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Spot On. I run an online media streaming site for public safety communications, and we've noticed that Adsense advertisers often use these exact social enginee

Spot On. I run an online media streaming site for public safety communications, and we've noticed that Adsense advertisers often use these exact social engineering techniques to display download/play links that end up having customers install crappy spyware infested "media players" and other software. My jaw dropped when I saw this blog post.

criddell 11y ago
I'm semi-serious here, but if you noticed that you are serving ads that are harming your users, why would you continue to use ad-sense? Why not switch to a different ad network and let Google know why you switched?
- fixermark 11y ago
  Based on other comments in this thread: does such an ad network exist? If all your options are terrible, you might as well use the terrible option with the largest ROI, right?
  - drhayes9 11y ago
    > might as well use the terrible option with the highest ROI, right? No, thanks. Does The Deck serve spammy, malicious ads? I know they're tightly targeted at the techy/designy crowd, but they're also a great example of high ROI ads that aren't terrible.
    - cloudwalking 11y ago
      You can't just use The Deck, you have to be invited.
      - drhayes9 11y ago
        Valid point. But I still reject the notion of "that sucks but might as well get mine". Sounds like there's a lot of space for ad networks that don't suck. Or monetization models that don't rely on spammy, useless ads.
        FenugreekAcerb 11y ago
        > Or monetization models that don't rely on spammy, useless ads. I'm struggling to find one, any idea?
        criddell 11y ago
        Build something so good, people will pay for it? It seems to work for companies like Netflix and Toyota.
        cloudwalking 11y ago
        But not companies like Google, or Facebook, or Twitter...
        criddell 11y ago
        Nobody suggested there's one solution for everybody. I was just responding to the comment that advertising is the only monetization strategy and that's ridiculous.
  - JoshTriplett 11y ago
    > If all your options are terrible, you might as well use the terrible option with the largest ROI, right? One of the options is "stop running ads". Why is a "site for public safety communications" running ads at all? Public safety announcement: block all ads to make your browsing much safer. Use Adblock Plus (with so-called "acceptable ads" turned off) or uBlock Origin.
    - spdustin 11y ago
      He's not running a public safety institution, he runs a site that has live audio streams from police / emergency scanners. (incidentally, Lindsay, I've used http://www.radioreference.com http://www.radioreference.com to learn a great deal about Software Defined Radio, and I occasionally listen to various Illinois streams on http://www.broadcastify.com http://www.broadcastify.com - thanks for running these sites!)
      - JoshTriplett 11y ago
        > He's not running a public safety institution, he runs a site that has live audio streams from police / emergency scanners. Thanks for the clarification; that makes more sense. I'd still echo the comments from elsewhere in the thread about not doing business with a vendor with shady practices just because other vendors do no better.
  - criddell 11y ago
    I don't think I'd be comfortable doing that.

criddell 11y ago

I'm semi-serious here, but if you noticed that you are serving ads that are harming your users, why would you continue to use ad-sense? Why not switch to a different ad network and let Google know why you switched?

fixermark 11y ago
Based on other comments in this thread: does such an ad network exist? If all your options are terrible, you might as well use the terrible option with the largest ROI, right?
- drhayes9 11y ago
  > might as well use the terrible option with the highest ROI, right? No, thanks. Does The Deck serve spammy, malicious ads? I know they're tightly targeted at the techy/designy crowd, but they're also a great example of high ROI ads that aren't terrible.
  - cloudwalking 11y ago
    You can't just use The Deck, you have to be invited.
    - drhayes9 11y ago
      Valid point. But I still reject the notion of "that sucks but might as well get mine". Sounds like there's a lot of space for ad networks that don't suck. Or monetization models that don't rely on spammy, useless ads.
      - FenugreekAcerb 11y ago
        > Or monetization models that don't rely on spammy, useless ads. I'm struggling to find one, any idea?
        criddell 11y ago
        Build something so good, people will pay for it? It seems to work for companies like Netflix and Toyota.
        cloudwalking 11y ago
        But not companies like Google, or Facebook, or Twitter...
        criddell 11y ago
        Nobody suggested there's one solution for everybody. I was just responding to the comment that advertising is the only monetization strategy and that's ridiculous.
- JoshTriplett 11y ago
  > If all your options are terrible, you might as well use the terrible option with the largest ROI, right? One of the options is "stop running ads". Why is a "site for public safety communications" running ads at all? Public safety announcement: block all ads to make your browsing much safer. Use Adblock Plus (with so-called "acceptable ads" turned off) or uBlock Origin.
  - spdustin 11y ago
    He's not running a public safety institution, he runs a site that has live audio streams from police / emergency scanners. (incidentally, Lindsay, I've used http://www.radioreference.com http://www.radioreference.com to learn a great deal about Software Defined Radio, and I occasionally listen to various Illinois streams on http://www.broadcastify.com http://www.broadcastify.com - thanks for running these sites!)
    - JoshTriplett 11y ago
      > He's not running a public safety institution, he runs a site that has live audio streams from police / emergency scanners. Thanks for the clarification; that makes more sense. I'd still echo the comments from elsewhere in the thread about not doing business with a vendor with shady practices just because other vendors do no better.
- criddell 11y ago
  I don't think I'd be comfortable doing that.