The sneaky bastards from "Yes on 8" are buying "No on 8" AdWords on Laughing Squid. I’ve added them to our ad filter and I’m taking it a step further by temporarily removing Google AdSense from Laughing Squid until after the election.
And yes I know this is how AdWords works, regardless get the hell off of my blog.
Speaking of Prop 8, check out "The Great Hack" geek challenge by Heather Gold.
California Proposition 8 eliminates the right of same-sex couples to marry. For more on this issue, see the No On 8 website and follow @NoOnProp8 on Twitter.
See Previously: God Hates Signs
More Coverage:
UPDATE 1: It looks like Google has noticed the concern over these ads, on their AdSense blog they just did a post on how to block and review ads.
UPDATE 2: Google kind of responds to the “Yes on 8″ ad controversy on their AdSense blog.
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{ 29 comments… read them below or add one }
Hear hear! Damn shady bastards.
An excellent decision, and one that a lot of bloggers wouldn't necessarily take. It's good to see someone who stands by their principles and is willing to sacrifice some revenue for it.
Surely the keyword hijacking is against Adsense's TOS?
Haha!!! this is hilarious. On one hand, yes, they are bastards!!!
On the other hand… you accepted dealing with the demon.
DON'T ADD THEM BACK
Good on you, Scott. I'd do the exact same thing in your position.
You can block specific sites in Adsense with Adsense Setup / Competitive Ad Filter. Just add the offensive site url to the filter.
I have a better solution– click on them!
Every ad I saw on Tribe.net this morning was for Yes on 8. Every time I see one of them I click on it, hopefully adding a few cents to the site's coffers, and taking money from the wicked evil campaign.
If everybody did this, we'd cost the bigots a fair bit of money.
I mentioned that on this blog post and event link to the AdSense documentation on how to filter ads.
Recommending click fraud is not the right approach here.
What does “dealing with the demon” mean?
ok, I knew that my english was going to be a problem.
In spain, we say that when we accept dealing with someone who's only interested in the money, or publicity, regardless of morality.
sorry if offended, I like your blog very much.
How about replacing them with No on 8 banners? http://www.noonprop8.com/action/engage-online/d...
Thanks for doing this, it's nice to see you're standing up for what matters, even if it means sacrificing revenue
I say keep them and remind people how web advertising works. If you click on the link, squid gets money to donate to no on 8 and the yes on 8 people have to pay money. Sadly it might be late in the game to make any kind of impact.
I'm not advocating click fraud so much as each of us taking a moment to enjoy our natural curiosity.
If they serve me an ad and I click on it, I don't think that constitutes click fraud. If I set up scripts to do it, or do it excessively, yes. If they just stick the ad in my face and I click to see where it goes, no.
Besides, I was curious to see where their links were leading. Sure, I made them pay for my curiosity, but only because they offered me the opportunity. One went to a page that said McCain, Palin, Obama, and Biden were all against gay marriage. Isn't that charming?
If your opinion on click fraud differs from Google's, though, your natural curiosity might cost a blog you like its revenue source.
If you want to complain, try elections@google.com
Google's advertising policy says Don't promote violence or advocate against a protected group.
If you want to avoid google adsense ads on your machine, you can install a firefox plugin, or follow instructions on how to avoid google ads
Its disturbing that Google is capitalizing on this campaign, considering this statement they released: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/our-posi...
I just found a Yes on 8 ad – ON MY SITE!! WTF? I hate politics but feel strongly about equal rights.
Just turned off AdSense as they said disabling “public announcements” takes some time.
My mistake for allowing public announcements, never again, I will review google adsense fine print.
I think this is the only way a political ad would have run on my site, the ads are supposed to be for vitamins and supplements.
You are close minded and ignorant for removing adSense from your site for showing an opposing view. I hope you lose your visitors because 'Laughing Squid' is now intolerant of other peoples view.
Right on, so that means that anonymous trolls like yourself who don't believe in equal rights are leaving? That works for me.
To Your (sic) an idiot: (aka anonymous troll)
It's not a matter of not showing the other view, it's a matter that when one takes a stand, the opposing view should not use surreptitious methods to get their own word out. Buying key words that encompass the opposite political view is is dishonest and unethical. And frankly, these things don't go very far around here, particularly with a political issue that many people care about. And if you choose to align yourself with immoral liars, then have at it, but go somewhere else as your insults are not welcome here.
NO ON 8
ITS BS. it has nothing to do with the filtering.
I have a blog on video game cross stitch and it was covered in yes on 8 ads. I've never made a single political comment on it. I've also removed all google ads and might not go back. complete bs.
Scott, you rock!
I have perhaps a million web pages on over 125 domains, today I found these Proposition H8te ads on every single website of mine, no matter what the nature of the site.
I cancelled my Google Ads account with extreme and permanent prejudice.
Now I have one million web pages to check for deprecated Google ad javascript code.
Don't be evil, my ass.
I just put adsense back on some of our pet blogs and BAM! Yes of 8 ads.
So pleased to see LS come up first on my search on the topic.
Off to our competitive ad filter.
And honestly, Google must be very worried about keeping their Nov. adsense revenue numbers up (even though they and everyone in the network ad industry will be slumping for everyone no matter how you fake it for a couple months) for them to push these ads to as many sites as they can.
I'm all for freedom of speech, but I'm not cool with being used as a puppet to facilitate somebody else's twisted ideals. Perhaps Google could run my “Prop 8 Sucks Balls” banner on the http://www.yesonprop8.com website tonight, after they've turned off their lights and gone to sleep. Then maybe I'll feel slightly less pissed off.
Totally agree
Scott, I urge you to consider removing adsense permanently and finding another ad provider until Google offers a real apology and donates the proceeds of any “Yes On 8″ ads to a good cause.
They shouldn't be turning a profit on oppression, but only their customers – or ex-customers – can make the see that.
I co-manage a professional association site that has nothing to do with politics and has no words related to Proposition 8, yet our site was flooded with Yes on Prop 8 ads on all our pages. We had to turn off all our AdSense which, heretofore, had only been relevant to our site content.
Does anyone know of a group that is protesting this or going after the Yes on Prop 8 folks, or Google, or. . .?