European Probe Of Google AdSense Nears Conclusion

Google could be facing another possible antitrust fine after European officials confirmed they are nearing the completion of their investigation into the firm’s AdSense advertising service.

The confirmation came from Europe’s antitrust chief, EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, and stems from European’s objections to the way that Google implements strict contractual terms with its advertising service (Adsense).

It raises the possibility that Google could once again be hit with a financial penalty, after the European Commission in July fined Google a record 4.3 billion euros (£3.83bn) for commercial practices related to its Android mobile operating system, the world’s highest ever antitrust penalty.

Antitrust fine?
Google was also last year fined 2.4bn euros (£2.01bn) after the Commission ruled that Google had thwarted rivals of shopping comparison websites.

The AdSense investigation however began in 2016 when the Commission accused Google of preventing third parties using its AdSense product from displaying search advertisements from Google’s competitors.

“We are approaching the end of that investigation,” Vestager was quoted by Reuters as telling reporters at the Web Summit in Lisbon when asked for an update on the investigation.

Vestager and her department has the power to fine companies up to 10 percent of their global turnover for breaching EU rules.

Staff Walkout
Google is also currently undergoing some internal tensions.

This was evidenced last week when thousands of staff around the world walked out of their offices, in a protest over the handling of sexual harassment claims by senior management.

Google boss Sundar Pichai has previously admitted that the company had fired 48 employees for sexual harassment over the past two years.

The admission from Pichai came in response to a New York Times article that alleged that Google had protected three senior executives from allegations of sexual misconduct, which allegedly included the father of Android Andy Rubin.

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regulators are close to wrapping up their third case against Alphabet unit Google involving its AdSense advertising service, Europe's antitrust chief said on Wednesday, suggesting the company may soon be hit with another hefty fine.

The comments by European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager come four months after she levied a record 4.34 billion euro (3.79 billion pounds) fine against Google for using its popular Android mobile operating system to block rivals.

That followed a 2.4 billion euro fine imposed on the company last year after it thwarted rivals of shopping comparison websites.

The European Commission in 2016 opened a third case when it accused Google of preventing third parties using its AdSense product from displaying search advertisements from Google's competitors.

"We are approaching the end of that investigation," Vestager told reporters at the Web Summit in Lisbon when asked for an update on the investigation.

Google has denied the charges.

Vestager can fine companies up to 10 percent of their global turnover for breaching EU rules.
(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; editing by Francesco Guarascio and Jason Neely)
a third case when it accused Google of preventing third parties using its AdSense product from displaying search advertisements from Google's competitors.

"We are approaching the end of that investigation," Vestager told reporters at the Web Summit in Lisbon when asked for an update on the investigation.

Google has denied the charges.

Vestager can fine companies up to 10 percent of their global turnover for breaching EU rules.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; editing by Francesco Guarascio and Jason Neely

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Google: AdSense Fluctuations Not Related To Google Search Update

There are a nice number of Google AdSense publishers, those who monetize their web site with Google AdSense ads, complaining over the past several days about fluctuations in their AdSense metrics. Not just weird sporadic revenues and earnings but also pageviews and click through rates on ads. You can see the complaints at WebmasterWorld and also throughout the Google AdSense Help forums.

Danny Sullivan from Google was asked if they may be related to the core Google algorithm update from last week. Danny said on Twitter "they have nothing to do with each other

There are a nice number of Google AdSense publishers, those who monetize their web site with Google AdSense ads, complaining over the past several days about fluctuations in their AdSense metrics. Not just weird sporadic revenues and earnings but also pageviews and click through rates on ads. You can see the complaints at WebmasterWorld and also throughout the Google AdSense Help forums.

Danny Sullivan from Google was asked if they may be related to the core Google algorithm update from last week. Danny said on Twitter "they have nothing to do with each other

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Latest Google AdSense news Google is currently being sued in the U.S. over allegations

Sami is furious about the money he earned and then lost. Although this is an extreme example - a huge portion of Google's client base consists of individual publishers making only a few hundred dollars a month - it does typify one of the frustrations Google's clients have dealing with the company.

Google is currently being sued in the U.S. over allegations that it suddenly and without explanation withholds ad money from website publishers once their sites become successful. And the company is the subject of an infamous, and obviously fake, conspiracy theory that publishers who make $5,000 or more per month are banned from the system right before their checks are paid. (The theory has a giant hole in it - Google collects revenues only when it delivers those ads, so banning successful sites would actually make Google poorer.) This theory has been making the rounds for years

Idris Sami is a 19-year-old French-Moroccan entrepreneur who set up a website that lets people text their friends for free. Don't have a phone, or want to avoid mobile data charges? No problem. MesTextos lets French-speakers text their friendsfrom the website. MesTextos isn't going to threaten WhatsApp anytime soon, but in Europe and the Middle East, where alternative messaging services are more popular, free texting is a nice little niche to occupy. And until the beginning of this year MesTextos.com was doing very well indeed. Sami was running Google's AdSense advertising system on his site. It allows website publishers to display search ads powered by Google and take a cut of the revenues.

By December 2013 so many people were clicking on MesTextos' ads that Sami's Google account hit $46,000.

But then he learned that if you're an AdSense partner and you don't run ads on your site exactly the way Google wants, the search giant will punish you

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Google AdSense news Online Pirates Thriving on Legitimate Advertising Money

Movie and music piracy thrives online in part because crafty website operators receive advertising dollars from major companies like Comcast, Ford and McDonald's.
That's the conclusion of several recent reports that shed light on Internet piracy's funding sources.

Content thieves attract visitors with the promise of free downloads and streams of the latest hit movies, TV shows and songs. Then they profit by pulling in advertising from around the Internet, often concealing their illicit activities so advertising brands remain unaware.

Pirate websites run ads that are sometimes covered up by other graphics. They automatically launch legitimate-looking websites as pop-up windows that advertisers don't realize are associated with piracy. At the end of the day, the pirate website operators still receive a check for serving up a number of views and clicks

The illicit activity is estimated to generate millions of dollars annually. That's only a small portion of the roughly $40 billion of online ad spending every year. Yet it is helping to feed the creation of millions of copyright-infringing websites that provide stolen content to a growing global audience.

"(Companies) placed their ads on the assumption that they were going to be on high-quality sites and they're not," said Mark Berns, vice president of MediaLink LLC, a consulting firm that produced a study looking into the practice called "Good Money Gone Bad.

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Google News Russians attempt to topple Google in Vietnam

Vietnam's booming Internet scene is littered with failed startups that tried to take on Google and other entrenched U.S web companies. That's not deterring a newly launched Russian-Vietnamese outfit which believes it can unseat the American search engine in this fast-growing Asian market and also contend with a jittery, authoritarian government seeking to clamp down on freedom of expression online.
Like Google rivals elsewhere, Coc Coc, or "Knock Knock" in English, believes the ubiquitous search engine doesn't get the nuances of the local language. It says its algorithms make for a better, quicker search in Vietnamese, while its local knowledge means the information served will be more relevant - and hence more valuable.

Coc Coc also flags another possible vulnerability: Google has no office or staff in Vietnam. The company, whose code of conduct includes the phrase "Don't be evil", is concerned about the liability it faces over content hosted on its servers and having to cooperate with censorship requests by Vietnam's authoritarian, one-party government.

Unlike other past hopefuls, Coc Coc is not short of cash

The company has so far spent $10 million, hired 300 staff - including 30 foreigners, mostly Russians - and spread itself out over four floors of a downtown office block in the Vietnamese capital. According to Coc Coc's founders, its investors have $100 million over the next five years to try and get a chunk of the 97 percent of Vietnamese web surfers who currently use Google to switch. They declined to name the investors.

"When I came here, I had some understanding why Vietnam was a good market to beat Google," said Mikhail Kostin, the company's chief search expert and like others in Coc Coc, a veteran at Russia's largest Internet company, Mail.Ru. "But after living here for one year, I understand the language and market much more deeply. I'm sure it's right

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Latest Google AdSense news Yahoo announces online ad alliance with Google

Yahoo! on Wednesday announced an advertising alliance with Google, the company that dethroned the pioneering Internet firm in the world of Internet search.
Google will use its online ad targeting skills at some Yahoo! properties, stepping in to put relevant marketing messages in available spaces, according to Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo!.

Yahoo! gave the example of someone online shopping for boots being shown an ad for something completely unrelated because no advertisements for footwear were available in inventory.

"If you see an ad for boots, that's instantly going to pique your attention more than an ad for, say, a car battery," Yahoo! said.

That's better for users. This is why contextual advertising is such a powerful tool."

The large stocks of ads at Google AdSense and Admob increase opportunities to present Yahoo! website users with marketing messages they will click on, generating revenue.

By adding Google to our list of world-class contextual ads partners, we'll be able to expand our network, which means we can serve users with ads that are even more meaningful," Yahoo! said.

"For our users, there won't be a noticeable difference in how or where ads appear."

The move comes amid turn-around efforts by Yahoo! chief executive Marissa Mayer, who was a high-level Google executive before taking the Yahoo! helm in July.

Yahoo! has been trying to reinvent itself since the once-flowering Internet search service found itself withering in Google's shadow.

"We work with a number of top publishers to help them monetize their content through AdSense for Content and AdMob," a Google spokesman said in response to an AFP inquiry. "We're thrilled to now include Yahoo!.

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