Can't wait until Google has to block websites using AdSense because they themselves served such an ad through a reseller.
...or until they don't and have an Anti-Trust suit on their hands.
Google will warn users when sites contain social engineering ads
11–20 of 92 posts
Re: Google will warn users when sites contain social engineering ads
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's interesting is that this is moving more and more in the direction of the tried and trusted legacy yellow pages phonebook model. In that model you got a free listing in a category or two but had to pay to get either additional listings (in other categories) or for an advertisement (of various sizes) in order to get phone calls. The rationale (in addition to making money obviously) was that there had to be a way…
Ah, but without the loophole of naming your company "AAAAAAAAA Services" to land at the top of "organics" :)
My gaming of the system was putting a display ad with multiple phone numbers representing different areas of the city. Worked very well. Learned that by observing what other businesses did (in entirely different areas I might add) and figuring that must be the reason (since I knew they didn't have all of those locations). Yellow pages, at least for what I did (was a "well developed category") was instant business and paid off very well. I increased the ad size every year. In some cases ran a small and large ad after being told (correctly) that some people liked to deal with a small company and some a large company. I landed a big contract once with the larger ad when only 3 companies were asked to bid.
All this was well before the internet when there wasn't step by step guides and/or blog posts and things like this were never taught you either figured them out on your old or someone you knew was nice enough to tell you. (In the old days it wasn't typical to share info and secrets like it is today..)
Re: Google will warn users when sites contain social engineering ads
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's interesting is that this is moving more and more in the direction of the tried and trusted legacy yellow pages phonebook model. In that model you got a free listing in a category or two but had to pay to get either additional listings (in other categories) or for an advertisement (of various sizes) in order to get phone calls. The rationale (in addition to making money obviously) was that there had to be a way…
Ah, but without the loophole of naming your company "AAAAAAAAA Services" to land at the top of "organics" :)
Fun fact, in some northern european countries "aa" is sorted last in the alphabet :)
Re: Google will warn users when sites contain social engineering ads
#14The only time I have been bothered with these kind of ads, is when DoubleClick serves me those on my Android. DoubleClick certainly is not the worst offender of this, but they are the biggest player. Is Google going to block/penalize the sites of their own customers? That would feel weird. Is Google going to block/penalize the sites of their competitors? That would also feel weird.
Usually the burden to approve an Ad is on the network that hosts/serve the Ad. Google does require approval for all Ads you want to serve to Google Search or Google Display Network, as well as Ads you want to sell through Doubleclick Ad Exchange.
Doubleclick is actually a suite of different applications.
I suppose you mean DFP (Doubleclick for Publishers). This is a google product but it doesn't necessarily display ads from Google Network. With DFP you can show ads from Google but also other networks or even your own negotiated ads. So in other words even though it's a Google Product it's designed to give publishers freedom on which ads will be displayed. If you use DFP to only show ads from Google Network such as adSense you can rest assured these are reviewed by Google for such social engineering tactics.
I suppose they might block sites that use DFP to serve ads from other networks they can't vet and don't go through good review and were detected to contain bad Ads.
Re: Google will warn users when sites contain social engineering ads
#15Most people don't realize that Google's "Safe Browser" sends via Chrome & Firefox the URL of ever single URL you visit to Google; as far as I'm able to tell.
Re: Google will warn users when sites contain social engineering ads
#16>[Update: Google published this news today on its corporate blog, but this was previously announced earlier this year. We’ve asked Google to clarify why it was republished, if that was in error, or if it represents any changes since the first announcement.]
This was previously discussed at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11032270.
Re: Google will warn users when sites contain social engineering ads
#17Why stop there? When a site contains the offending ads, push them down to page four of the results. The ads will disappear in a matter of days.
Re: Google will warn users when sites contain social engineering ads
#18From Wikipedia[0]: > Social engineering, in the context of information security, refers to psychological manipulation of people into performing actions or divulging confidential information. A type of confidence trick for the purpose of information gathering, fraud, or system access, it differs from a traditional "con" in that it is often one of many steps in a more complex fraud scheme. Honest question: When you tak…
IIRC, you have to auth to Tinder with a FB account. Not saying that nothing shady is happening, because I believe it is, but note that there are hundreds of ways for a company like FB to connect the dots. Post locations, event invitations, friends of friends, searches, ads/trackers, even your behavior/patterns on the site. The only real options, IMO, are to delete FB or accept the uphill battle.
IIRC, you have to auth to Tinder with a FB account.
Wow. Just wow. That seems like such a horrifically bad idea. The worlds represented by FB and Tinder are almost diametrically opposed and I imagine that people who use both would never want any mixing. We are one FB bug away from some serious embarrassment.
Re: Google will warn users when sites contain social engineering ads
#19They count fake download buttons as social engineering. Excellent.
What definition of "social engineering" are you using?
Re: Google will warn users when sites contain social engineering ads
#20What about on their own sites? Like YouTube?
Yesterday I just saw a banner ad on a YouTube music video - from Google AdWords - that was alerting me I may need some "Drivers" for my machine and I should get them from some suspicious company called TechSoft or RealSoft or something like that. It was the "dying car alarm drops a sick beat" extended remix if that's of any interest.
I did take a screenshot but don't have it handy right now.