Tuesday, August 09, 2005
Let's hope Google gets flamed to death
I just linked Google adsense to my sidebar, and regret it almost immediately. Within minutes of setting it up, ads re "alleged Guantanamo torture" and "Osama bin Lotto" (mentioning Bush) popped up.
Hence the ad and search box placement has been relegated to the bottom of my sidebar. I'm on the look out for alternatives and hope to dump Google shortly.
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In the meantime I've followed up with correspondence and attempted corrective action, details as follows:
> Original Message Follows:
> ------------------------
> Subject: Feedback: Ads By Google
> Date: Tue, 9 Aug 2005 19:23:05 -0700
>
>
> Client:
> Language: en
> Original URL: http://spinbad.blogspot.com/
> Ads:
> Comments:
> I've just signed up for adsense, (blogname: "spinbadz own") and
> immediately there are unwanted anti-Bush and anti-Iraq war ads appearing
> on my blog, as well as something to the effect of "sexy Saudi
> singles".
>
> I don't want content contra to my rightish views appearing on the site.
>
>
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Google AdSense"
Sent: Thursday, August 11, 2005 3:22 AM
Subject: Re: [#31464379] Feedback: Ads By Google
>
> Thank you for your email and feedback. The ads that you are referring to
> are displayed through the Google AdSense program, which delivers relevant
> Google ads to content pages. Google accepts advertising from a wide range
> of advertisers, and matches advertisements to content pages using our
> contextual targeting technology.
>
> You can prevent Google ads from specific sites from showing on your site
> by using the Competitive Ad Filter in your Google AdSense account. You can
> filter ads from up to 200 sites. For detailed instructions on adding sites
> to your filter list, please visit our Competitive Ad Filter Guide at
> https://www.google.com/adsense/urlfilter .
>
> For additional questions, please visit our AdSense Support site at
> https://www.google.com/support/adsense or feel free to reply to this
> email.
>
> We'd also like to encourage you to let us know how we can improve our
> customer support. Please take a few minutes to fill out our brief survey
> at http://www.insightexpress.com/s/Google.asp?uid=0&resetposition=true.
>
> Your input is greatly appreciated.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> The Google AdSense Team
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Dear ,
Thanks for confirming that I must proactively act to block Google ads for
web sites with messages antithetical to that which I am conveying on my own
site.
After reading your email I saw one such objectionable ad (out of 4 shown),
clicked on it to get the URL, and found another one when I returned to my
site. This cycle was repreated 3 times in the space of a few minutes.
According to your information I may now have to wait 12 hours before these
get blocked from my site.And goodness knows how many more times I'll have to
repeat the painstaking process, or even whether I'll be able to contain the
stream of such web sites within the limit of 200 sites I can so block under
your guidelines.
That doesn't seem like tremendous customer service to me. Some might even
go so far as saying, especially in the light of Google's noted capacity to
manufacture wizardry of supreme convenience in other areas, that a strong
element of bias and even smug alecry might be suspected.
What do you think? Am I way off the mark? Please feel free to reply to
this email.
