Comments on: To Deceive or Not Deceive, That’s Google’s Question

By: Web Marketing Man

Web Marketing Man — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 13:59:54 +0000

Have recently been tasked with dealing with customer’s adwords campaigns, and something else has come to light….regular discrepancies between the CPC clicks and the analytics data….always skewed in Google’s favour. Am still waiting for them to reply to our email query regarding our accounts…

By: » Is Google Guilty Of Deception? Pay Per Click Journal

» Is Google Guilty Of Deception? Pay Per Click Journal — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:28:34 +0000

[...] new lawsuit accuses Google of deception with regard to its Google AdWords Content Network. But David Snyder isn’t buying it: The idea [...]

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 14:48:40 +0000

Hmm… I thought Google was evil when they did not allow advertisers to bid separately on their content network but they solved this a few years ago.

Now the content network performs beautifully for us. You just have to optimize the bids separately but it can do wonders to an online campaign.

However, Google has a few other tricks on how they suck money out of your pocket. I talk about them at http://www.TheComingAdWordsWar.com

Mike’s last blog post..Simple vs Complex

By: Futon-Matt

Futon-Matt — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 14:38:06 +0000

I wonder if this will have any effect on the system?

By: LH

LH — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 14:09:07 +0000

Actually, to think it was not based on a monetary decision is naive. Clearly Google has a need to funnel ads into the content network, and that they have to share the revenue is not a problem. They are actually gaining revenue they would not otherwise have if not for AdSense.

Try as they might (the e-mail I regularly receive trying to get me to turn on content ads), Google will not convince people the content network is worthwhile till they clean-up the sites allowed into the AdSense program.

By: Mike Moran

Mike Moran — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 13:13:08 +0000

I suspect you have not staked out the popular viewpoint here, Andy, but I agree with you. I think it’s become fashionable to pile on all sorts of evil motives on the “don’t be evil” company. I think we need to keep Hanlon’s Razor in mind more often: “Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.” As Google gets larger, expect more and more errors to occur that conspiracists can judge harshly. It’s more likely, in my opinion, that companies make mistakes. Let’s see whether Google addresses this problem by changing its interface. If it doesn’t, then we can begin speculating as to motives.

By: Brick Marketing

Brick Marketing — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 12:55:33 +0000

Another example of the desire for money exceeding the interest to truly do good by customers. Hopefully a precedent can be set by this case.

By: Nicole

Nicole — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:22:38 +0000

Buyer Beware should be the slogan here! Yes, turning off content ads and search partners is advised, but surely the big G has to have a system to ensure that the ignorant or the inefficient do not get ripped off. Should be an interesting battle. I hope that this does not get settled out of court. Nicole's last blog post..Need a New Computer?

By: Piper

Piper — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:14:18 +0000

I’m very surprised that this hasn’t come up sooner. One of the first pieces of advice that you hear about AdWords is that you should immediately turn off content ads and search partners. Unless you’re specifically optimizing for them, the results are not likely to be good (for most people)…and Google has to know that.

Of course, Yahoo! and Microsoft have been guilty of the same kinds of things. When Microsoft started their content ads, they automatically opted existing advertisers into the program and you had to rush in and turn it off.