Skip to main content

Firefox Referrals Success Story on Google Blog Leaves Us Puzzled about Adsense Policies


Dan Friedman from AdSense Product Marketing just published a new case study on the Official Adsense blog that shares how GrownUpGeek.com doubled the Adsense income by optimizing the implementation of Firefox Referral buttons on their website.
By adding a referral button to his site, Brown realized he could direct users to Firefox with the Google Toolbar. When a referral connects a user to Firefox, Google pays Brown each time.
This Adsense case study has left us perplexed. If we understand the Adsense Program Policies correctly, the site mentioned above is violating some of those rules.

Before we go further, here's a quick recap of Adsense Policies:

» Referral buttons are considered to be 'Google ads' for purposes of these program policies.

» No Google ad may be placed on pages published specifically for the purpose of showing ads, whether or not the page content is relevant.

» Publishers may not label the ads with text other than "sponsored links" or "advertisements." This includes any text directly above our ads that could be confused with, or attempt to be associated with Google ads.

» 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.

Now let's take a quick look at the site in question and why we think it may be violating Adsense TOS.

1. There is a specific page on the site designed for downloading Firefox browser using the Adsense referral button violating rule 2 above.

2. The text just above the Firefox download button says - "Click the button below to download for free" - violating rules 3 and 4 above.

Can anyone throw light here. The Firefox referral button on the front page is in absolute agreement with Adsense policies but the inner page causes all the confusion. Maybe our understanding of the Adsense referral policies is wrong or Google overlooked that.

Still, if anyone plans to implement Firefox referrals just like this site has done, we strongly suggest that you take prior approval from Google Adsense Support.

Read our previous Adsense case studies - Scott Hanselman, Guy Kawasaki, Rashmi Bansal

Update: Randy Brown, site owner of GrownUpGeek.com, just wrote back saying he has confirmed with Dan Friedman at Google that directing attention to the referrals in this way IS acceptable. He also points to the following referral tip from Google support website
Actively endorse the products you refer. Unlike with AdSense for content ads, we encourage you to endorse referral products by calling attention to the button or text link. If you believe in the quality of the product that you're referring, feel free to let your users know!
Proves that our understanding of the Adsense product referral program rules was not correct. Unlike contextual Adsense ads, here you may use text like "click to download" nears the referral buttons.

Popular posts from this blog

How to Download Contacts from Facebook To Outlook Address Book

Facebook users are not too pleased with the "walled garden" approach of Facebook. The reason is simple - while you can easily import your Outlook address book and GMail contacts into Facebook, the reverse path is closed. There's no "official" way to export your Facebook friends email addresses or contact phone numbers out as a CSV file so that you can sync the contacts data with Outlook, GMail or your BlackBerry. Some third-party Facebook hacks like "Facebook Sync" (for Mac) and "Facebook Downloader" (for Windows) did allow you to download your Facebook friends' names, emails, mobile phone number and profile photo to the desktop but they were quickly removed for violation of Facebook Terms of Use. How to Download Contacts from Facebook There are still some options to take Friends data outside the walls of Facebook wall. Facebook offers the Takeout option allowing you to download all Facebook data locally to the disk (include

PhishTank Detects Phishing Websites by Digg Style Voting

OpenDNS, a free service that helps anyone surf the Internet faster with a simple DNS tweak , will announce PhishTank today. PhishTank is a free public database of phishing URLs where anyone can submit their phishes via email or through the website. The submissions are verified by the other community members who then vote for the suspected site. This is such a neat idea as sites can be categorized just based on user feedback without even having to manually verify each and every submission. PhishTank employs the "feedback loop" mechanism where users will be kept updated with the status' of the phish they submit either via email alerts or a personal RSS feed . Naturally, once the PhishTank databases grows, other sites can harness the data using open APIs which will remain free. OpenDNS would also use this data to improve their existing phishing detection algorithms which are already very impressive and efficient. PhishTank | PhishTank Blog [Thanks Allison] Related: Google

Digital Inspiration

Digital Inspiration is a popular tech blog by  Amit Agarwal . Our popular Google Scripts include  Gmail Mail Merge  (send personalized emails with Gmail ),  Document Studio (generate PDFs from Google Forms ) and   File Upload Forms ( receive files  in Google Drive). Also see  Reverse Image Mobile Search , Online Speech Recognition and Website Screenshots , the most useful websites on the Internet.