Why is Google still serving dodgy ads? • Hacker News Board

Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

#331

Post by notthemessiah » Mon, Sep 14, 2026, 3:56 AM UTC

NBJack wrote: post #13

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…

Their competition isn't really raising the bar either. https://www.reuters.com/investigations/meta-is-earning-fortu...

Meta also including CSAM in their ads, computer generated in the US and real abuse materials in South Asia:

https://www.wired.com/story/meta-failed-to-catch-hundreds-of...

Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

#332

Post by Semaphor » Mon, Sep 14, 2026, 3:56 AM UTC

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.

This behavior predates modern AI. Maybe it’s getting worse, but without high limits (which lower revenue) adsense will result in a lot of scams.

Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

#333

Post by JoeOfTexas » Mon, Sep 14, 2026, 3:56 AM UTC

reddalo wrote: post #167

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.

>Google is doing everything possible to juice their revenue right now, in ways they've never seen before My experience confirms this: many years ago I had a website banned from serving Google Ads. They said my pages didn't have enough content. Then a competitor started showing ads on the exact same type of pages where I had previously been able to serve them. So I tried getting my website approved again and -- surpri…

I am having this issue getting approved, and Google denies me every time. I last tried back in August.

Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

#334

Post by gdulli » Mon, Sep 14, 2026, 3:57 AM UTC

chneu wrote: post #201

gdulli wrote: post #38

A lot of questions being raised today can be answered by the recently inverted power balance between users/customers and corporations. People have not yet internalized that old assumptions about how corporations fear losing customers are no longer valid. Consumers have become entirely docile and passive. Open hostility to consumers is now a norm. (Obviously regulation is also less powerful and less feared as well.)

This is ultimately on the consumer. Critical thinking is long gone for like half the general population. It's wild. The excuses are endless.

You're right. It's in their power to kneecap the businesses they sit on Twitter and whine about. Twitter, incidentally, being another one of those businesses.

Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

#335

Post by Scoundreller » Mon, Sep 14, 2026, 3:58 AM UTC

j027 wrote: post #317

redbluething wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. Same!! https://www.cannonade.net/blog/why-i-turned-off-google-adsen...

Wow I am surprised to see this. I created a tool that automatically follows ads to try to find scams. But that was usually reserved to typosquat domain ads or ads on porn websites. I didn't know scammers used normal page ads too. I know tech support scams used to use google search ads, but I don't think they do that as much anymore, so maybe they have moved onto things like adsense. These scammers usually do IP addre…

> These scammers usually do IP address checks to check for residential IP before showing the scam, and some also do some basic fingerprinting checks, so that is how they get past detection.

Same issue with spam sms in my country: I think they geo-locate it so submitting the link to safe browsing project takes way too long

Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

#336

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Sep 14, 2026, 4:02 AM UTC

dspillett wrote: post #143

jjallen wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can be doing fine at AI models but not so well with AI revenue. Although I am curious if they are not worried and playing the long game confident that their distribution will eventually help them catch up (and worst case they own some of Anthropic). But obviously Anthropic and OpenAI have their own distribution now too.

> but not so well with AI revenue Nobody is doing well enough with AI revenue ATM ( https://isaiprofitable.com/ ). At the moment it is probably more about market share of users, that is where the investment capital will need to be clawed back from when it starts to be called back (or replacement money will need to come from if the investment cycle simply stops giving generously).

[deleted]

Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

#337

Post by 1over137 » Mon, Sep 14, 2026, 4:04 AM UTC

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…

>They have been putting thousands of scam adverts on our website…

Is it your website or theirs? YOU are the one putting such ads there as YOU have chosen a sketchy ad company (google).

Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

#338

Post by Scoundreller » Mon, Sep 14, 2026, 4:07 AM UTC

mikestew wrote: post #105

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…

The water-injection system for your carburetor that the oil companies don't want you to know about! -- paraphrase of an actual Popular Mechanics ad circa 1978

I later in life learned that the “test cards - all channels” ads I saw in the back of the library’s Popular Science in the 90s probably weren’t scams.

Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

#339

Post by anon48293 » Mon, Sep 14, 2026, 4:22 AM UTC

Fnoord wrote: post #206

unethical_ban wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use adblock and on my TV, Youtube Premium. I loaded a stock web browser on VPN and checked Youtube looking for ads. Holy shit, it's all scams. Sample size of three, but not a single ad was a known company or a decent product.

Only my kids use the TV to watch YouTube, and in order to protect them from ads (it is illegal to advertise to children in my country), I block the ads using SmartTube which includes SponsorBlock. Since such is also advertising. Google is a rotten to the core company who's purpose is whitewashing scams and spying on private eyes. Whenever Google talks about 'security' I need to keep in mind their snake tongue definit…

In case you weren’t aware:

“ My development environment was infected by unknown malicious software, as a result of which a few builds may have been affected. Once the issue was detected, I secured everything with a full disk wipe, restored a clean setup, and now all builds are scanned with VirusTotal. The F-Droid version will also be verified before release.

Public keys may have been compromised, which is why I am sharing this issue.”

Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

#340

Post by chrischen » Mon, Sep 14, 2026, 4:31 AM UTC

soundworlds wrote: post #183

conception wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the 3.8 Flash release shows they are doing just fine at AI. Unlike OpenAI and Anthropomorphic, Google doesn’t have to release new models to capture VC sentiment every three months. They have the hardware, data and money. And when they release a model it’s very good. Now their product strategy however…

A large chunk of the population don't use Google to search anymore. They go straight for the GenAIs. That's got to be scaring a lot of managerial folks at Google.

The Gen AIs are doing the search for people. So hopefully this forces google to switch their business model from manipulative ads against human users to just charging for API access for Gen AI models.