Scam ads on Google declining, search giant says

So-called scam ads on search giant Google may be on the decline, with Google claiming over the weekend that itdisabled more than 130 million such ads in 2011.

 

Google SVP for engineering Sridhar Ramaswamy said they will continue to make improvements to the search giant's systems to detect and disable such ads.

 

"In 2011, advertisers submitted billions of ads to Google, and of those, we disabled more than 130 million ads. And our systems continue to improve—in fact, in 2011 we reduced the percentage of bad ads by more than 50 percent compared with 2010," Ramaswamy said in a blog post.

 

Ramaswamy also said they are catching a "vast majority" of these scam ads before they ever appear on Google or on any of its partner networks.

 

In 2011, Ramaswamy said Google shut down some 150,000 accounts "for attempting to advertise counterfeit goods, and more than 95 percent of these accounts were discovered through our own detection efforts and risk models."

 

But Ramaswamy admitted they must remain vigilant because scammers will always try to find new ways to abuse Google's systems.

 

Disallowed ads

 

Ramaswamy said Google's ads policies do not allow ads for illegal products such as counterfeit goods or harmful products such as handguns or cigarettes.

 

Google also does not allow ads with misleading claims (“lose weight guaranteed!”), fraudulent work-at-home scams (“get rich quick working from home!”) or unclear billing practices.

 

But Ramaswamy admitted that with billions of ads submitted to Google every year, Google must use a combination of sophisticated technology and manual review to detect and remove these sorts of ads.

 

"We spend millions of dollars building technical architecture and advanced machine learning models to fight this battle. These systems are designed to detect and remove ads for malicious download sites that contain malware or a virus before these ads could appear on Google. Our automated systems also scan and review landing pages—the websites that people are taken to once they click—as well as advertiser accounts," Ramaswamy said.

 

When potentially objectionable ads are flagged by our automated systems, Google's policy specialists review the ads, sites and accounts in detail and take action.

 

Ramaswamy said the important improvements Google recently made to its systems include:

 

 

"We also routinely review and update the areas which our policies cover. For example, we recently updated our policy for ads related to short-term loans in order to protect people from misleading claims. For short-term loans, we require advertisers to disclose fine-print details such as overall fees and annual percentage rate, as well as implications for late and non-payment," Ramaswamy said.

 

Advertisers' roles

 

But Ramaswamy said advertisers must also play an important role by reviewing Google policies that aim to protect users.

 

"For everyone else, our Good to Know site has lots of advice, including tips for avoiding scams anywhere on the Internet. You can also report ads you believe to be fraudulent or in violation of our policies and, if needed, file a complaint with the appropriate agency as listed in our Web Search Help Center," Ramaswamy said. — TJD, GMA News