Google coming down hard on malicious advertisers
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Search giant Google has said that it will lay down the law where scam artists and malvertisers are concerned: Permanent bans will be the result of any fraudulent activity on the company's AdWords service.
Nick Fox, business product director for the AdWords program, told Advertising Age that "initially we wanted to give these users the benefit of the doubt; maybe they made a mistake? What we're seeing is that's not really the case. When an advertiser creates one scam, it is likely they did it intentionally, and it's also likely the next site they create is going to be a scam."
Some experts, like Patricio Robles at eConsultancy, say that malicious ads "pose a significant threat to Google," according to a recent blog post. By undermining public trust in the integrity of Google's search results, the scammers can seriously dent the company's lifeblood, advertising revenues.
Analysts say that the step is an unusually draconian one for the California-based behemoth, which prizes its sunny, open public image. While some say that the one-strike policy risks punishing blameless advertisers, others applaud the company's strong stand against online fraud.
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