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Google will warn users when sites contain social engineering ads

techcrunch.com

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Re: Google will warn users when sites contain social engineering ads

#61

Post by return0 »

tyingq wrote: post #22

From the article: "Others pretend to be “Download” or “Play” buttons, as if clicking them would provide access to the video content or stream the user had wanted. " These are actively being served through Google Adsense, right now. Here's a few example, live sites, where I see "Download" buttons in an ad, in a context that would be confusing. http://www.getpaint.net/index.html http://downloads.tomsguide.com/PaintNET,…

Yeah google either is not doing a good job here, or they should state whether they have a relaxed stance on that.

Re: Google will warn users when sites contain social engineering ads

#62

Post by mikeash »

ori_b wrote: post #39
tyingq wrote: post #22

From the article: "Others pretend to be “Download” or “Play” buttons, as if clicking them would provide access to the video content or stream the user had wanted. " These are actively being served through Google Adsense, right now. Here's a few example, live sites, where I see "Download" buttons in an ad, in a context that would be confusing. http://www.getpaint.net/index.html http://downloads.tomsguide.com/PaintNET,…

> These are actively being served through Google Adsense, right now. There should be a button to report them. Please report them.

Is there? I see two buttons, one that opens a page describing Google Ads, and one that lets me hide it. After hiding an ad, it asks me what was wrong, and gives me the option of Repetitive, Irrelevant, or Inappropriate. None of those seem to fit with reporting abuse.

Re: Google will warn users when sites contain social engineering ads

#63

Post by tyingq »

ori_b wrote: post #60
tyingq wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure. But it's just funny that Google's approach is to mark these sites with big red warnings when Google itself is the source of the actual problem.

Yep. But spam detection and flagging is a hard problem. Google tries to detect and flag malicious creatives and stop them from serving, but it's not perfect. (I've touched that subsystem in a past life).

If their system finds a site displaying a misleading ad, and it's a google ad...

Why is the action to flag and penalize the site? Why would the action not be "google stops showing that ad"?

Re: Google will warn users when sites contain social engineering ads

#64

Post by JohnTHaller »

kbenson wrote: post #57
JohnTHaller wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see fake download buttons, full screen ads, ads opening new windows/tabs, and ads opening Google play automatically from Adsense on a regular basis. I gave up reporting them years ago. I only see them when using chrome on Android these days. I generally use Firefox with an ad blocker on both windows and Android to combat it. I disable on some sites to support them, donate where I can, subscribe to YouTube red/Googl…

> ads opening Google play automatically from Adsense Are you sure they are ads, and not the site redirecting you based on your useragent? I've had some sites that have apps do that, but I've never had an add automatically direct me to the Play store before.

It debuted when Google added the ability to do direct link ads to Google Play. And it's been on larger sites that use Google AdSense to fill excess inventory.

Re: Google will warn users when sites contain social engineering ads

#65

Post by zaphar »

putaside wrote: post #2

The 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.

Typically at Google the teams in charge of a service like this and ads are pretty heavily fire-walled. After working there it would not at all surprise me if they did exactly that.

Re: Google will warn users when sites contain social engineering ads

#67

Post by [deleted] »

ori_b wrote: post #39
tyingq wrote: post #22

From the article: "Others pretend to be “Download” or “Play” buttons, as if clicking them would provide access to the video content or stream the user had wanted. " These are actively being served through Google Adsense, right now. Here's a few example, live sites, where I see "Download" buttons in an ad, in a context that would be confusing. http://www.getpaint.net/index.html http://downloads.tomsguide.com/PaintNET,…

> These are actively being served through Google Adsense, right now. There should be a button to report them. Please report them.

[deleted]

Re: Google will warn users when sites contain social engineering ads

#68

Post by yrro »

ori_b wrote: post #39
tyingq wrote: post #22

From the article: "Others pretend to be “Download” or “Play” buttons, as if clicking them would provide access to the video content or stream the user had wanted. " These are actively being served through Google Adsense, right now. Here's a few example, live sites, where I see "Download" buttons in an ad, in a context that would be confusing. http://www.getpaint.net/index.html http://downloads.tomsguide.com/PaintNET,…

> These are actively being served through Google Adsense, right now. There should be a button to report them. Please report them.

There's no reporting option for 'abusive/fraudulent'. And reporting ads doesn't result in a reduction in the number of fake download adverts that I see. Blocking all ads does. I choose the latter.

Re: Google will warn users when sites contain social engineering ads

#69

Post by dmihal »

vox_mollis wrote: post #58
jimrandomh wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really weird that Google isn't dealing with them. Maybe they're geotargeting everywhere-but-Mountain-View or something? Malware ads on AdSense are neither uncommon nor subtle, but Google's acting like they're not there.

It's really weird that Google isn't dealing with them It's never "weird" for a company to choose not to attack its own revenue base.

Except Google knows that low-quality ads are driving people to ad-blockers

Re: Google will warn users when sites contain social engineering ads

#70

Post by ori_b »

tyingq wrote: post #63
ori_b wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. But spam detection and flagging is a hard problem. Google tries to detect and flag malicious creatives and stop them from serving, but it's not perfect. (I've touched that subsystem in a past life).

If their system finds a site displaying a misleading ad, and it's a google ad... Why is the action to flag and penalize the site? Why would the action not be "google stops showing that ad"?

When it's detected on the ad serving side, the action is "google doesn't show that ad". This is not something that a user will generally notice.
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