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Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

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Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

#211

Post by Fnoord »

CqtGLRGcukpy wrote: post #2

I have two guesses why Google does this: 1) Google wants the most money, so they don't care to let dodgy ads thru. 2) There are more ads going out then can be reviewed, so they would rather have people report them, then they automatically reject the report until enough people report it, then an actual person may review it. As to why Google doesn't use AI to review them? Google would rather use the AI in a way that ma…

In underregulated capitalism, the reason is very simple: because they get away with it. This is why they despise regulation; it enforces accountability. Want to advertise? Ensure the ads are legit. It doesn't work when you say 'we didn't know beforehand' when a significant percentage is scams. That is when you start to curate the content beforehand.

In any other normal market, the middleman would be held accountable. Big tech? Not so much. We seen the slap on the wrist regarding Microsoft at the start of the century/millennium. We can also witness the same with regards to the garbage coming from China, where China doesn't take responsibility. Learned from the best.

Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

#212

Post by loa_in_ »

icoder wrote: post #123
HomeDeLaPot wrote: post #107

Every YouTube ad I see now is an AI-generated scam ad hawking everything from free electricity to anti-aging products to birdhouses hand-carved by an AI-generated senior citizen. I've seen some multiple times, days or weeks apart. Their advertising standards are a complete joke.

I've flagged an AI-generated add once that promoted a small device that could cool a hot room (many degrees celcius lower, very quickly, for very little energy and very little money and without external components), defying the laws of thermodynamics. They said they investigated it and concluded it did not break any rules and no actions where taken.

The whole idea behind scam sites marketing is to present an ad that knowledgeable people will find unattractive but gullible people will be lured into. Self selection keeps the based demographic from investigating the scam.

Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

#213

Post by harvey9 »

nkrisc wrote: post #193
torginus wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These ads are uncanny valley right now. But imagine, in a year or two, they'll dial it in, and it'll be indistinguishable from actual TV ads.

Apart for the fact they'll be hawking obvious scam bullshit.

Not obvious to everyone.

Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

#214

Post by bobthepanda »

bmandale wrote: post #188
guelo wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is the scummy adsense ads don't hurt Google's reputation. Outside the techie crowd people don't know the ads are from Google.

It doesn't practically matter whether the ads are from google. They're shown on a third party site, not using google won't get rid of them, only not using that site will (or installing an adblocker...). Users very reasonably blame the site, who have direct agency to remove the ads.

IIRC this dilemma was one of the things that was driving the Google antitrust case that unfortunately will not result in divorcing search from ads.

Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

#215

Post by cindyllm »

antonymoose wrote: post #173
patrakov wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We need strict liability on this front. Companies behind websites that embed ads that they didn't verify (and don't control) are complicit.

Liability is kind of wild and the fact that “the internet” washes it all away is wilder still. In my state, which perhaps takes liability too far in the other direction, if I serve sober you a single beer, you proceed to visit a second bar, have ten shots of tequila in an hour, and kill a man driving home - I share equal liability as the tequila bar. Perhaps there is a middle ground in this world where a firm that ma…

[dead]

Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

#216

Post by Borealid »

Spare_account wrote: post #196
Borealid wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There do exist "evaporative coolers", sometimes called "swamp coolers". The trick is that they require water and raise the humidity of their surroundings. But they tick all the boxes you listed - plenty of delta-t, extremely low power, no external tubes or parts. It's not magic because it relies on the "fuel" of cool water to evaporate.

I'm not the same guy but I can verify that the advert for the impossible micro-evaporative cooler quoted impossible performance capabilities. YouTube adverts frequently contain fraudulent, misleading information. It appears that no law is being broken.

I can believe that, I'm just here to point out that some of the laws being not-broken are the laws of thermodnamics. You can cool a room cheaply with dry ice, for instance. There are tricks.

Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

#217

Post by eranation »

This is include ads that impersonate google services, e.g. "your google translate has expired, upgrade to a new version". Reporting it to google is like yelling at a wall. Or worse, yelling at a wall after a few million years will slowly erode it due to the air friction.

Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

#218

Post by stephen_cagle »

qwerpy wrote: post #157
stephen_cagle wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My mother has: * Got me a "BearSkin" jacket from youtube's incessant advertisement. * Signed up for a $250 subscription to "The Daily Beast" when she was watching youtube tv right before bed and probably subscribed when she meant to just view. * Signed up for Norton Antivirus when she got a gif that looks like a popup that tells you have a virus and it opens to a Subscription Plan on her phone. None of these things w…

> got her Youtube Premium just so she stops seeing all the ads that are feeding on her I don't blame you for your solution but it is so sad that we have to basically pay protection money to Google now so that our loved ones don't get scammed and robbed while they are consuming addictive/slop content.

If you think that is bad... Recently I discovered that even a tiny website with moderate textual content basically forces adoption of cloudflare due to incredible (~2k request per second at times) scraping by bots.

It isn't even a shakedown, they are genuinely protecting you from others. But how did we get to the point on the web that this is needed?

Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

#219

Post by stevage »

snailmailman wrote: post #25

Google can reply and confirm whether or not a report did anything? I’ve never seen that. I report ads on YouTube all the time. I’ve reported ads for illegal drugs, illegal firearms, pornography, and all sorts of various scams. I’ve seen similar advertising to the example in this article, mimicking the phone’s UI. Ive reported them. I’ve never once seen Google reply to any of my reports to confirm what happened. I’ve…

Why do you keep reporting them, when clearly that does nothing?

And since, as this article points out, Google does not need reports if they actually wanted to block such ads, it seems completely pointless.

Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

#220

Post by Fnoord »

antonymoose wrote: post #173
patrakov wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We need strict liability on this front. Companies behind websites that embed ads that they didn't verify (and don't control) are complicit.

Liability is kind of wild and the fact that “the internet” washes it all away is wilder still. In my state, which perhaps takes liability too far in the other direction, if I serve sober you a single beer, you proceed to visit a second bar, have ten shots of tequila in an hour, and kill a man driving home - I share equal liability as the tequila bar. Perhaps there is a middle ground in this world where a firm that ma…

(Premise: it isn't 'alcohol and drugs'; it is 'drugs'. Alcohol is a drug, and while we are at it: a powerful one.)

The reason for that is that you've been serving a hard drug to a customer. Don't do that if you cannot bear the responsibility (liability). In order to bear the liability, the price has to go up, including perhaps a safe escort home of the drug user, but of course that would be too expensive/socialist/authoritarian (blimey they want us to take responsible action regarding our customers! I knew a club here for young people where it was very normal to have them taxi'd home. Son, wanna go out? The taxi is part of the price), and lead to 'off the record' drug usage. Which is how we ended up in opioid crisis.

If alcohol would only be invented today, there's no chance it would be legal in the current umbrella of drugs. And, for good reason: it is too addictive, too harmful for self and their environment. Compare with the various empathogens or harmfulness of psychedelic drugs. These cause, normalized, far less damage to both user and their environment.

I abstain from drinking (I am sensitive to addiction which is how I ended up to that conclusion), and this weekend I had a tiramisu (it was on sale, wife bought it). Did I notice that? Oh hell, yes. Would you serve a child tiramisu? No, we should not.

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