15 ms·

Reports of cancellation of AdSense accounts

242 points by gragas 10y ago

gragas 10y ago
I received an email claiming my AdSense account has been cancelled. I never opened an AdSense account to begin with.
- Turing_Machine 10y ago
  Possibly a variant on the old "You need to update your Wells Fargo (or wherever) account information" scam. They blast it out to a zillion people at random, many of whom don't even have accounts at Wells Fargo. That doesn't matter -- many of them do. And of those who do, some will be naive enough to follow the link and hand over their credentials.
  - elliotec 10y ago
    Probably a lot of people will follow that link. Yikes
  - relix 10y ago
    Accounts are actually cancelled so no, that's not it.
    - Turing_Machine 10y ago
      It's entirely possible that a scammer would exploit a real large-scale cancellation by sending zillions of fake cancellation messages. In fact, that would make the scam work better. If the intended victim a) has an AdSense account and b) has heard of the (real) cancellations, he's probably going to be much more likely to click on the fake cancellation message.
      - relix 10y ago
        Good point, nicely thought out.
- s_kilk 10y ago
  Same, I don't recall ever using AdSense.
M4v3R 10y ago
I have received that email as well. I did have an AdSense account 10 years ago. The email seems legit (came from products-noreply@google.com), the only two links it contains are opening https://support.google.com https://support.google.com
fahrradflucht 10y ago
Isn't it a bit surprising that a company like Google can't give any helpful support for such an issue just because there is a holiday in the US? I mean AddSense has customers all around the globe...
- ctpide 10y ago
  It's not that they can't - it's probably more that they don't want to and think they shouldn't. Show me one Google Service that actually offers decent support (apart form their more recent adventures as Google Fibre ISP).
  - markdown 10y ago
    I've had great support from Google with Google Apps issues.
    - buro9 10y ago
      Although just try and use your Google Apps account with: * Google Fi * Google Family Library Sharing * Android Apps Family Sharing * Google Play Music Family Sharing * YouTube Red * Google Spaces Apps accounts, the only thing that has a decent support option, are purposefully limited in functionality and cannot do a lot of things. The whole "One account. All of Google." is a lie, and attempting to ask Apps support about it results in a "this product isn't part of Apps and we offer no support", even though one has an Apps account and the issue is with the ability of a paid account. There's a great thread on this, hundreds of comments, all angry when it started, all still angry, no help from Google or word from anyone at Google, and the only audience affected are paying customers of Google Apps: https://goo.gl/Y8hG8P https://goo.gl/Y8hG8P
      - malka 10y ago
        This is why i'll never pay for anything Google. I accept no support if I dont pay. I pay for peace of mind. If you dont give support, I do not have peace of mind, so I will not pay.
spiderfarmer 10y ago
According to their terms, Google can cancel any account at any time without having to offer an explanation. They also have a history of not replying to publisher problems at all. The whole 'Official' Adsense forum is run by volunteers and it's near impossible to speak to a real person. Even if they are hacked and thousands of accounts are cancelled I don't think Google will respond. I would so, so love to see a big player start a modern Adsense alternative.
- tluyben2 10y ago
  This is all true and everyone has been crying for alternatives for > 10 years but nothing at all has appeared. The rest is just worse as far as I know (I got out of that stuff 5 years ago). Would love to hear there is something else, but uncooperative, trigger happy (fraud; people clicked your ads, account closed, no further communication) Google. For a new company, after some research into alternatives, I would probably still use them... Have to...
- oneloop 10y ago
  Aren't people like Appnexus and Openx alternatives? What am I missing?
  - chewxy 10y ago
    Appnexus is a RTB platform and a DSP (and a whole lot of other things they do). OpenX is/was an exchange and is generally the #1 place for buying/selling dodgy af traffic. Neither does what Adsense does per se. What Adsense does is it reads the content of the page, and loads relevant ads from from its database of ads (things people put in adwords) and from GDN (also things people put in AdWords, and DBM, only they're pictures). The GDN bit has always been a bit icky IMO. So, no, they aren't alternatives. Chiticka and others WERE alternatives, but there was a quality control issue (also supply side issues, because Google is a HUGE brand) which led to their eventual demise and/or pivots to waaaay dodgier practices like popunders.
    - djhn 10y ago
      Since you seem to know the industry well, what are the top resources (of any kind) to study the current state of online advertising for an advanced audience? Both from the technical side, and from the advertiser's business side. At a level that you would ideally know and learn if you were working as an executive in the industry.
supercoder 10y ago
I got this email...
- bonestamp2 10y ago
  +1
salomelunarojas 10y ago
I got it as well but I don't have an Adsense account... It went to inbox though and the headers seemed legit.
- artf 10y ago
  same here
maaaats 10y ago
If you ever think about relying on Google for your business, this linked thread is a good reason not to. You are at the mercy of helpful volunteers while Google is stonewalling anyone from ever reaching them and getting help.
- bitJericho 10y ago
  My mom called MS about a problem with Edge on Win 10 and they resolved it over the phone within 5 minutes of her requesting they call her. If google ever did that id be completely shocked. Do they even have a phone number?
  - droidist2 10y ago
    I've had the same experience, Microsoft's service is really good.
  - oneloop 10y ago
    I'm a "small but not insignificant" adsense publisher. I have in the past received phone calls from an account manager on the phone. I have the phone number they called from, but if you call them it always goes to voice mail. They can call me but I can't call them.
    - iheartmemcache 10y ago
      Account manager John's noticed your spending has gone down by 5% each month for the last quarter, flagging you in their CRM as a member to reach out to 'to help you out, in case you have any questions!' Casinos do the same thing by profiling high-rollers who haven't visited in a while ("well we just happen to have a Gulfstream ready for you, sir, and the Villa suite opened up too!").
  - kyriakos 10y ago
    It took me hours to get my Office 365 subscription resolved with Microsoft support. took talking to 3 different people who kept insisting on remotely accessing my PC, which even when they did they still couldn't fix it. Actually one of them told me that my subscription was a "trial version" when it was clearly not. In the end I managed to talk via email to a person who knew what they were talking about it and resolved the issue in a few minutes. I got the worst impression of Microsoft's support as a paying customer.
djsumdog 10y ago
It's more likely someone rolled out an update with a bug that sent e-mails use the wrong account criteria.
tedchs 10y ago
Inaccurate headline. Subject line of forum thread is: Just received and Email saying "Your Google AdSense account was recently cancelled"
- ctpide 10y ago
  Have to agree - there is no indication (apart from one person speculating about it) that this had anything to do with hacking Google AdSense.
  - cocotino 10y ago
    Hence the question mark
rurban 10y ago
And nobody of those users was able to follow the support request and provide the headers for the emails. Oh my. That's what you get when you don't provide a support email, just a dumb forum.
jasonwen 10y ago
This year we will stop using AdSense altogether. No support at all and the payouts have been declining every year. With the increase of ad blockers, even less encouraging to use ads in general. Sometimes I wonder, are ads as we know it, dead? Everyone hates it, has real usability impact and security risks. Didnt get the email though...
- t0pz 10y ago
  Let me provide you with some insight into your bewonderment: 1) I work in the Ad technology industry and i can tell you with confidence that ads are far from dead. The human logic of "We hate it, so it must not be working" is understandable but condradicting the actual data entirely. I look at this data on a daily basis and i can tell you that Ads have increased by a LOT in the last 10 years. They are also working for the Advertiser better now than they did 10 years ago, as we are able to track and measure much better. What people haven't noticed is the fact that they have become more native, less intrusive and more relevant altogether. I am not talking about your flashy ads that you encounter on your various pirating sites and other places that Adsense blocks to begin with. 2) Adblock: Adblock is a big scam. While the average user sees the value (just for them) they do not understand what it is causing and how it is developing. Let me enlighten you: First of all, adblock has destroyed a significant number of small bloggers, content-writers, and other publishers, as especially those were struggling to stay above water. On the other hand, one of the most prevalent Adblockers out there (i wont name) is now ironically making money by selling its Adblock space to certain Advertisers & Networks to show Ads (ha! ha!). This is literally the behavior of modern-day pirates. You have an economy of trade-ships crossing the seas, and then a pirate ship comes along, blocking your passage making you pay taxes/goods in order to carry on. Sound familiar? Yea... everyone loses, except the average internet user who won't care until all their content either a) disappears b) deteriorates in quality or c) becomes a paid service
  - pgsandstrom 10y ago
    I understand if you dislike adblockers, but calling them a scam seems misguided. I think most people are well aware that adblockers prevent income for the site owners.
makuchaku 10y ago
Even i got this email.
HNSucksAss 10y ago
This is what you get with faceless assholes who hide from their customers.
adsense_is_crap 10y ago
I don't always comment on HN threads but when I do it is so that I can publicly express my utter delight that somebody might be trying to destroy this horrible company! Thank you, state actor, anti-sec hackers or basement dweller!
robk 10y ago
Seems like one of the auto-cancel scripts (probably one of the ones for fraud purposes) may have gone off the rails over the holiday. AdSense Ops is indeed global but presumably they're asking the PM/Eng team in Mountain View what's going on, since they wouldn't normally have too much visibility into these kinds of scripts except maybe some automated account notes the script leaves. Because of the holiday I doubt anyone is in MTV to formulate a fix & response fast enough as it would likely involve corp comms, PM, PMM and other teams (besides eng to actually fix the issue). No excuses for it, but I'd be surprised if it wasn't being worked on now as surely someone probably had to come in last night to begin the triage. (former AdSense PM)
ggggtez 10y ago
I think it's pretty clear this is not a hack. Please reserve your need to argue about ad block, which is way off topic and irrelevant...
- adsense_is_crap 10y ago
  The apathy of you, and most other users is as shocking to me as the the greed that is undermining our privacy. To them, our data which constitutes your identity, is a commodity. Unless we confront this status-quo that is the greed that would reduce you to a fucking "click impression"s your privacy, dignity and experience will be dominated by a culture of selling to you. All this to say, @gggtex, that Adsense and its ilk's destruction are far from "irrelevant".
  - worg 10y ago
    Disclaimer: I block ads, I don't run any ad on any place whatsoever, I think we users must be in control of our data. That said, @ggggtez point is really relevant, this thread is about technical difficulties on adsense (maybe a hack, although I don't think so) so this is not the place to bring our ad political views, let's keep the talk on topic.
kyriakos 10y ago
I've had a domain banned on adsense 8 years ago for something a user posted. I still can't speak to a human to help me get it unbanned.
- waterphone 10y ago
  My entire account has been banned for 6+ years for someone else clicking on my ads in a way that they claimed was fraudulent. Appeals and offers to turn over server logs all got rejected.
makuchaku 10y ago
I have escalated this to folks I am friends with at Google. They are looking into it.
- zalezale 10y ago
  Any news?
amluto 10y ago
This is off topic, but: do any of the ad networks permit placing the ad script in an iframe, either sandboxed or with a separate origin? The fact that the ad network gets all your secrets and can (itself or via malicious ads) compromise your site or your users' browsing experience (location.href changes, anyone) is pathetic.
- Animats 10y ago
  Google does not permit placing their ads in an iframe.[1] [1] https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/3394713?hl=en https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/3394713?hl=en
zalezale 10y ago
Same thing happened here. On a google for work account where I never used adsense. After the appeal, I received an email saying that my account wasn't banned for 'invalid activity'...
benologist 10y ago
My Adsense was cancelled today, thought it was odd but I can't really imagine trying to build my life around serving ads again... I think we never even used it so maybe it's related to inactivity?
vblord 10y ago
I'm getting an error when I try to register my website with adsense, but like others have stated... there is no support contact for people making < $25/week. What are the best alternatives to adsense for a website?
Animats 10y ago
SEO blogs report massive numbers of AdSense cancellations with no explanation. It hasn't hit the mainstream press yet. It probably will by noon. Some customers report getting a "violation notice" from Google, but then look at their AdSense dashboard and find no violation listed.[1] [1] https://www.seroundtable.com/google-adsense-cancels-massive-number-of-accounts-22336.html https://www.seroundtable.com/google-adsense-cancels-massive-...
tunesmith 10y ago
I have a site where I earn a few cents per month from AdSense. It was getting close to $100, where it would have been auto-deposited into my bank account. It was basically set and forget, so I hadn't logged in for a while. I got an email that my account had been deactivated for not being an active user, and my "between $50 and $100" was being sent to my state government as an unclaimed fund. So now I have to fill out a stupid state form and spend $12 on a notary to get my between $50 and $100. Did Google email me that my account was about to become de-activated, and that I could keep it active just by logging in? No.
- tbirdz 10y ago
  You might not have to spend that money on a notary after all. My bank offers free notary services for all its account holders, and it seems like most banks offer this service as well. Try contacting your bank and see if you can save the $12.
Animats 10y ago
While waiting for Google to resolve this, I suggest reading Kafka's "The Trial", or the Beckett's "Waiting for Godot".
Adverblessly 10y ago
If you follow the link now you'll see they pinned a response about 30 minutes ago that links to https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/adsense/hy0cCKvnR90 https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/adsense/hy0cC... It basically says WAI :S
n4gn 10y ago
Seems to me like some smart person/persons would be able to build a cryptocurrency-based competitor to AdSense.
chetangole 10y ago
OFFICIAL UPDATE from Google : https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/adsense/hy0cCKvnR90 https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/adsense/hy0cC...
- blakeyrat 10y ago
  They could have saved a lot of confusion by simply putting those few sentences on the email itself. But that would require Google to have some ability to empathize with human beings.
djt 10y ago
My account got deleted and i've spent over $7 in the last 2 years and disabled adverts this week and it got deleted. If I can't get my data back then doubt I'll ever use Adwords again...

242 points by gragas 10y ago

gragas 10y ago

I received an email claiming my AdSense account has been cancelled. I never opened an AdSense account to begin with.

Turing_Machine 10y ago
Possibly a variant on the old "You need to update your Wells Fargo (or wherever) account information" scam. They blast it out to a zillion people at random, many of whom don't even have accounts at Wells Fargo. That doesn't matter -- many of them do. And of those who do, some will be naive enough to follow the link and hand over their credentials.
- elliotec 10y ago
  Probably a lot of people will follow that link. Yikes
- relix 10y ago
  Accounts are actually cancelled so no, that's not it.
  - Turing_Machine 10y ago
    It's entirely possible that a scammer would exploit a real large-scale cancellation by sending zillions of fake cancellation messages. In fact, that would make the scam work better. If the intended victim a) has an AdSense account and b) has heard of the (real) cancellations, he's probably going to be much more likely to click on the fake cancellation message.
    - relix 10y ago
      Good point, nicely thought out.
s_kilk 10y ago
Same, I don't recall ever using AdSense.

M4v3R 10y ago

I have received that email as well. I did have an AdSense account 10 years ago. The email seems legit (came from products-noreply@google.com), the only two links it contains are opening https://support.google.com https://support.google.com

fahrradflucht 10y ago

Isn't it a bit surprising that a company like Google can't give any helpful support for such an issue just because there is a holiday in the US? I mean AddSense has customers all around the globe...

ctpide 10y ago
It's not that they can't - it's probably more that they don't want to and think they shouldn't. Show me one Google Service that actually offers decent support (apart form their more recent adventures as Google Fibre ISP).
- markdown 10y ago
  I've had great support from Google with Google Apps issues.
  - buro9 10y ago
    Although just try and use your Google Apps account with: * Google Fi * Google Family Library Sharing * Android Apps Family Sharing * Google Play Music Family Sharing * YouTube Red * Google Spaces Apps accounts, the only thing that has a decent support option, are purposefully limited in functionality and cannot do a lot of things. The whole "One account. All of Google." is a lie, and attempting to ask Apps support about it results in a "this product isn't part of Apps and we offer no support", even though one has an Apps account and the issue is with the ability of a paid account. There's a great thread on this, hundreds of comments, all angry when it started, all still angry, no help from Google or word from anyone at Google, and the only audience affected are paying customers of Google Apps: https://goo.gl/Y8hG8P https://goo.gl/Y8hG8P
    - malka 10y ago
      This is why i'll never pay for anything Google. I accept no support if I dont pay. I pay for peace of mind. If you dont give support, I do not have peace of mind, so I will not pay.

spiderfarmer 10y ago

According to their terms, Google can cancel any account at any time without having to offer an explanation. They also have a history of not replying to publisher problems at all. The whole 'Official' Adsense forum is run by volunteers and it's near impossible to speak to a real person. Even if they are hacked and thousands of accounts are cancelled I don't think Google will respond. I would so, so love to see a big player start a modern Adsense alternative.

tluyben2 10y ago
This is all true and everyone has been crying for alternatives for > 10 years but nothing at all has appeared. The rest is just worse as far as I know (I got out of that stuff 5 years ago). Would love to hear there is something else, but uncooperative, trigger happy (fraud; people clicked your ads, account closed, no further communication) Google. For a new company, after some research into alternatives, I would probably still use them... Have to...
oneloop 10y ago
Aren't people like Appnexus and Openx alternatives? What am I missing?
- chewxy 10y ago
  Appnexus is a RTB platform and a DSP (and a whole lot of other things they do). OpenX is/was an exchange and is generally the #1 place for buying/selling dodgy af traffic. Neither does what Adsense does per se. What Adsense does is it reads the content of the page, and loads relevant ads from from its database of ads (things people put in adwords) and from GDN (also things people put in AdWords, and DBM, only they're pictures). The GDN bit has always been a bit icky IMO. So, no, they aren't alternatives. Chiticka and others WERE alternatives, but there was a quality control issue (also supply side issues, because Google is a HUGE brand) which led to their eventual demise and/or pivots to waaaay dodgier practices like popunders.
  - djhn 10y ago
    Since you seem to know the industry well, what are the top resources (of any kind) to study the current state of online advertising for an advanced audience? Both from the technical side, and from the advertiser's business side. At a level that you would ideally know and learn if you were working as an executive in the industry.

supercoder 10y ago

I got this email...

bonestamp2 10y ago
+1

salomelunarojas 10y ago

I got it as well but I don't have an Adsense account... It went to inbox though and the headers seemed legit.

artf 10y ago
same here

maaaats 10y ago

If you ever think about relying on Google for your business, this linked thread is a good reason not to. You are at the mercy of helpful volunteers while Google is stonewalling anyone from ever reaching them and getting help.

bitJericho 10y ago
My mom called MS about a problem with Edge on Win 10 and they resolved it over the phone within 5 minutes of her requesting they call her. If google ever did that id be completely shocked. Do they even have a phone number?
- droidist2 10y ago
  I've had the same experience, Microsoft's service is really good.
- oneloop 10y ago
  I'm a "small but not insignificant" adsense publisher. I have in the past received phone calls from an account manager on the phone. I have the phone number they called from, but if you call them it always goes to voice mail. They can call me but I can't call them.
  - iheartmemcache 10y ago
    Account manager John's noticed your spending has gone down by 5% each month for the last quarter, flagging you in their CRM as a member to reach out to 'to help you out, in case you have any questions!' Casinos do the same thing by profiling high-rollers who haven't visited in a while ("well we just happen to have a Gulfstream ready for you, sir, and the Villa suite opened up too!").
- kyriakos 10y ago
  It took me hours to get my Office 365 subscription resolved with Microsoft support. took talking to 3 different people who kept insisting on remotely accessing my PC, which even when they did they still couldn't fix it. Actually one of them told me that my subscription was a "trial version" when it was clearly not. In the end I managed to talk via email to a person who knew what they were talking about it and resolved the issue in a few minutes. I got the worst impression of Microsoft's support as a paying customer.

djsumdog 10y ago

It's more likely someone rolled out an update with a bug that sent e-mails use the wrong account criteria.

tedchs 10y ago

Inaccurate headline. Subject line of forum thread is: Just received and Email saying "Your Google AdSense account was recently cancelled"

ctpide 10y ago
Have to agree - there is no indication (apart from one person speculating about it) that this had anything to do with hacking Google AdSense.
- cocotino 10y ago
  Hence the question mark

rurban 10y ago

And nobody of those users was able to follow the support request and provide the headers for the emails. Oh my. That's what you get when you don't provide a support email, just a dumb forum.

jasonwen 10y ago

This year we will stop using AdSense altogether. No support at all and the payouts have been declining every year. With the increase of ad blockers, even less encouraging to use ads in general. Sometimes I wonder, are ads as we know it, dead? Everyone hates it, has real usability impact and security risks. Didnt get the email though...

t0pz 10y ago
Let me provide you with some insight into your bewonderment: 1) I work in the Ad technology industry and i can tell you with confidence that ads are far from dead. The human logic of "We hate it, so it must not be working" is understandable but condradicting the actual data entirely. I look at this data on a daily basis and i can tell you that Ads have increased by a LOT in the last 10 years. They are also working for the Advertiser better now than they did 10 years ago, as we are able to track and measure much better. What people haven't noticed is the fact that they have become more native, less intrusive and more relevant altogether. I am not talking about your flashy ads that you encounter on your various pirating sites and other places that Adsense blocks to begin with. 2) Adblock: Adblock is a big scam. While the average user sees the value (just for them) they do not understand what it is causing and how it is developing. Let me enlighten you: First of all, adblock has destroyed a significant number of small bloggers, content-writers, and other publishers, as especially those were struggling to stay above water. On the other hand, one of the most prevalent Adblockers out there (i wont name) is now ironically making money by selling its Adblock space to certain Advertisers & Networks to show Ads (ha! ha!). This is literally the behavior of modern-day pirates. You have an economy of trade-ships crossing the seas, and then a pirate ship comes along, blocking your passage making you pay taxes/goods in order to carry on. Sound familiar? Yea... everyone loses, except the average internet user who won't care until all their content either a) disappears b) deteriorates in quality or c) becomes a paid service
- pgsandstrom 10y ago
  I understand if you dislike adblockers, but calling them a scam seems misguided. I think most people are well aware that adblockers prevent income for the site owners.

makuchaku 10y ago

Even i got this email.

HNSucksAss 10y ago

This is what you get with faceless assholes who hide from their customers.

adsense_is_crap 10y ago

I don't always comment on HN threads but when I do it is so that I can publicly express my utter delight that somebody might be trying to destroy this horrible company! Thank you, state actor, anti-sec hackers or basement dweller!

robk 10y ago

Seems like one of the auto-cancel scripts (probably one of the ones for fraud purposes) may have gone off the rails over the holiday. AdSense Ops is indeed global but presumably they're asking the PM/Eng team in Mountain View what's going on, since they wouldn't normally have too much visibility into these kinds of scripts except maybe some automated account notes the script leaves. Because of the holiday I doubt anyone is in MTV to formulate a fix & response fast enough as it would likely involve corp comms, PM, PMM and other teams (besides eng to actually fix the issue). No excuses for it, but I'd be surprised if it wasn't being worked on now as surely someone probably had to come in last night to begin the triage. (former AdSense PM)

ggggtez 10y ago

I think it's pretty clear this is not a hack. Please reserve your need to argue about ad block, which is way off topic and irrelevant...

adsense_is_crap 10y ago
The apathy of you, and most other users is as shocking to me as the the greed that is undermining our privacy. To them, our data which constitutes your identity, is a commodity. Unless we confront this status-quo that is the greed that would reduce you to a fucking "click impression"s your privacy, dignity and experience will be dominated by a culture of selling to you. All this to say, @gggtex, that Adsense and its ilk's destruction are far from "irrelevant".
- worg 10y ago
  Disclaimer: I block ads, I don't run any ad on any place whatsoever, I think we users must be in control of our data. That said, @ggggtez point is really relevant, this thread is about technical difficulties on adsense (maybe a hack, although I don't think so) so this is not the place to bring our ad political views, let's keep the talk on topic.

kyriakos 10y ago

I've had a domain banned on adsense 8 years ago for something a user posted. I still can't speak to a human to help me get it unbanned.

waterphone 10y ago
My entire account has been banned for 6+ years for someone else clicking on my ads in a way that they claimed was fraudulent. Appeals and offers to turn over server logs all got rejected.

makuchaku 10y ago

I have escalated this to folks I am friends with at Google. They are looking into it.

zalezale 10y ago
Any news?

amluto 10y ago

This is off topic, but: do any of the ad networks permit placing the ad script in an iframe, either sandboxed or with a separate origin? The fact that the ad network gets all your secrets and can (itself or via malicious ads) compromise your site or your users' browsing experience (location.href changes, anyone) is pathetic.

Animats 10y ago
Google does not permit placing their ads in an iframe.[1] [1] https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/3394713?hl=en https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/3394713?hl=en

zalezale 10y ago

Same thing happened here. On a google for work account where I never used adsense. After the appeal, I received an email saying that my account wasn't banned for 'invalid activity'...

benologist 10y ago

My Adsense was cancelled today, thought it was odd but I can't really imagine trying to build my life around serving ads again... I think we never even used it so maybe it's related to inactivity?

vblord 10y ago

I'm getting an error when I try to register my website with adsense, but like others have stated... there is no support contact for people making < $25/week. What are the best alternatives to adsense for a website?

Animats 10y ago

SEO blogs report massive numbers of AdSense cancellations with no explanation. It hasn't hit the mainstream press yet. It probably will by noon. Some customers report getting a "violation notice" from Google, but then look at their AdSense dashboard and find no violation listed.[1] [1] https://www.seroundtable.com/google-adsense-cancels-massive-number-of-accounts-22336.html https://www.seroundtable.com/google-adsense-cancels-massive-...

tunesmith 10y ago

I have a site where I earn a few cents per month from AdSense. It was getting close to $100, where it would have been auto-deposited into my bank account. It was basically set and forget, so I hadn't logged in for a while. I got an email that my account had been deactivated for not being an active user, and my "between $50 and $100" was being sent to my state government as an unclaimed fund. So now I have to fill out a stupid state form and spend $12 on a notary to get my between $50 and $100. Did Google email me that my account was about to become de-activated, and that I could keep it active just by logging in? No.

tbirdz 10y ago
You might not have to spend that money on a notary after all. My bank offers free notary services for all its account holders, and it seems like most banks offer this service as well. Try contacting your bank and see if you can save the $12.

Animats 10y ago

While waiting for Google to resolve this, I suggest reading Kafka's "The Trial", or the Beckett's "Waiting for Godot".

Adverblessly 10y ago

If you follow the link now you'll see they pinned a response about 30 minutes ago that links to https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/adsense/hy0cCKvnR90 https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/adsense/hy0cC... It basically says WAI :S

n4gn 10y ago

Seems to me like some smart person/persons would be able to build a cryptocurrency-based competitor to AdSense.

chetangole 10y ago

OFFICIAL UPDATE from Google : https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/adsense/hy0cCKvnR90 https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/adsense/hy0cC...

blakeyrat 10y ago
They could have saved a lot of confusion by simply putting those few sentences on the email itself. But that would require Google to have some ability to empathize with human beings.

djt 10y ago

My account got deleted and i've spent over $7 in the last 2 years and disabled adverts this week and it got deleted. If I can't get my data back then doubt I'll ever use Adwords again...