I'd rather my adblocker deal with these instead of my browser.
Google will warn users when sites contain social engineering ads
71–80 of 92 posts
Re: Google will warn users when sites contain social engineering ads
#72It's worth remembering that this is the pain point Adsense and Adwords originally solved for by only allowing a title, 2 lines of text, and a URL. And they did it so well they disrupted/killed a mutli-billion dollar industry of online flash ads practically overnight. And then they become that problem by taking on flash ads a few years ago.
I think their USP was contextuality, no?
Re: Google will warn users when sites contain social engineering ads
#73From 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,…
How do you report them? I see an ad with a fake download button right now. http://i.imgur.com/qJs2CO7.png
Edit: I found the feedback form: https://support.google.com/adwords/troubleshooter/4578507
Re: Google will warn users when sites contain social engineering ads
#74I see this warning in effect on http://kat.cr in Chrome:
Deceptive site ahead
Attackers on kat.cr may trick you into doing something dangerous like installing software or revealing your personal information (for example, passwords, phone numbers, or credit cards).Re: Google will warn users when sites contain social engineering ads
#75It's worth remembering that this is the pain point Adsense and Adwords originally solved for by only allowing a title, 2 lines of text, and a URL. And they did it so well they disrupted/killed a mutli-billion dollar industry of online flash ads practically overnight. And then they become that problem by taking on flash ads a few years ago.
I think their USP was contextuality, no?
I would say no, but then, everything advertisers say works seems to have the exact opposite effect on me, so what do I know...
I mean, the last thing I want out of ads is targeting. Nobody needs to tell me to buy things I already like.
Re: Google will warn users when sites contain social engineering ads
#76Earlier 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…
Google got the entire search business (including from those yellow pages) exactly because it wasn't a yellow pages company. It showed people what they wanted to see, while other companies were focusing on what they were paid to show.
That's probably because people aren't by default searching the internet for services, but for information and news.
Re: Google will warn users when sites contain social engineering ads
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 a…
Google partners with these other networks (like Advertising.com and AppNexus). In the end it is their DFP .js code that invokes malicious ads/redirects. I blame the last in the chain, and I do not think that is unfair. Not all ads on adSense are reviewed. Or, if they are, the reviewers are doing a poor job. Locally, and on mobile devices, I get adSense ads like: "Your device has a virus. Click here to download our an…
I may have been too harsh on Google. If Google implements: "Hey, this javascript ad code is trying to redirect to another domain, let's throw up a warning." then that would be great (no matter if it hits their own ads).
Google may also share information from SafeBrowsing with other companies, so they can opt to fix their stuff.
Also that what I may view as terrible ads, Google sees as companies gradually finding the razorsharp edge of their program policies.
For obvious reasons, we do not hear (or see) anything about the successful efforts to keep scam and spam away from their networks.
Re: Google will warn users when sites contain social engineering ads
#78Since sites like this are so ubiquitous, I wonder if users will see warnings like this so often that they'll start to ignore them and just click "proceed" without thinking.
It's definitely a step forward in the right direction, provided Google Adsense, well, adheres to their own company's guidelines…
Re: Google will warn users when sites contain social engineering ads
#79It's worth remembering that this is the pain point Adsense and Adwords originally solved for by only allowing a title, 2 lines of text, and a URL. And they did it so well they disrupted/killed a mutli-billion dollar industry of online flash ads practically overnight. And then they become that problem by taking on flash ads a few years ago.
I think their USP was contextuality, no?
The contextuality came later once they had built out the backend systems and proven the core idea worked.
Re: Google will warn users when sites contain social engineering ads
#80Why 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.
So, punish companies for using AdSense, one of Google's core services? As many have pointed out here, AdSense is a big contributor to these ads. It seems it would be pretty easy to weed out on the AdSense platform, since they have to be bidding on "download" as a keyword to be assigned to that page.