Hypocrisy: How Google Profits from Webspam

Any advertiser that uses Google AdWords is unwittingly funding webspam, except for those advertisers that follow step 2 of the 4 Steps to Avoid the Google AdWords Ignorance Tax. Google profits from webspam, at the expense of AdWords advertisers. Follow my logic. Yesterday, Matt Cutts posted about fighting webspam on the Google corporate blog. He said:

Webspam, in case you've never heard of it, is the junk you see in search results when websites successfully cheat their way into higher positions in search results or otherwise violate search engine quality guidelines.

Now, if you follow the link he posted to the Google quality guidelines, it says (emphasis mine):

These quality guidelines cover the most common forms of deceptive or manipulative behavior, but Google may respond negatively to other misleading practices not listed here (e.g. tricking users by registering misspellings of well-known websites).

So, Google's own definition asserts that typosquatting (registering misspellings of well-known websites) is webspam. Guess whose ads run on typosquatting sites? Yes, Google profits from typosquatting sites. So, Google profits from webspam. Here's an example to help illustrate the point (allinz.com is typosquatting on the allianz.com domain):


That's an example I included when writing Vulcan Golf v. Google Trial Will Tarnish Google Brand. See the other 5 examples from that post. I think Google has some explaining to do. Webspam isn't just a problem in the Google search index. No, Google's responsible for the webspam it enables across the AdWords advertising network.

Until Google blocks this kind of search engine spam, it's up to the advertisers themselves to block this traffic.

Related Post (from a year ago):
Is Google NOT Serious About Webspam?

Apogee Tags: webspam, google, hypocrisy, matt cutts, adwords, typosquatting