Google Cracks Down On Bad Search Ads, Sends Millions Packing

Google claims to have disabled more than 350 million unscrupulous ads, banned more than 270,000 advertisements, blacklisted more than 200,000 publisher pages, removed more than 250,000 ad-funded publisher accounts, and rejected more than 3 million attempts to join the AdSense network in 2013.

Overall, the technology company disabled bad ads and content from appearing on its search engine, originating from more than 150 countries and territories -- down from 223 in 2012, per Google. The data that makes up the 2013 Trends report covers areas ranging from advertising that attempts to sell counterfeit products online to copyright infringement.

Google reported that it has disabled 2 million bad ads; banned 14,000 advertisers for selling counterfeit goods; halted ad-serving on tens of thousands of sites and disabled more than 5,000 AdSense accounts for violations of copyright policy; disabled 400,000 sites from hiding malware; and disabled 10,000 sites from promoting get-rich-quick schemes.

Compare 2013 numbers with the prior year, when Google banned 889,000 bad ads; removed 123,000 sites hiding malware, and 12,900 sites promoting get-rich-quick schemes; and banished 82,000 accounts attempting to sell counterfeit goods.

Marketers are aware that as the world of online activity occurring through ecommerce and searches expands -- not just on desktop computers, but also smartphones, tablets, entertainment consoles like Microsoft Xbox -- online fraud is also on the rise. Research firm MagnaGlobal expects global mobile advertising revenue will reach $15.9 billion in 2014, up 31% compared with the prior year. It will represent 12.4% of total online ad spend, relative to 10.7% of estimated total spend for 2013, cites J.P. Morgan.

Online has become a haven for thieves selling counterfeit goods. Last week, L'Oreal settled a long-running legal dispute with eBay over the sale of counterfeit goods on the company's market place. The Wall Street Journalreports that L'Oreal sued eBay in September 2007 in five European countries, alleging that the online retailer had not done enough to police its site for counterfeit goods.

"Fist punching thru a glass window" photo from Shutterstock.

1 comment about "Google Cracks Down On Bad Search Ads, Sends Millions Packing".
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  1. J S from Ideal Living Media, January 20, 2014 at 5:07 p.m.

    Glad Google is after bad actors. But why does every ad encourage me to "DOWNLOAD" supposedly helpful malware?

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