If you’re not familiar with Google’s Adsense for Domains, let’s just say, it’s one of the “Do no Evil” company’s dirty little secrets they like to keep locked in the closet like a six fingered baby. However, Adsense for Domains has landed Google in hot water with one Adwords user who has taken it upon himself to question the validity of Google’s parked domain advertising solution.
InformationWeek reports that Boston based attorney Hal K. Levitte has filed a class-action lawsuit against Google over his Google Adwords campaign last year.
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The class-action lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif., by lawyers from San Francisco-based Schubert Jonckheer Kolbe & Kralowec. The plaintiff is attorney Hal K. Levitte, who advertised his legal services though a Google AdWords pay-per-click campaign last year.
According to the complaint, the “Levitte International” online ad campaign ran from June 1, 2007, through August 18, 2007, and received 202,528 impressions from parked domain pages — placeholder Web pages with auto-generated links related to a pre-determined search keyword or the hosting domain name. … Levitte’s ads also appeared on error pages, through Google’s AdSense for Errors program. With 1,009 impressions, 25 clicks and zero conversions, he had little to show for it. |
Of note here is yet another advertising abortion from the search engine giant called Adsense for Errors, which Google describes as…
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Our AdSense for errors program serves users with targeted AdWords ads when they enter an unregistered URL or a search query in their browser’s address bar rather than in a search engine such as Google. Previously, these searches would result in error pages (i.e. a ‘404 error’ page), which would leave the user with no other option but to renew the search query. Now, these pages offer ads (some pages also include actual search results) that can be relevant information for the user. |
…but it really translates into Google trying to suck any advertising pennies they can out of every facet of the internet, including parked domains and error pages.
I’m certain many Adsense publishers, who are well aware of Google Adsense’s nefarious TOS which explicitly forbids displaying Adsense ads on sites with little or no content are scratching their heads wondering how Google can possibly justify Adsense for Domains and Adsense for Errors as viable mediums for displaying ads that were purchased by Adwords advertisers.
It seems Google has a double standard when it comes to funneling advertising revenues into their own pockets. Although Mr. Levitte spent $136.11 for ads on parked domains and error pages, which is a drop in the bucket for most Adwords players, the amount spent is not the premise of the lawsuit, it’s the principles and ethics that are at question here.
I do believe Mr. Levitte has a valid complaint against Google for numerous reasons but we will have to wait to see how this all turns out and if the teflon “Do No Evil” company can escape yet another silver bullet regarding their shady marketing practices.
Tags : Google | Adwords | Lawsuit
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I think the lawyer is just tryng to get some free promotion from all of this. Did you see his website? He needs to spend money on hiring a web designer before he uses Adwords.
This guy will not be having much success in his suit against Google. They are too big and the can fight long and hard to protect their system.
I won’t make a prediction about the outcome of the case, but my guess is that it’s going to come down to the Adwords contract’s wording.
The 404 ads are a joke, though. Google preaches the gospel of good site building every day, and best practices would be creating a helpful/meaningful 404 page (or avoiding them in the first place). Making 404s into little billboards would seem to fly in the face of that.
WTF ??? Adsense for errors ??? Now I’ve seen it all. This has to be the shadiest thing I’ve ever heard of. the big G! must be hurting for money to resort to schemes like this.
Not cool at all. And I used to love Google but lately they are so evil they make me wish they never existed.
I just have check my Adsense account and I see clicks from the parked domains. Is there any way to turn off these sites in Adwords so they are not getting click charged to me ?
umm… all he had to do was check the box, “show my ads on Google only”
ignorance is not just cause sueing google.
Ultimately it would be nice to see Google and others stop providing per click ads on bullshit domains.., never will happen.., they make a good amount of $$ from these sites.
I have a problem with them de-ranking sites for the type of content or being “riddled with ads”.., yet they will gladly supply a parked domain with nothing but a page full of ads.
No matter what, I’m opposed to frivilous lawsuits. Hal K. Levitte must know that he could have filed and won a judgement easily in small claims court but he’s chosen to spearhead an initiative.
I’m more on the publisher side than the advertiser side and one reason I think Google bans so many publishers so quickly is that they are obsessed with advertiser conversions.
Advertising, in the traditional sense is about “brand recognition” and Google opened the Pandora’s box of evil by pushing the internet advertising envelope into Adwords customers heads and making them think a successful campaign is based entirely on conversions.
Good site I \”Stumbledupon\” it today and gave it a stumble for you.. looking forward to seeing what else you have..later
I hate domain parking, because make my earn turn down
Okay, so the results weren’t what he expected but does that mean he has to file the lawsuit for sucha small amount of money???
It is ridiculous to me that this lawyer is not smart enough to work an Adwords acct but he can pass the bar exam. If I were ever a client to him I would dump him bcoz he his stuipd idiot.
What else to you expect when you are the top guy and most influential player in your market! Of course among other things, expect all kind of lawsuits genuine or not, all trying to capitalize and benefit.
We have seen it in Yahoo, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Walmart and all kinds of big companies.
It will be interesting to see how the case is settled.
Google is using their power to their own advantage… I just hope that they’ll consider other people too.
I don’t think they’re going to take it seriously until the first class actions are filed against them and the shareholders respond. I’m suprised that banned Adsense publishers haven’t started a class action lawsuit because the way Google just uses a blanket policy to ban publishers and confiscate their earnings it totally ridiculous.
I think the government really needs to step in and put some regulations on Google regarding their advertising programs’ transparency. They have been getting away with murder for so long they problably thin they’re teflon like John Gotti, but look what happened to him.
Dave,
“I think the government really needs to step in and put some regulations on Google regarding their advertising programs’ transparency.”
“I think the Government…” What? No, lets not involve the Government.. Besides, how shall we regulate the internet and ‘Google’ with restrictions on an International level?
Until we have a ‘One World’ Government then the Internet is free territory… The New frontier… The wild, wild west.
I like the complexities of the Internet. Considering, that if we are to make Laws Governing a ‘Place’, it must be with in defined parameters. Actually, the Internet poses other problems such as, does the internet truly exist?
We cannot define it’s limits or borders… So, we cannot Govern what we cannot define.
Google knows that they ‘can’ get away with just about anything as long as any of their questionable dealings remain in the uncharted regions of cyberspace.
Shall we allow Google to get away with their Monopoly in cyberspace?
No.
People in have the right to choose… Simply, quite using Google and their empire will begin to crumble.
This all may be terribly off subject with the entire blog but is in issue with subject matter for sure.
I see that Google is cracking down on MFA sites but they still have made no mention of discontinuing these disgraceful programs. Adsense for Domains is a slap in the face for Adwords advertisers and Adsense publishers alike.
Can i just say ive been going through your blog and you have really good writing skills, I think your style is better than some of the so called proffessionals - all credit to you!
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