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Google Ad Disguising Itself as www.gimp.org

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Re: Google Ad Disguising Itself as www.gimp.org

#171

Post by [deleted] »

kweingar wrote: post #69
lolinder wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not only do they allow it, they actively encourage it. They tell businesses that it's really important to buy ad space on searches for your own brand name so that a competitor doesn't. The way they say it really comes off like a protection racket. "Nice number one spot for searches for your brand name you have there, would be a shame if anything were to happen to it." They make people feel better about it by giving a…

I noticed this on the App Store the other day. I searched for YouTube and the first result was TikTok.

[deleted]

Re: Google Ad Disguising Itself as www.gimp.org

#172

Post by mxkopy »

notahacker wrote: post #114
matheusmoreira wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why?

Quoted post unavailable.

> Linking to company websites so people looking to buy stuff that company makes can find it is a scam, because company websites are biased in favour of that company

This isn't a faithful interpretation of the argument. Most people don't use Google to look for things to buy. They use it to find accurate information.

Re: Google Ad Disguising Itself as www.gimp.org

#173

Post by matheusmoreira »

Kiro wrote: post #157
agluszak wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is this getting downvoted?

Out of all legit things getting downvoted on this site you choose this one, a comment that is obviously just a low effort bait.

It's actually just my opinion. I'll even say it again: advertising is inherently untrustworthy, a nuisance and of negative value to society. I think it should be illegal.

If you think I'm trolling, report me. If dang tells me to stop, I will respect his decision. Don't accuse me of "baiting" otherwise. This isn't 4chan.

Re: Google Ad Disguising Itself as www.gimp.org

#174

Post by matheusmoreira »

ptato wrote: post #111
matheusmoreira wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if ads were 100% legit verified links, they would still be scams. Advertising is inherently untrustworthy. Why do people trust anything a corporation says about their own products? In the best case scenario, they're highlighting the pros and omitting the cons. Usually they're just straight up lying. I want real opinions written by real people with no conflict of interest. People who are't getting paid by the cor…

Advertising is not meant to be educational, it's meant to make you aware the product exists. Of course you're don't have to trust what the company is saying, but now you know their product exists and what it does. If it was something you were looking for, you can now research it and ask for opinion.

> Advertising is not meant to be educational

And yet it tries do "educate" the public about why they should buy whatever product or service they're offering. Lies and half-truths are common.

Re: Google Ad Disguising Itself as www.gimp.org

#175

Post by MichaelCollins »

londons_explore wrote: post #161
RamRodification wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes! This is crazy to me. How can this not be a thing that has already been discovered and instantly fixed?

Many ad buyers are not-so-sophisticated... They might work for BigCo, but rather than have the ad point to bigco.com/product they instead have the ad point to tinyurl/bitly so they can track how many people click the ad and repoint it to another URL easily. There is a whole industry of these redirection services that gather stats, direct users different directions based on mobile/desktop or country. It isn't rare to…

If google gave a shit (obviously they don't) they could whitelist a few tinyurl/bitly/etc sites then follow those redirects themselves to verify they eventually landed on the displayed domain.

Re: Google Ad Disguising Itself as www.gimp.org

#176

Post by 0x00000000 »

juunpp wrote: post #94
ilyt wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, blocking ads quickly became security improvement...

Government does: https://www.nsa.gov/portals/75/documents/what-we-do/cybersec... https://www.vice.com/en/article/93ypke/the-nsa-and-cia-use-a...

Isn’t this a violation of the first amendment in the same way that a politician blocking someone on Twitter is?

Re: Google Ad Disguising Itself as www.gimp.org

#177

Post by stingraycharles »

detaro wrote: post #163
RamRodification wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes! This is crazy to me. How can this not be a thing that has already been discovered and instantly fixed?

It's a "feature". So you can link to blafoo.advertisinganalytics.com/weird-looking?tracking=link but what the user sees looks like normal and "safe" brand.com

You should still somehow be able to prove ownership of the domain you want to display, that’s the problem.

Re: Google Ad Disguising Itself as www.gimp.org

#178

Post by jonas21 »

hedora wrote: post #64

In this particular case, I suspect a trademark complaint against Google would make sense. Google misrepresented the ad as the product of the Gimp project, and were paid as a result. They usually use an "obeying the law would not scale" type argument in court, but that would clearly be bullshit in this case. They have a business relationship with the ad buyer, and should have verified their affiliation with gimp.org.…

Google does not allow trademark infringement in ads [1] and provides tools for trademark owners to prevent their trademarks from being used improperly.

The issue here seems to be that the Gimp team does not have a registered trademark for "Gimp" (at least not in the U.S). This can be verified at the USPTO website [2].

[1] https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/6118

[2] https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/search

Re: Google Ad Disguising Itself as www.gimp.org

#179

Post by dannyw »

adam1210 wrote: post #38

This has been happening to a smaller project I am affiliated with for years . You can report it to Google - typically they ignore the reports. Occasionally they'll remove the offending ad, but they are just replaced with more ads the following day. I don't think it's preventable.

It is with a trademark lawsuit. You don't need to fight, you just need to file the lawsuit.

Re: Google Ad Disguising Itself as www.gimp.org

#180

Post by throwaway742 »

0x00000000 wrote: post #176
juunpp wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Government does: https://www.nsa.gov/portals/75/documents/what-we-do/cybersec... https://www.vice.com/en/article/93ypke/the-nsa-and-cia-use-a...

Isn’t this a violation of the first amendment in the same way that a politician blocking someone on Twitter is?

That's cute. You think the NSA and the CIA care about the constitution.
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