In one way it is, as the 49 percent increase in bad ads blocked outpaced Google's overall advertising growth, indicating that the company has been blocking a greater number of bad ads as a percentage of the whole. Clicks on its ads grew at a slightly more leisurely pace, rising 23 percent from a year earlier in the third quarter last year, the most recent for which figures are available.
When Google tells us it blocked 780 million bad ads last year, is that a sign that things are getting better?It also blocked advertising on more than 25,000 mobile apps after app developers violated Google's policies, and it outright rejected 1.4 million apps from websites and app developers who wanted to show Google's ads but not play by the company's rules.
1. CounterfeitersGoogle says it suspended more than 10,000 sites and 18,000 accounts that attempted to sell counterfeit goods like fake designer watches.2. PharmaceuticalsMore than 12.5 million ads violated Google's healthcare and medicine policies last year. One example: drugs that weren't approved for use or that claimed to be as effective as prescription drugs.3. Weight-loss scamsGoogle said it suspended ads from more than 30,000 websites that made misleading claims related to achieving weight loss without diet or exercise.4. PhishingGoogle's plan to better block phishing websites netted nearly 7,000.5. Unwanted softwareMore than 10,000 websites offering unwanted software (the kind that slows down devices or changes a homepage) were blocked from AdWords. Google also said it reduced unwanted downloads via ads by more than 99 percent.6. "Trick to click"More than 17 million ads that are meant to trick people into interacting with them (fake system warnings, etc.) were bl ocked last year.7. Accidental clicksGoogle said it now has a tool that can reduce how often users accidentally click on an ad while scrolling through content on a website. The company said it now better understands when users mean to click an ad and when they don't.8. Policy violatorsLast year, ads that showed up on more than 25,000 mobile apps were found to be in violation of Google's policies. Around two-thirds of those, according to Google, were related to mobile ads placed too close to a button. In total, Google said it blocked more than 1.4 million applications that didn't follow its policies for websites and mobile apps.
Others, such as the developers of the 'acceptable ads' policy for the AdBlock Plus browser extension, consider ads that aren't marked as such, that interrupt the flow of reading, or that cover more than one-sixth of the screen as bad, or at least unacceptable.
Google said it blocked 10,000 sites offering unwanted software via its Adwords service, and reduced unwanted downloads through its ads by 99 percent in 2015. It also blocked 7,000 sites used for phishing, up from 5,000 a year earlier.
Some of the company's ad-vetting activities are not entirely altruistic: Last year it blocked 12.5 million ads that violated its healthcare and medicines policy, up from 9.6 million in 2014. That policy was tightened after it shelled out US$500 million in 2011 to settle a case in which the U.S. Department of Justice alleged it had allowed Canadian pharmacies to illegally advertise prescription drugs to U.S. residents.
A "bad" advertisement, as described by Google, can come in a variety of forms. Rejected ads include those that attempted to sell blatantly counterfeit merchandise—like fake purses or watches—as well as ads for pharmaceuticals that either weren't approved for people to actually use (not good) or made blatantly false claims about their efficiency compared to prescription-backed alternatives. Google also went after misleading weight loss ads that were just phishing scams ads that tried to encourage users to download malware or other spammy software.
Google developed new algorithms to detect and remove ads promoting them. The software looks for keywords related to product names in the ads and on the webpages the ads point to. If Google is unsure whether to block ads, it sends them to hundreds of manual reviewers, Mr. Siegel said.
Google said it also detected a growing number of "trick to click" ads that pretend to be something else, such as a security warning or a button to clear an unwanted pop-up window. Users who click on them are directed to other Web pages and shown ads. Last year, Google rejected more than 17 million of these ads.
In 2016, Google said it would work to crack down on fraudulent clicks by automated computers known as bots. The bots can be costly to advertisers, who pay Google each time a user clicks on their ad.
"We've all been there. You're swiping through a slideshow of the best moments from the Presidential debate when an ad redirects you even though you didn't mean to click on it. We're working to end that. We've developed technology to determine when clicks on mobile ads are accidental. Instead of sending you off to an advertiser page you didn't mean to visit, we let you continue enjoying your slideshow (and the advertiser doesn't get charged)," reads Google's blog post.
The company said that its bad-ad fight in 2015 focused on areas including those that carry malware, promote fake goods or weight-loss scams, or phishing for personal information by financial fraudsters."Through a combination of computer algorithms and people at Google reviewing ads, we're able to block the vast majority of these bad ads before they ever get shown," Ramaswamy said. "We've invested in sophisticated technology and a global team of 1,000-plus people dedicated to fighting bad ads."
Going forward, Google will be going after weight-loss advertising a bit more and beefing up its targeting of advertising that encourages people to visit or install malware. Google likely has a few other tricks up its sleeve to combat bad advertising, but it did not elaborate.
This time last year, Google boasted that an all-time low in the number of sites and advertisers banned for attempting to sell counterfeit goods was a sign that counterfeiters were increasingly unable to circumvent its advanced enforcement systems. The number had dropped from 82,000 in 2012 to 14,000 in 2013 and 7,000 in 2014.
In 2015, though, the tide turned and the company blocked 10,000 counterfeiting sites and closed 18,000 related accounts. The company explained the rise in this and other figures as the consequence of new protections it has put in place.
Spin it how you will, these are still bad ads you won't have to watch.
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