L'Ombre de l'Olivier

The Shadow of the Olive Tree

being the maunderings of an Englishman on the Côte d'Azur

03 October 2007 Blog Home : October 2007 : Permalink

Hypocritigoogle

Say Uncle has this amusing correspondence with google's AdSense folks. The googleserf starts noting that (amongst other things):

While reviewing your account, we noticed that you are currently displaying Google ads in a manner that is not compliant with our policies. For instance, we found violations of AdSense policies on pages such as thegunblogs.com.

As stated in our program policies, AdSense publishers are not permitted to place Google ads on sites with content related to certain weapons and weapon accessories, such as firearms, balisongs, butterfly knives, and brass knuckles.

to which he replies and then:

They reply (after a week):

Hello,

Thanks for your email. We feel that, because the content of your site is largely focused on firearms, the site is not a good fit for the AdSense program. We appreciate your understanding.

Sincerely,

Scott
The Google AdSense Team

I reply:

You should specify that in your policy then. I and other reasonable people are unable to determine how you ‘feel.’

I note, however, you’ve had no issue selling gun related items on my site via your ads*.

Don’t be evil.

* Note: for evidence, look to your left.

And just in case it changes this is what was visible at the left when I visited:
Google Adsense selling guns