MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA: Google removed ‘bad ads’ at the rate of 100 every second during 2017, a total of 3.2 billion across the year and almost double the figure for 2016, the tech giant has revealed.
Consequently, it reported, it was able to block the majority of bad ad experiences, like malvertising and phishing scams, before these affected users.
“We blocked 79 million ads in our network for attempting to send people to malware-laden sites, and removed 400,000 of these unsafe sites last year,” it stated.
“And, we removed 66 million ‘trick-to-click’ ads as well as 48 million ads that were attempting to get users to install unwanted software.”
Other big number statistics included the removal of 320,000 publishers from the Google ad network for violating publisher policies, and the blacklisting of nearly 90,000 websites and 700,000 mobile apps.
“We also introduced technology that allows us to better protect our advertisers by removing Google ads from individual pages on a website that violate our policies,” it added.
“Last year, we removed 2 million pages for policy violations each month. This has been critical in scaling enforcement for policies that prohibit monetization of inappropriate and controversial content.”
The impression transmitted is one of action being taken – more bad actors removed from the Google ecosystem than ever before and at a faster rate, as Scott Spencer, director of sustainable ads, put it – but, as TechCrunch pointed out, “what’s less clear is what kind of proportion this represents when considering Google’s overall ad inventory and the total number of pages, sites, and apps that run Google ads”.
Be that as it may, the online world continues to evolve and platforms like Google have to adapt their policies to meet new challenges.
Its decision to ban all ads for cryptocurrencies and ICOs as part of a clampdown on unregulated financial products, for example, followed similar action by Facebook which found that many such ads were being used to scam investors.
Consequently, it reported, it was able to block the majority of bad ad experiences, like malvertising and phishing scams, before these affected users.
“We blocked 79 million ads in our network for attempting to send people to malware-laden sites, and removed 400,000 of these unsafe sites last year,” it stated.
“And, we removed 66 million ‘trick-to-click’ ads as well as 48 million ads that were attempting to get users to install unwanted software.”
Other big number statistics included the removal of 320,000 publishers from the Google ad network for violating publisher policies, and the blacklisting of nearly 90,000 websites and 700,000 mobile apps.
“We also introduced technology that allows us to better protect our advertisers by removing Google ads from individual pages on a website that violate our policies,” it added.
“Last year, we removed 2 million pages for policy violations each month. This has been critical in scaling enforcement for policies that prohibit monetization of inappropriate and controversial content.”
The impression transmitted is one of action being taken – more bad actors removed from the Google ecosystem than ever before and at a faster rate, as Scott Spencer, director of sustainable ads, put it – but, as TechCrunch pointed out, “what’s less clear is what kind of proportion this represents when considering Google’s overall ad inventory and the total number of pages, sites, and apps that run Google ads”.
Be that as it may, the online world continues to evolve and platforms like Google have to adapt their policies to meet new challenges.
Its decision to ban all ads for cryptocurrencies and ICOs as part of a clampdown on unregulated financial products, for example, followed similar action by Facebook which found that many such ads were being used to scam investors.
Sourced from Google, TechCrunch, Guardian; additional content by WARC staff
