Via Information Week:

“Google includes millions of parked domains and error pages that have little or no content, and that result in practically zero conversions, in both its Content Network and its Search Network,” the complaint alleges. “Given the low quality of these parked domain and error pages, advertisers would not want to spend their advertising budgets on these distribution networks. However, Google designed its network in such a way that it was virtually impossible to opt out of the AdSense for Domains and/or AdSense for Errors programs.”

I believe this complaint has some merit, and don’t think I’m alone in saying that parked pages full of ads suck too. I’ve also been thinking the parking business would be needing a new business model, sooner or later. Maybe it’s sooner.

(h/t Search Engine Land)

Several years ago, Google developed a simple concept called AdSense. You sign up, a robot approves your site, and pretty soon you are making millions from the ads you display next to the outstanding content you create. What Google didn’t consider at the time (IMHO) was the customer service mess they were creating. Tons of ads on a myriad of platforms, placed there by a multitude of folks that may be less than technology savvy. I can’t remember having any deadly problems with AdSense or most any other Google service, but I’ve heard the horror stories. You inquire about an issue and receive an automated response. Generally, it is dumbed down below solution level. You reply to that response, and receive another inadequate recommendation obviously pulled from an unknowledgeable knowledge base. You ask a more difficult question, and the discussion magically (and abruptly) ends. It is a testament to the unimportance of the “little guy,” but it is something a now ubiquitous publicly traded organization full of geniuses should have thought about anyway.

Enter FeedBurner.

The service is, for the most part, seamless and simple. Any joker can sign up and enter the URL of their feed, hence creating a new feed which they can then load with clickable goodies and view readership statistics on. Kind of like AdSense, but that’s about where the similarities end.

FeedBurner’s customer service approach, summarized in a single word, rocks! The site itself is inundated with humor and a touch of kindness. They maintain ultimate transparency through searchable forums full of knowledgeable company moderators. And their response to inquiries, however automated they may be, are comprehensive and targeted in such a way to make the client feel comfortable, and wanted. I’ll admit that FeedBurner is a technologically proficient service, but even if it tripped and fell in that regard it wouldn’t matter. Someone in the marketing department got together with someone in the customer service department and created many dimes of the $100 million Google just paid for the company.

Instead of spending their time building the next online spreadsheet that no business in their right mind should ever use, Google should go through the customer relationship portion of the FeedBurner subsidiary with a fine toothed comb. The view should be adopting as much of the “attitude” that FeedBurner exudes as possible. There is incredible value there.

As a side note, I believe people should watch the results of this acquisition closely. Should Google choose to assimilate FeedBurner into their organization in such a way that dry, ineffective, dead end customer communication becomes the norm, there will be opportunities for others to step in. Also, I’ve attached the context of an email I received from FeedBurner regarding the (now free) MyBrand feed service. The offering is definitely not for the layman, but FeedBurner clearly and effectively points this out while giving the technical set everything they need to know to implement. It is a classic example of getting the right information into the right hands, while simultaneously detering the simply curious from getting themselves (and their network) into a world of chaos. Bravo.

Howdy!

Thanks so much for continuing to use FeedBurner, and for your interest in taking advantage of the MyBrand service. Keep in touch!

A web programmer is claiming he found a trojan that reformats Google referral buttons into text ads, the purpose of getting someone to click through to an alternative site.

Manipulating JavaScript at the browser isn’t too difficult, which is why most browsers give you the option of turning JavaScript off altogether. A pre-infected machine, like one running some adware laden browser toolbar, would make the process even easier. But I have to wonder about the example.

Shown is a rectangular text ad, but Google doesn’t offer such sizes for its referral buttons. The biggest Google referral block offered is 468 X 60, for a banner, and 120 X 60 for a block. The glaring example shown is a 336 X 280 text ad. So either the web page developer left a lot of whitespace (or in this case, bluespace), or we are not getting the full story here.

After reading this article in USA Today, I began to get curious: USATODAY.com - Google’s AdSense a bonanza for some Web sites.

Yes, I know there are sites out there making a lot of money. There are also sites out there that are making little or no money, but are trying very hard to game their way in.

“Democracy” in action, but is it creating any value?

I have read from a lot of sites. News, technical forums, weblogs, aggregators, and static directories and pages all fit in to my daily information absorbtion routine. And I have found a lot of useful stuff out there.

Many sites, however, produce little or no good information. These are the pages that can’t hold their own, have nothing interesting to say, they are nothing. I suspect (highly suspect) that there is a direct relationship between useless content (whether poorly constructed or simply empty from a thought provocation perspective), and the level of cheating going on in the pay-per-click advertising realm.

What surprises me is the level and depth of the cheating; the sheer numbers engaged in it. It is all the talk nowadays, so it must be happening. There is a lot of money at stake - people are going to grab it any way they can. What they don’t realize is that in the long run (like a half-fast “consultant” selling their way into a quick gig) is that the cash flow stream will run out. Someone will patch the problem. What do they do next? Find new tricks.

Seems to me like they are spinning their wheels. Click fraud, comment spam, fake sites…it just doesn’t seem worth it. As fast as someone can cook up a scheme, there is someone smarter figuring out how to stop it. A few dollars in, a few dollar out…do the scammers ever give up?

I can think of a lot better ways to make a living (if I didn’t, I could spend any time typing these posts). I wish those hell bent on picking up two pieces of scratch would just give up, and leave the web to those who want to continually change it for the better.

But that is wishful thinking.

After reviewing this post, I realize I had gotten off track, and had already come to a conclusion. I am not sure the PPC ad market is creating value. I would like to see what the numbers look like after the dust settles. Meanwhile excuse the bias.