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very slowly, but very, very surly, google is doing a complete 180 on "don't be evil". I think the slow pressure of being a public company is really going to st

very slowly, but very, very surly, google is doing a complete 180 on "don't be evil". I think the slow pressure of being a public company is really going to strangle out much of the "good side" of Google. Everything they've done in the past 1.5yrs has been terrible for their users.

jonknee 14y ago
Since AdWords has been large (many years) there have been stories of unfair treatment. The same goes for AdSense. Google keeps its sauce secret which is extremely frustrating in these types of scenarios. It's sort of like Apple's App Approval process, very frustrating to be on the wrong side of. It's not crazy to believe that a store solely selling knives will receive more attention from the Knife Patrol in the AdWords Q&A department than stores that sell hundreds of different categories. These things can also take time, no one notices when Knife Depot stops advertising, but if an account rep loses a multi-million dollar account like Amazon there will be heads rolling. Knife Depot just got their notice last month, I'd wait a bit before calling foul.
- josefresco 14y ago
  Don't hold your breath for fair treatment. We thought this same thing (after some of our clients keywords were banned), and than day after day I monitored AdWords results to see if our competitors using the same tactics were removed and let's just say I got tired of checking.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
analog 14y ago
Hang on, what? Refusing to advertise knives which are clearly intended to be used as weapons is 'evil' now is it?
- Anechoic 14y ago
  You know we're talking about assisted-opening knives and not switchblades, right?
  - wjy 14y ago
    You push a button and the blade snaps out in both cases. What's the real difference? The internal mechanisms differ, but the end result is the same.
- jetti 14y ago
  They aren't doing that though. They are refusing to advertise ads of a smaller company meanwhile allowing ads of large companies that sell the same (or similar) product that caused the smaller company to be banned.
- daten 14y ago
  As the OP explains, the knives in question are not illegal and not in violation of Google's policies. Additionally, other vendors selling the same items are not being banned. I think the "evil" part relates to discriminating against certain vendors instead of treating all vendors equally and consistently.
  - corresation 14y ago
    As the OP explains, the knives in question are not illegal and not in violation of Google's policies They ARE in a clear violation of Google's policy which prohibits selling knives as weapons. They seem to have some confusion about the word of the ban, but as I linked elsewhere - http://support.google.com/adwordspolicy/answer/176077?hl=en http://support.google.com/adwordspolicy/answer/176077?hl=en This is not at all unclear. The examples of banned knives are not the exhaustive set. And for what it's worth, assisted opening knives are only legal by the most marginal of gray areas (that the "button" is laughably a part of the blade rather than the side handle).
    - Zak 14y ago

jonknee 14y ago

Since AdWords has been large (many years) there have been stories of unfair treatment. The same goes for AdSense. Google keeps its sauce secret which is extremely frustrating in these types of scenarios. It's sort of like Apple's App Approval process, very frustrating to be on the wrong side of. It's not crazy to believe that a store solely selling knives will receive more attention from the Knife Patrol in the AdWords Q&A department than stores that sell hundreds of different categories. These things can also take time, no one notices when Knife Depot stops advertising, but if an account rep loses a multi-million dollar account like Amazon there will be heads rolling. Knife Depot just got their notice last month, I'd wait a bit before calling foul.

josefresco 14y ago
Don't hold your breath for fair treatment. We thought this same thing (after some of our clients keywords were banned), and than day after day I monitored AdWords results to see if our competitors using the same tactics were removed and let's just say I got tired of checking.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]

analog 14y ago

Hang on, what? Refusing to advertise knives which are clearly intended to be used as weapons is 'evil' now is it?

Anechoic 14y ago
You know we're talking about assisted-opening knives and not switchblades, right?
- wjy 14y ago
  You push a button and the blade snaps out in both cases. What's the real difference? The internal mechanisms differ, but the end result is the same.
jetti 14y ago
They aren't doing that though. They are refusing to advertise ads of a smaller company meanwhile allowing ads of large companies that sell the same (or similar) product that caused the smaller company to be banned.
daten 14y ago
As the OP explains, the knives in question are not illegal and not in violation of Google's policies. Additionally, other vendors selling the same items are not being banned. I think the "evil" part relates to discriminating against certain vendors instead of treating all vendors equally and consistently.
- corresation 14y ago
  As the OP explains, the knives in question are not illegal and not in violation of Google's policies They ARE in a clear violation of Google's policy which prohibits selling knives as weapons. They seem to have some confusion about the word of the ban, but as I linked elsewhere - http://support.google.com/adwordspolicy/answer/176077?hl=en http://support.google.com/adwordspolicy/answer/176077?hl=en This is not at all unclear. The examples of banned knives are not the exhaustive set. And for what it's worth, assisted opening knives are only legal by the most marginal of gray areas (that the "button" is laughably a part of the blade rather than the side handle).
  - Zak 14y ago