Why Google Drive Is Evil
Published April 25, 2012
Have you heard about the new Google Drive service? You can upload your shit and access it from anywhere from your computer, smartphone or tablet. Google Drive is everywhere you are—on the web, in your home, at the office and on the go. So wherever you are, your stuff is just…there. Ready to go, ready to share. Get started with 5 GB free.
Store your files in a safe place, they say. “Things happen. Your phone goes for a swim. Your laptop takes an infinite snooze. No matter what happens to your devices, your files are safely stored in Google Drive.” Yea, RIGHT!
Check this shit out right from their own damn Terms of Service…
Your Content in our Services
Some of our Services allow you to submit content. You retain ownership of any intellectual property rights that you hold in that content. In short, what belongs to you stays yours.
BUT THEN THEY GO…
When you upload or otherwise submit content to our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content. The rights you grant in this license are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting, and improving our Services, and to develop new ones. This license continues even if you stop using our Services (for example, for a business listing you have added to Google Maps). Some Services may offer you ways to access and remove content that has been provided to that Service. Also, in some of our Services, there are terms or settings that narrow the scope of our use of the content submitted in those Services. Make sure you have the necessary rights to grant us this license for any content that you submit to our Services.
You can find more information about how Google uses and stores content in the privacy policy or additional terms for particular Services. If you submit feedback or suggestions about our Services, we may use your feedback or suggestions without obligation to you. https://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/terms/
So, Google Doesn’t Like Duplicate Content? NOT!
Published March 17, 2011Go ahead and Google this phrase: Japan Quake Captured By Underwater Mic
Now what was that about Google not liking duplicate content?
Syndicate carefully: If you syndicate your content on other sites, Google will always show the version we think is most appropriate for users in each given search, which may or may not be the version you’d prefer. However, it is helpful to ensure that each site on which your content is syndicated includes a link back to your original article. You can also ask those who use your syndicated material to use the noindex meta tag to prevent search engines from indexing their version of the content.
And that doesn’t warrant the usual message?
“In order to show you the most relevant results, we have omitted some entries very similar to the ### already displayed.
If you like, you can repeat the search with the omitted results included.”
This goes on for eight pages. Word for word. Video for video. Viral syndication at its finest.
AdSense Displaying Ads Relative To Last Search, Not Content
Published August 27, 2010Is 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 sectioned called Free Backlinks. Right under the section header is an AdSense link unit displaying a few links about backlinks, relative to the article on the site, as it should be. BUT, take a look at what showed up as the 4th listing…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.
