Archive for the ‘Google’ Category

Is Google Force Feeding Ads Not Relative To Your Content?

I came across some really screwy Google AdSense behavior the other day.  I Googled something.  Can’t remember what it was.  For conversation’s sake, let’s say it was for lawnmowers.  After that I was doing some work on one of my fitness blogs. 

The AdSense ads I have on my blog always display ads relative to my fitness content.  After I had written a post and published it, I visited the post to make sure everything was OK.  Guess what shows up in place of the usual fitness ads?  You got it, lawnmower ads.

It just happened again.  A friend of mine in IL said her brother was moving to Orange County, CA.  She asked me what was there.  So I Googled it and told her.

Then I was reading an article on www.ezinearticles.com about metal detectors.  I followed the link to the metal detector site.  That site had a link to www.free-backlinks.net  I noticed the AdSense link unit on the right side of the page.  Take a look at what showed up…Orange County.  What the fuck is up with that?

UPDATE:  August 30, 2010

As of this morning, I now know what’s happening.  I read it in the paper this morning.  Funny how shit just falls into my lap within hours or days of an event.  Happens to me constantly.

This whole thing is called “remarketing” and Google’s, per se, is not doing it.  It’s a feature of AdWords that is available on the campaign level via the Audiences tab.  Creating an audience list is a lot like getting code for displaying AdSense on your site.  An audience list is nothing more than a title and an optional description assigned to some code that Google generates that you insert into your web pages.  This code is called a “tag”. 

For every page that includes a tag, a visitor’s computer gets cookied.  So if I’m running a website for adult toys, not that I would ever do something like that, as the visitor went about their business surfing other sites that displayed AdSense ads, my dildo ads would display, hence, the remarketing of your website.

This has some pros and cons.  The whole thing about AdSense is to get paid when someone clicks on the ads on your site.  If you do your homework, you can create highly targeted niche websites that attractive some very expensive advertising and it can be quite profitable.  I know of several people who generate well over $400/day just in AdSense revenue.

Anyhoo, so lets say I’m a niche marketer and do my homework and get $2.50/click per ad on a site.  This actually is something I’m already doing on one of my sites and yes, each click is getting me $2.50.  Then let’s say someone on my site gets remarketed for dog collars because they were on the PetsMart site looking for dog collars.  And let’s say that dog collar ad only gets me .10/click.  That’s fucked up!  Remarketing has the potential for pushing out the high paying ads on MY site.  It’s basically some other business forcing THEIR advertising on MY site.

AdSense is supposed to be about displaying ads relative to MY content, not traipsing mud across my website from some shithole mud puddle on some other asshole’s website the visitor just came from.  Leave your fucking boots at the front door, fucker.  It’s stealing traffic.  It’s graffiti on my site.  It’s like some band plastering their posters over the top of some other band’s posters on fucking Sunset Blvd.  It’s evil and there are a lot of ad networks doing this, not just Google.  Get the shovel.

I’m going to assume this is a Google thing because I like blaming Google for everything that’s wrong with the web.

Lately when clicking of sites found on Google, I get sent to the wrong website.  I’ve noticed this in the past week or two.

Here’s how to repeat the problem I’m seeing.

1. I open a new browser session.  IE or Firefox.  Doesn’t matter.
2. I search for something in Google.
3. I click on the listing in the SERPs that is NOT an AdWords ad and I’m taken to a completely different site, not the site I clicked on.
4. I hit the back button and try it again and this time it goes to the right site.

If I close the browser and do it again, it won’t do it right away.  It does do to the wrong website several times a day, but it’s like there’s a timer on it.  Like it only does it if it’s more than x number of minutes since the last time it did it.

It’s like a new type of IRRITATING AS F*CK advertising method that’s been rolled out.  Has anyone else noticed this?  Is it Google or are my browser sessions being hi-jacked by some evil, unknown running-in-the-back-ground program?

UPDATE:  I did some more poking around, but this time I searched on “google redirect” and found out is was a damn trojan causing the redirects!  In fact, I had several of them.  McAfee didn’t find them. 

MajorGeeks.com said to run SUPERAntiSpyware.  I ran SuperAntiSpyware, the portable version and here’s what it found…

See those last four entries?  It was one of them.  After it removed them and I rebooted, I can now type in online forms and ESPECIALLY in WordPress, without the keyboard skipping letters.  That was like a thirsty man finding water because I live my entire day in WordPress.

I’m really upset about McAfee not finding it anything.  That sort of lowers my faith in it.

So, how did I get these little buggers?  I think it may have something to do with the fact that I disabled Vista’s User Account Control some months ago because of the EXCESSIVE alerts it throws every time I want to download or run something.  So I did it to myself.  I turned UAC back on and won’t be screwing around with that again.

In the meantime, do I owe Google an apology?  Mmmm, not at this time.  I still have plenty of other things to blame them for.

2nd UPDATE:  I ran MalwareBytes after that and it found a whole bunch more.  And after all this, now my keyboard skipping letters problem is gone, too!

I’m waiting to enroll in gHealth – Google Health Insurance.  In the meantime, let’s see what else the big G is up to.