Guess I'm naive, but I was shocked to learn that Google runs a spam domain program where they take your unused domain name and populate it with Adsense. They have a very strict requirement that the G name not appear anywhere on the site, and presumably to compensate for any twinges of conscience they take a 60% rev share. They say 10% of the paid search market comes from this type of spam...more than G is willing to write off in the interests of a better web, apparently.

You can see an example here: airlinetickets.com

I don't guess this is not a spam report, because there is no spam per se.

BTW Chris1492, this is quite common. Probably the majority of crummy sites with no real value except ads, are funded by Google via Adsense.

The example you have given is by far one of the less offensive ones that are out there.

It does often seem that Google is part of the problem and not part of the solution.

Those links are all redirected by a script through another page in that site. I have never, ever seen Adsense links being redirected. Have I missed something?

Chris, please provide evidence that these are from google.

according to domain-tools.com (formerly whois.sc) the site airlinetickets.com is run by hitfarm.com. The name servers are also pointed to hitfarm.com.

Google has not taken over the domain, whoever owns it has pointed the nameservers to hitfarm, and that same individual or organization can change them to something else anytime they want.

The advertisements do not appear to be adsense. If they are, they are in violation of Google's usage policies. Either way, I doubt very much that it was Google who put them there, in violation of their own policies.

***edit***
From Googles Terms of Service:

Code Modification
Any AdSense ad code, search box code, or referral code must be pasted directly into Web pages without modification. AdSense participants are not allowed to alter any portion of the ad code or change the layout, behavior, targeting, or delivery of ads for any reason.


***edit***

But if you have evidence...
Please share it.

I think the real tragedy is.... that is the best someone can use of airlinetickets.com ?

I think the real tragedy is.... that is the best someone can use of airlinetickets.com ?
No kidding. Wish I owned the domain.

Note: moved to this forum because this is NOT a Google issue.

Those folks are affiliates, but that site isn't running Adsense. They've got Adsense on another site I looked at, but it's a legitimate site and conforms to the Adsense TOS and has nothing to do with what's on this site.

This site is doing nothing wrong with those links - which are not Google's.

The Google program is called AdSense For Domains and designed to populate unused domain names with paid links. That's not the same as spam, as JohnW points out. Low quality, sure. But it's not spam (though it is ironic that Google indexes a page that's not but ads, perhaps its own).

I can't tell if these are Google ads or not -- nor am I sure how you know. Most AdSense For Domain sites I've seen use standard Google ad redirects. Even if Google's not a part of this particular site, point taken that they're involved with similar ones.

AdWords For Domains Garbage Traffic (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=9302) from last December here on the forums covers this program and issues in a lot more depth and debate.

I can't tell if these are Google ads or not -- nor am I sure how you know. Most AdSense For Domain sites I've seen use standard Google ad redirects. Even if Google's not a part of this particular site, point taken that they're involved with similar ones.
No way to know for sure, but the assumption is that they are not from Google, since the links redirect via a script on the same site, which is in violation of Google's terms of service.
At least it used to be, unless that has changed?

Thanks for the link Danny

I also edited my post above to include this from Googles TOS.

Code Modification
Any AdSense ad code, search box code, or referral code must be pasted directly into Web pages without modification. AdSense participants are not allowed to alter any portion of the ad code or change the layout, behavior, targeting, or delivery of ads for any reason.

Thanks Danny, I knew you would have more info on this program. A friend of mine talked to G about this program and was given the airlinetickets site as an example. The most bizarre thing G told him was the part that no attributions to G or Adsense could appear on the page, and the normal redirect code couldn't be used. There seemed to be an active interest in concealing G's involvement in monetizing the site. This seems very underhanded to me. Also the fact that G charges a higher rev share for monetizing empty domains is a blatant admission that ethical standards are up for sale...you just have to raise the price on a product that's ethically challenged.

As well, it raises the issue of whether G should be in this business and how it indexes these useless sites. They shouldn't show up in search results at all, but they probably do or else they wouldn't be making money. Doesn't G have enough money without supporting the low-quality clutter on the web? Without the money pipeline from G these crappy sites would just dry up. Instead, G creates an entire sleazy industry.


From the Adsense for Domains FAQ (http://www.google.com/domainpark/faq.html):

"AdSense for domains customers redirect traffic from parked domains to the AdSense for domains service. When Google receives the request, it processes the domain name and returns formatted HTML that includes contextual ads and related searches. Customers can either display the full page HTML or include it in a frame....For large customers, Google offers XML output as well."

I don't believe they're Adsense. Does anyone have any proof that those are Google's links on that site?

I was wondering when somebody would say that ;-)

They actually look like YPN don't they?

Yep, YPN. Here is part of the header response:

<snip>
HTTP/1.x 200 OK
Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2006 01:13:12 GMT
Server: Apache/2.0
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.1.2
Set-Cookie: did_click=1; path=/; domain=airlinetickets.com
Content-Encoding: gzip
Vary: Accept-Encoding
Content-Length: 567
Keep-Alive: timeout=1, max=3
Connection: Keep-Alive
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
----------------------------------------------------------
http://www60.overture.com/d/sr/?xargs=15KPjg1zdS%5FpXyl%5FruNLbXU6TFhUBT1s%5FttoF wXM4kAKQesG0aBKQLO%5FKd2LEtCb0%2Dsk2jkqzQqflSI6euy aflS1qbRifYQKGQgNODm9p%5FY%2D%5FjBowexOZDx%2Drrm4Z KKX0AITH0O4Hri%2D24Y5TsPXgPt89e%5FEbLzqQz1pOG9LBBV OVA6mEjrhWTftnk15ky3ZWdfIFNE%2DEOKp3RoCWOQaxl3Yh4k e2kPjZBJSqi5W8FoliAMmVyqa%2D5Do59zbXzn4nuYJCJ7c8I6 3Cj14c7qxOXy3qVzotnN32An%2DtUki8DTt38YUnZgAtdoNqu% 2DuSCJNwzjgCCSMyoHnGEFDQID0ZnCK7rOEOFKGBP4x6GBZFQL cSt8yW3CKfbAHJ4NhoXsd7lYYRXxh1Y6wpIHTmVR5XJvDFAMvx r2AykrmeC7Q1007xjoKaDc4Ya4O7bz1WDWXJE%2DxVHls21Eqa 3yDMXqjwr6aEDHvdrpg%2E%2E&yargs=www.orbitz.com
</snip>

I was wondering when somebody would say that ;-)I did:

Note: moved to this forum because this is NOT a Google issue.

Those folks are affiliates, but that site isn't running Adsense. They've got Adsense on another site I looked at, but it's a legitimate site and conforms to the Adsense TOS and has nothing to do with what's on this site.

This site is doing nothing wrong with those links - which are not Google's....but I'm a mother and nobody ever listens to mothers. We get used to it after a while. :p

They actually look like YPN don't they?This I don't know, not being familiar. Are they YPN links, or YSN affiliate links?

Added:

Ah, I see now that it's been posted - so they're YPN, then. Thank you. :)

I was wondering when somebody would say that ;-)

I also said it. ;)

Chris, please provide evidence that these are from google.


Not sure I can claim motherhood as a reason, maybe it is the funny hats I wear?

These ads aren't AdSense or YPN. They're the same Sponsored Search search results from YPN that you'd see in a Yahoo search.

You can tell they're not Google because the descriptions are much too long, and I know they're Sponsored Search and not Content Match because one of my clients has ads appearing on one of these sites and Content Match is turned off.