Is Google Arrogant, Greedy, Reckless or Evil?  All of the above. 

We.Are.Suckers. 

Repeat after me, any publisher who ever accepted Google’s trojan horse (Google Ad Sense) is a tool.  When billionaire Sam Zell came out this week and said that Google was stealing content, he might have not worded it right, but the “big idea” that Google was basically making money off of content owners’ intellectual property was not wrong (notice I did not say “right” but “not wrong”). 

The point is, Mr. Zell might not be an ideal person to spearhead newspapers into the 21st century because Google does have a lot of things to offer content owners… but content owners are the sad chumps who have bent over to Google and will forever regret it. 

Google has penetrated the fortress with a Trojan horse and for the rest of Web history, we publishers will suffer for it.  Mark my words.

At my old gig, selling ads for a publisher with 5M uniques and 250M ad impressions, I worked briefly with Google.  I sold them ads.  I sold them ads at just over $1 CPM.  It was unheard of.  When people would find that out, they would be very impressed.  Everywhere else, they would do a revenue share on their contextual ads with the publisher. 

I thought it was ludicrous, for a publisher, to give up prime real estate for text ads (which historically yield higher click through rates than banner/display ads) to Google.  I recall signing a $666,667, 12-month ad deal with Google at $1.10 CPM.  I recall vividly, because at the time the USD/CAD foreign exchange deal was 1.50 and I was very proud of my first million dollar deal.  Anyway, some $350,000 later, Google cancelled the ad deal and said “it will have to be a revenue share or nothing.”

I said nothing.  I saw what Google was trying to do: basically offer a Trojan horse to get prime real estate and eventually start selling display ads.  This was in 2002-03, before their IPO.  Eventually, Google only struck revenue share deals to mitigate their risk, and even tried - in vain - to sell display ads.  Google failed miserably with display ads, to this day remaining a one trick pony with text ads. 

I would not be so harsh on Google, but the simple truth is that Google’s hard work and ingenuity has progressively been replaced by greed and arrogance, lest evil. 

Here is just one example of what I mean.

For a company that boasts a “Do no Evil” motto, I am getting a tad frustrated with Google’s obnoxiousness.  This is a company with more PhD’s in house than the average college.  You would think they would be able to fix things.  In other words, when they do not, it’s not a mistake: it’s a manifestation of hubris.

On March 20th, I alerted my contacts at Google and emailed the appropriate departments that Google was running adult ads through their Ad Sense program on our site.  Our flagship property, WatchMojo.com, is a broadband channel.  We create, produce and publish video content.  But, as much as adult programming represents easy money, we shy away from it, always have, always will.  In other words: no sex.  So why the sex ads?  Here’s my post on the matter.

After a few exchanges, they said it would be solved.  They were arrogant, they did not apologize.  I told myself: “I should sue them to send them a message and ensure, at least, that this does not happen to others.  After all, an advertiser, member of the media, or would-be investor or buyer could come to the site, see Google’s text ad and assume it was a reflection of the site’s content and positioning.  The ads are contextual after all, and anyone operating online has a good idea that the ads reflect the content of the page, if not the site. 

I did not sue, cause suing is for suckers, frankly.  But Google was so backwards in their answer (basically, I should block sites one by one, instead of them blocking all adult ads, basically) that I wanted to go on a rampage and see how many other sites were affected by this flagrant and damaging act to see what remedy should be taken.  Being busy with plenty of more important things (like pumping out 1000-word posts on this blog, for example), I let it slide.

But, one month later, and now it’s gay porn.  Not that there is anything wrong with that… hmm… actually, something is very wrong with that!

I’ve emailed them, again, let’s see what they say.  Will keep you posted. 

I understand Google has shareholders, I understand Google needs to keep the business growing, but this is greed, this is recklessness, this is pure evil.  I removed Google from our main page and will certainly not work with Google the instant we relaunch the site.

I am not sure what I should do yet.  Like I said, only suckers sue, but then again, publishers were suckered into running Google’s ads blindly.

I will, come heaven or high water, make Google pay.  Mark my words.

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