Tuesday, July 09, 2013

Google Not Following 'Don't Be Evil'

I'm about twenty seconds away from pulling the blog down. I've been blogging for five years of more on here, and over the last several months have radically ramped up my postings here and have had a corresponding dramatic increase in traffic. And, after about a year, finally got the confusion over my adsense account straightened out and active again. And over the last several months, finally eked up to the point where I would be owed a payout.

Well, guess what. As soon as I was owed money by Google, they decided the activity was fraudulent and deactivated my adsense account. The email is a) vague b) admits its vague c) claims being vague is required and d) demands a detailed defense. To what? How do I defend myself against a charge that isn't even specified. I have done nothing wrong. With one minor exception. Those of you with sharp eyes may have noticed a post a couple of months ago where I requested anyone interested in helping out to click through on an ad, if they found it interesting. Within a few hours I got an email from a reader saying this was a violation, so I deleted the post and checked adsense and determined that no one had clicked (gee thanks, guys!! :) )

Anyway, I'm pissed and feel a little like someone trapped in a Patriot Act quandry. I'm charged and convicted and I'm not ever sure what the charges are!  Someone might want to tell Paul Burkheit his 'don't be evil' motto has apparently not only been dropped by Google, it's been jettisoned with extreme prejudice.

Anyway, that's my rant. I'll be back to normal posting whenever my blood pressure returns to merely life-threatening levels.

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