Well, they got one out of three right - will Google get one out of one right?
Well, they got one out of three right
I clicked on the Google Ad at helppakistan.blogspot.com (the earthquake relief effort) and ended up at this review of a hotel called the "Beach Luxury Hotel" in Karachi, Pakistan. Much less expensive than some of the other hotels listed, but it appears that you get what you pay for:
Karachi: Beach Luxury Hotel: "Not a beach, not luxury, but it is a hotel"
Oct 2, 2005: haulleyb@adelphia.net, Carlsbad, California
I spent three days here. The air conditioning in my room was continually at full blast, making room freezing; no towels in the bathroom, and the elevator to the sixth floor was broken. The neighborhood is only accessible by taxi, not by bus or walking. I'll stay somewhere else next time in Karachi.
Will Google get one out of one right?
Incidentally, I wouldn't be surprised it Dr. Awab Alvi's efforts go for naught. Google AdSense can be sticklers on their TOS (believe me, I know), and they may cry foul because any effort to encourage Google Adsense clicks to raise funds necessarily runs afoul of the AdSense program policies:
Incentives
Web pages may not include incentives of any kind for users to click on ads. This includes encouraging users to click on the ads or to visit the advertisers' sites as well as drawing any undue attention to the ads. For example, your site cannot contain phrases such as "click here," "support us," "visit these links," or other similar language that could apply to any ad, regardless of content. In addition, publishers may not bring unnatural attention to sites displaying ads through unsolicited mass emails or unwanted advertisements on third-party websites. These activities are strictly prohibited in order to avoid potential inflation of advertiser costs....
Prohibited Clicks and Impressions
Any method that artificially generates clicks or impressions is strictly prohibited. These prohibited methods include but are not limited to: repeated manual clicks or impressions, incentives to click or to generate impressions, using robots, automated click- and impression- generating clicking tools, or other deceptive software. Please note that clicking on your own ads for any reason is prohibited, to avoid potential inflation of advertiser costs.
Well, if you look at the letter of the law, this scheme violates Google's program policies big time, inasmuch as most of the people visiting the website have no true interest in staying at a Karachi hotel (even a good one), so one can pretty well document "potential inflation of advertiser costs."
Yet, while Google is technically justified in shutting this down, they have to consider the public relations angle. Look at what happened to Disney. As Ron Grover states in his book The Disney Touch (page 252, in the chapter "When Mickey Gets Grumpy":
[Disney] didn't retreat in its spring 1989 battle against three day-care centers in Hallendalr, Florida, which had painted Disney characters on their outer walls. Arguing that the use of the characters suggested that Disney had given a stamp of approval to the day-care centers, the company gave the centers one month to scrub the characters off their walls. The three day-care centers received letters of support from a Phoenix grandmother, a New York City doctor, and several dozen other people....For Disney, the tough stance was the only way it could protect its copyrights. The company's archrival, MCA, however, tried to reap a publicity bonanza for its Universal Studios Tour in nearby Orlando. It painted Flintstone cartoon characters over the Disney characters and threw a well-publicized party for the schoolchildren.
Grover sourced this passage from several sources, including
- "Disney in Coypright Spats with Day Care Center," Associated Press article, April 30, 1989.
- Paul Richter, "Disney's Tough Tactics," Los Angeles Times, July 7, 1990, p. D-1.
So, is Google going to enforce its policies, only to end up with egg on its face if one of its competitors (for example, Jim Etchison's favorite company Yahoo) steps in with an alternative proposal to generate funds for South Asia earthquake victims?
[UPDATE 10 OCTOBER.]
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