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Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

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Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

#361

Post by Gareth321 »

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).

While true, Google is particularly vulnerable to AI disrupting the traditional internet ad model. They have to figure out how to make AI profitable or Google will suffer catastrophic revenue, profit, and stock price declines in short order.

Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

#362

Post by Gareth321 »

charmd wrote: post #194
soundworlds wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Slide 65 of this (very nice) set of slides [1] broke down search vs genAI use to get information. "Mostly genAI was not breaking 25% in all age brackets... Curious to see how that will evolve [1] https://readwise-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/media/wisereads/art...

25% market share after a few years is insane. If this growth continues, Google’s entire business model is under existential threat.

Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

#363

Post by notimetorelax »

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.

I guess they missed the rules of physics in their evaluation.

Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

#364

Post by disillusioned »

ksajadi wrote: post #356

My girlfriend just got scammed by a super convincing ad for UK Visa which looks identical to the real thing. I have no idea how you can get that wording and that landing page get passed the google review. I’ve done a lot of ads on google and every time my ad was just a little off (use of trademark word or competitor’s name with a reserved keyword) it will be blocked.

My wife was searching for an Our Place rice cooker, because we had just bought one for $149 and she wanted to show my dad. Up popped an insanely authentic looking branded OurPlace ad highlighting the exact same rice cooker, but for only $49! Insane deal!

She clicked it, it was basically ourplacce.it, but like, not an easy thing to flag on her phone. Made it all the way through the purchase process until I got this from Citi: Please use only to complete your purchase with Grand Egypti for 9000.00 EGP using card ending 3551

I'm like "what the hell are you buying?" and sure enough, it's all scams the whole way down.

There's simply no excuse for Google to not use their advanced AI to block this sort of copycat/lookalike/impersonation scam every day of the week, at scale. The excuse, obviously, is revenue, but it's really upsetting how many people it's hurting.

Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

#366

Post by mastermage »

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).

except for NVIDIA

Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

#367

Post by notveryimportan »

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…

[dead]

Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

#368

Post by oliwarner »

It's bizarre to me that there isn't any KYC in advertising. Seemingly any foreign money can buy adverts for anything and redirect traffic.

For a long time, you could host your own adverts, put your own script on third party sites. I'm not sure if this is still a thing but judging from the screenshots, maybe it is. Madness.

If you want to advertise, you should have to prove you're selling what you're advertising in the market you're advertising it in. You should have to prove who you are. If you're caught doing dodgy crap, you should be held responsible.

And if you've taken billions over two decades in advertising, and you don't regularly test the adverts you host, you should be liable for the damage they create.

Re: Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?

#369

Post by otabdeveloper4 »

chrischen wrote: post #340
soundworlds wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

No, Google will just do "product placement" in the AI output.

P.S. Google's real problem is that their web search is absolutely atrocious and completely broken. Even Qwen is better at searching the web than Google's AI search box.

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