(NaturalNews) Many readers have written us to ask why they sometimes see a Google ad appearing on our site for something we oppose such as a pharmaceutical or junk food product. On the left of each article, we publish a 300 x 250 Google Adsense ad. Google uses a keyword detection algorithm to determine which ads appear to be the most relevant to the article page, but this algorithm isn't able to take into account whether we are writing
in favor of something or
against it.
As a result, when we write about antidepressant drugs, for example, ads may appear that are promoting antidepressant drugs.
This is frustrating to us as well as our readers, because we do not wish to promote products or services that are not aligned with our core beliefs.
We are able, by the way, to ban these ads one at a time by using Google's "competitive ad filter." I've personally been overseeing our ad ban efforts, and we've actually banned well over a hundred ads so far, including ads from the Corn Refiners Association that attempted to spew HFCS propaganda.
We've also banned sites that promotes breast cancer drugs and junk food items. But we're not able to catch them all.
You can help us ban inappropriate ads by alerting us when you see an ad that doesn't belong on NaturalNews. To do so, simply use our feedback form (
www.naturalnews.com/feedback.html) and tell us the URL (web address) that the offending ad is promoting or leading to. Please also include a quick description of why you think the ad doesn't belong, such as, "It promotes junk food" etc.
We can then take your information and ban that offending ad, thereby creating a cleaner website for everybody.
Google's
Adsense system is very sophisticated in determining which ads are most relevant to which pages, and for the most part it works very well. With your help identifying inappropriate ads, we can clean up our site even further and prevent misaligned companies from using our website to promote harmful products.
Thank you for your help!
About the author: Mike Adams is an award-winning journalist and holistic nutritionist with a passion for sharing empowering information to help improve personal and planetary health He is a prolific writer and has published thousands of articles, interviews, reports and consumer guides, and he is well known as the creator of popular downloadable preparedness programs on financial collapse, emergency food storage, wilderness survival and home defense skills. Adams is a trusted, independent journalist who receives no money or promotional fees whatsoever to write about other companies' products. In 2010, Adams co-founded NaturalNews.com, a natural health video sharing site that has now grown in popularity. He's also the founder and CEO of a well known email mail merge software developer whose software, 'Email Marketing Director,' currently runs the NaturalNews email subscriptions. Adams volunteers his time to serve as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, and regularly pursues cycling, nature photography, Capoeira and Pilates. He's also author of numerous health books published by Truth Publishing and is the creator of several consumer-oriented grassroots campaigns, including the Spam. Don't Buy It! campaign, and the free downloadable Honest Food Guide. He also created the free reference sites HerbReference.com and HealingFoodReference.com. Adams believes in free speech, free access to nutritional supplements and the ending of corporate control over medicines, genes and seeds.
Have comments on this article? Post them here:
people have commented on this article.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Email this article to a friend
Now Available from 
){kind=link}