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Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

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Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

#231

Post by makeitdouble »

CM30 wrote: post #227

Frankly speaking, because no-one is forcing them to stop serving them. That's the biggest 'trick' companies like Google have pulled here. They've somehow tricked the regulators into thinking that because they're big companies serving a lot of customers over the internet, that any sort of fraud or product liability laws are irrelevant to them. Because any other company doing this would get sued into oblivion, shut dow…

> because they're big companies serving a lot of customers over the internet, that any sort of fraud or product liability laws are irrelevant to them.

Is it false ?

As much as we can lament the current state of affair, we must acknowledge everything that has been thrown at any of the bigger companies has resulted in slap on the wrists at most.

At this exact moment in the US money is straight power, in it's rawest form.

Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

#232

Post by xdavidliu »

loa_in_ wrote: post #212
icoder wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

ah yes, like the Nigerian prince scam

Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

#233

Post by ftchd »

eek2121 wrote: post #223
hansvm wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- The big problem is that malicious ads are being displayed without appropriate attribution - Add that attribution -- blame Google (or, supposing the ads are good, credit Google; a good header goes a long way toward swaying people's opinions) - But it doesn't matter if a single website appropriately attributes Google's highest/lowest-quality ads. The last step (speculative and hand-wavy) is to incorporate that behavi…

The second you load JS onto your page, you lose that ability, you know that, right? the scammy ads aren't limited to that tiny little box you designate for ads. Advertisers work around that limitation pretty easily, and you should also probably read AdSense terms of service before doing too much to blame google. Some of the language will surprise you.

Such as? Provide the relevant context that you're referring to as suprising.

Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

#234

Post by Gigachad »

Telaneo wrote: post #95

We need strict liability on this front. Google is complicit. No newspaper or equivalent publication in the days before web ads would allow ads that are down at the level of scam that seemingly make up the modus operandi of Google today (and even the ads back then that did bend the truth a bit, overpromised, or showed products that didn't actually have any legitimate use, shouldn't really have been legal back then eit…

We are in a golden age of scams and fraud. I don't like the chances of Google seeing any liability for this stuff any time soon.

Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

#235

Post by keeda »

jacobgold wrote: post #77

Someone who has spent $100M+ on Google Ads explained to me that Google is doing everything possible to juice their revenue right now, in ways they've never seen before. Seems like two things 1) Google is losing at AI and Sundar wants to mask this 2) AI is going to destroy their ad business and they want to get while the getting is good.

I think the reality is more a twist on 2): "AI is going to destroy their ad business and they want to goose their revenues while they can, hoping their AI business can compensate, but they know the AI business will never be as lucrative as the ad business."

Firstly, try to imagine stuffing as many ads as there are on a SERP into a chatbot conversation. Good way to lose users.

Secondly, Google spent decades hyper-optimizing their ad business monopoly for maximum profit, including going to extents that were recently found unlawful. People should really look into the findings of the last two Antitrust cases against Google, both of which it lost but for which it suffered only slaps on wrists. The details are eye-opening, including the bits about how Google, leveraging its prime position as the middle-man playing all sides against each other, manipulated ad auctions to make itself more money at the expense of its customers.

Even Microsoft was dinged for screwing over just their competitors, not their customers.

But now because of the paradigm shift in how people discover information, very little of the Google ad monoploy advantage transfers over. I think their AI business will keep growing, even if they don't have the best models, and it will be an exceptional source of revenue.

But it will still be no match to their ad business -- a cash cow of incomprehensible proportions -- and that is the fundamental problem they face today.

Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

#236

Post by Gigachad »

johng wrote: post #112
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.

This senior citizen doing stuff got me. I bought a pair of cow slippers because I thought he was making them from his farm in Australia. Turns out they use that same "character" to hawk multiple products.

Every risk the early AI researchers warned us about came true, the companies released it anyway and here we are.

Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

#237

Post by BLKNSLVR »

Based on prior FBI recommendations to use ad blockers to keep yourself safe from scams[0], it seems that the various methods of blocking/avoiding Youtube ads should also be recommended. Use as many of the tools as possible to escape the suck of the scam-hole that Google has made the Internet:

Firefox + uBlock Origin: https://ublockorigin.com/

Brave Browser

Invidious: https://invidious.io/

Revanced: https://revanced.app/

SkyTube: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/free.rm.skytube.oss/

Clipious (app client for Invidious instances): https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.github.lamarios.clipious...

I've said this before, elsewhere, with this kind of thing plus the LG / Smart TV surveillance, it feels as if we're living in the paperclip maximiser world, except it's "advertising" instead of paperclips.

[0]: https://www.securityweek.com/fbi-recommends-ad-blockers-cybe...

Edited to add: Remember when 'piracy funds terrorism' was a thing? Surely Google is providing material assistance in funding organised crime and / or terrorism in their reckless indifference to what they allow their platform to promote?

Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

#239

Post by gerdesj »

Jskewel wrote: post #122

Adsense has been a nightmare for us. They have been putting thousands of scam adverts on our website for some time. Think "you have been looking at xxx and must pay a $100 fine" type popup nonsense. Hosted on the following websites: azurestaticapps.net azurewebsites.net herokuapp.com ondigitalocean.app digitaloceanspaces.com netlify.app Google doesn't allow you to block these domains, because they consider them "TLDs…

I suppose the obvious question is: Are you actively profiting from Adsense?

If yes, then ... you are profiting from ... that shite. You must be OK with that and it does sound like you are actively complicit with it, despite your protestations.

If you really think that Adsense is awful and might damage your brand then dump it and don't whine on HN!

OK, that's probably a bit unfair because you are dealing with a monopoly with no recourse to arbitration. That's your real problem.

Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

#240

Post by algoth1 »

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.

that's because the only rule they are investigating is if it makes them more money leaving it there and paying an eventual fine or removing it
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