learned about from word of mouth? Guess how your friends heard about them…

Not speaking for the parent, but I have a similar feeling.

Imagine you are thinking about buying a car. You think about your needs, your budget, the different costs involved, the technical choices etc.

You are then bombed with very relevant ads for some car X that is suitable for your needs.

From that point, if you decide to go on searching for the best car matching your needs, you'll be comparing the models to the X car, and your vision will be tinted every time you see it in the results.

Perhaps that X car is actually the one that fits your needs the best. But until you make a choice you'll have to make an effort to discard all the promotion and overselling surrounding X. You'll be spending energy to ignore information thrown at you because you need to think at it independantly to compare with the other choices.

In this sense, I also feel relevant ads are pollution

Re: How we fought bad ads in 2015

#30

Post by dfabulich »

xpda wrote: post #6

"In 2015, we stepped up our efforts to fight phishing sites, blocking nearly 7,000 sites as a result." One of the 7000 "phishing sites" they blocked was a page on my personal site ( http://xpda.com/f18ebay/ ) that has been there more than 10 years and has nothing to do with phishing. It's not an important or high-traffic page, but it was irritating nonetheless to be falsely accused by Google and, as a result, a sever…

What is it? Is it supposed to be a parody? It honestly looks like the site is trying to impersonate a (silly) eBay listing.
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