Google has been fined $1.69 billion after EU regulators claimed that the tech company abused its own search system to essentially force third-party sites to use the AdSense network over other rival online ad serving companies.
Google has announced today a couple of initiatives to make AdSense more transparent for publishers. Not only is Google announcing a new ‘Policy Center’ today that will serve as a “one-stop shop” for publishers to control policy actions on their site, but the company says that soon policy actions will happen on the page level by default, leaving ads on non-offending parts of a site alone… Expand
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As election season comes to a close, many are still looking up information about the results. Earlier today those searches turned up some interesting results are Google surfaced fake election results at the top of the page, even putting those results front and center in Google Assistant. Now the company is making some changes to help prevent fake news from spreading.
Despite its recent foray in the hardware business, Google is first and foremost a company that relies on advertising. And so, in turn, lots of people rely on the company’s own online monetization tool, AdSense, whose website just got a Material Design coat of paint…
It’s no secret that Google makes the majority of its money from advertising revenue, and has done for a very long time. So, when a product comes along to threaten that major revenue stream, it has to find ways to combat it. That’s seemingly what it’s done with AdBlock Plus, a relatively well-known Chrome extension used to block out ads across the internet. This includes the ads shown before and during video playback on YouTube…
AdSense, Google’s publisher ad network used by millions of websites across the web, has just seen its Android app brought up to the company’s Material design language standards.
The app itself is mostly read-only, meaning you can quickly see data on your performance like how much money you’ve made from your ad placements over different time periods, but you cannot create new ads to place on your site from within the app. That would be cumbersome from a mobile device, though, as it requires copying and pasting HTML code into your site’s backend.
AdSense 3.0 also brings with it a new logo the company unveiled back in June. It looks like this:
And for the curious, here’s what the app looked like before today’s update:
The update hasn’t propagated completely in Google Play yet, but it’s available as a direct download through APKMirror right now.
You might notice that 9to5Google has changed. Indeed so has the whole network. Long before the page size/speed and advertising controversies, we knew that we needed to rethink how we presented ourselves.
While we were one of the lightest and fastest sites in our field, our feature creep and advertisers were adding complexity and page load times, which is especially crucial on mobile – an ever expanding percentage of our growing audience.
We decided to start over… Expand
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The confluence of several different events – the great shift to mobile computing where there’s little screen real-estate, a spurning of display ads, to name just two – is causing content creators and consumers alike to rethink how today’s media gets funded. Sites like Patreon and Kickstarter remove the middle-man from the funding process for projects which require lots of upfront investment and see slow development times by allowing anyone to contribute any amount of money they want to a project’s development.
Google last year threw its own hat into the crowdfunding space with the soft launch of Contributor, a way through which consumers can pay a monthly recurring donation to fund the sites they visit while seeing less ads. Now anyone in the United States can actually use it starting today. Expand
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Google announced today that it is updating its AdSense user consent policy to comply with requests from European Union data protection authorities. The updated user consent policy strengthens the requirement that publishes with audiences in the EU obtain permission from readers before collecting usage data and accessing cookies. Google says the updated user consent policy follows its own approach to comply with privacy laws. The company outlines the updated user consent policy for website and app publishers with EU readers and users: Expand
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Amongst those who regularly publish content to YouTube, the video site is known for picking favorites and being a black box in terms of the communication it holds with the community when it comes to anyone other than the site’s biggest stars. The company has as of late been trying to change that perception, though, by using the YouTube Creators channel as an outlet to recognize and acknowledge the feedback and concerns of its users. Today it published a new video outlining changes and new features coming soon to the video platform.
Vessel, the monthly subscription service that provides early-access to content from some of the biggest channels on YouTube, has today released its app for Android under the “beta” moniker.
For the uninitiated, Vessel is part of a trend recently of online content creators seeking out new ways to monetize their content and make money beyond the traditional display and pre-roll video advertisements that you see around videos and other web content. Vessel charges $2.99 per month and in return gives you access to videos from popular YouTube talent including Rhett & Link and Marcus Butler, among others, several days before the videos go live on YouTube. There’s also a free version, but it doesn’t provide these exclusives and there are ads so it’s essentially the same thing as just watching them on YouTube.
The company claims to have over 130 creators uploading to the platform so far, and hopes that releasing an app for Android will expand its subscriber base greatly. Since the app is in beta, the company is hoping users will submit feedback and feature suggestions. It’s available in the Play Store, so no Google+ communities trick necessary here.
Google has today started sending out a new round of invites for the “Contributor by Google” program it announced in November of last year. The service, which removes AdSense ads from your daily browsing for the price of a $2-10 monthly subscription, also saw some notable changes from when it was first shown to the world. Google has now detailed new tiers which will be available to those who have been invited to try out the expanded program…
Google’s Moscow offices
Google has started to block AdSense and Adwords accounts in Crimea, and Google Play services will cease on 1st February, reports TechCrunch. The moves are being made in order to comply with sanctions on the Crimea region of the Ukraine imposed by the US Government.
Free services, like search, maps and gmail are all expected to remain unaffected, but all services involving payment to or from Google will cease, said Russian site Lenta.ru.
“Google’s prohibited from providing paid services in the Crimea,” a source at Google told Lenta.ru. “In addition, Google cannot make payments to anyone in the Crimea. It is now technically impossible, as almost all international banks have ceased to make payments.”
The US joined the EU in imposing economic sanctions in protest at Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula, which legally remains part of the Ukraine. TechCrunch notes that the political conflict could escalate, with the possibility that Russian government may retaliate by blocking the sale of US imports into Russia–an important market for many US companies, including Google.
Apple terminated its own agreements with app developers in the region earlier this week, and has announced that all sales of Apple products and services will cease as of 1st February. Other companies are similarly ceasing business in the region, including both Steam and PayPal.
Google notified publishers on Wednesday that AdSense Direct will be closing on February 10th, just days after the one-year anniversary of the direct ad sales service. There will no longer be support for any campaigns created with the feature, while access to the Direct Campaigns page will be removed. Outstanding account balances will be settled when the service shuts down. Expand
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Google has today launched a new platform that aims to reinvent how content creators on the Internet make money. It’s called Contributor, and it involves readers committing to a certain monthly payment of $1-3, which will in turn give visitors an ad-free browsing experience on some sites. This could potentially be a full-blown alternative to Google’s AdSense, giving publications like this one and others a new form of monetization.
Today, Google announced a new product search tool for its AdSense for Shopping platform that helps retailers monetize their websites. Walmart.com is among the early participants in the fairly new program, which displays sponsored ads across the discount mega-chain’s site that are relevant to a visitor’s product search results.
Today, Google announced that it has integrated Google Analytics statistics into its Publisher Toolbar. This gives website administrators fast access to performance statistics, making it easier for them to gauge trends and other data related to their web properties. Available to download from the Chrome Web Store, the Publisher Toolbar also lets you quickly monitor individual ad stats and block inappropriate content from your website.
On its Inside AdSense blog, Google has announced a new plugin for WordPress users that will further ingrate Google’s publisher products with the service. The Publisher Plugin adds easy access to both Google Webmaster Tools and AdSense from within WordPress. Google hopes to add more services to the plugin soon, and as the product is still in beta, some final tweaks are still being made to it.
The Publisher Plugin allows webmasters to more easily place ads on their sites with AdSense, in addition to providing detailed reports about their sites with Webmaster Tools.
The Publisher Plugin is available now in the WordPress.org plugin directory.
There’s been a lot of discussion about the “new” Google under Larry Page and whether they are a stronger company, a leaner company, or a company finding new direction. As is usually the case with the Twittersphere, a retweet brought a link to Erik McClure’s blog post where he discusses Google and its “decline.”
Google is rolling out a brand new AdSense home page look and it falls right in line with Google’s new “style.” The new landing page hints at a “cleaner, more modern design [that] focuses on key day-to-day information.” The new homepage is available right now with just a click of “I’ll give it a try” or you can pass and give it a go at a later point.
Google has updated its AdSense app for Android with one of the most requested features: a resizable widget that allows you to quickly view your estimate earnings overview from the home screen of your device.
The updated AdSense app also adds a few other new features including improvements for timezone settings, and translations to 24 languages.
A full list of what’s new in version 1.2 is below:
What’s New
Increased competition in digital advertising doesn’t seem to be hurting Google: the company is on track to increase its market share to almost 33 percent this year, with a commanding 53% in mobile advertising. The projections were made by research company eMarketer based on an analysis of company reports, though both dollar and percentage figures are slightly down on its earlier predictions back in June … Expand
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Following Google’s release of an official AdSense Android app on Google Play last week, today the company has released an iOS version of the app. Much like the Android version, this is the first official AdSense client Google has released for the platform, and brings competition for some of the free and paid third-party clients already on the App Store. The app also provides much of the same functionality as the Android app, allowing users to access most reporting features available through the Adsense website, as well as payment alerts (which unfortunately can’t be dismissed at this point).
The AdSense app provides an easy way to access key data from your AdSense account. Access reporting features anywhere, directly from your iPhone. The first version of the app gives you access to: the key earnings information, top custom and URL channels, ad units and sites reports, payment alerts.
Sometimes you want to know how much money you made on Google Adsense ads, but don’t have time to go look at your phone/tablet/computer. Fret not, Google Glass wearers. As SearchEngineLand points out, there is a Google Glass Adsense app that can be sideloaded onto Google Glass headgear to do just that. Developer Chad Smith announced the App, which is hosted at Github.
The Glass AdSense App will show you pageviews, clicks, click through rate and earnings for today, yesterday, last seven days, last thirty days, this month and last month. You can refresh the stats as often as you like and of course, you’d need to “pin” the card to your timeline so that you can access it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8K8YlA7–dk
As we told you last week, Google’s ad business brings in a lot of money, and today, it will celebrate the ten year anniversary of one of its most successful platforms to date. In a post on the official Google blog, Susan Wojcicki, Google’s SVP of ads and commerce, announced that ten years ago today, the company launched AdSense to help publishers earn money by placing ads on their websites. Fast forward 10 years and AdSense is now used by more than 2 million publishers, who earned a combined total of more than $7 billion last year alone.
Google touts that people have been able to live their dream job thanks to the money AdSense gets them. Expand
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Google announced its new HTML5 creation tool called Web Designer (via Tech Crunch) that it says will ship “in the coming months.”
Google Web Designer will empower creative professionals to create cutting-edge advertising as well as engaging web content like sites and applications – for free.
In its announcement, Google notes that “90% of multiple device owners switch between screens to complete tasks,” emphasizing the importance of HTML5 based content to reach users on mobile devices. Expand
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Google announced updates to its AdMob ad network, which it acquired in 2010, including improved app promotion, strong filters for ad relevance, local payments eliminating currency conversions, and more.
Developers will see the changes roll out over the next few months according to Google.
via CNN
Last week we showed you the native YouTube app Microsoft built for Windows Phone 8, but it appears today that Microsoft never had Google’s consent to produce the app.
Google reportedly sent Microsoft a cease and desist letter today, which The Verge has obtained, citing the lack of ads on the YouTube app for Windows Phone.
“Unfortunately, by blocking advertising and allowing downloads of videos, your application cuts off a valuable ongoing revenue source for creators, and causes harm to the thriving content ecosystem on YouTube.”
Windows Phone users will have to rely on third-party YouTube apps in the meantime until Microsoft and Google work things out.
via nytimes.com
Google released its earnings report from Q1 2013 today.
Notably, Google’s consolidated revenues increased 31% over Q1 2013 with $14 billion gross income.
“We had a very strong start to 2013, with $14.0 billion in revenue, up 31% year-on-year,” said Larry Page, CEO of Google. “We are working hard and investing in our products that aim to improve billions of people’s lives all around the world.”
Google reported $3.35 billion net revenue, which is nearly half a billion up from $2.89 billion during the same quarter last year.
The company reports $50 billion in the back at the end of Q1 2013.
Cash – As of March 31, 2013, cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities were $50.1 billion.
The company’s effective tax rate came in low at 8% following a tax credit mandated by legislature in Congress.
Income Taxes – Our effective tax rate was 8% for the first quarter of 2013.
Google CEO Larry Page mentioned during the conference call to investors that the company’s opportunities primarily exist in Chrome, YouTube, and Android, in that order. It believes more “connected TV’s” will allow the company to directly connect with consumers via relevant advertising more easily.
The company had praise for its marketing team, citing doubling its retail foot print thanks to more availability of its Chromebook in Best Buy.
Google discussed its success with commercial advertising via YouTube, announcing 325,000 Super Bowls worth of ads have been consumed.
When asked about Andy Rubin’s responsibilities after being pulled from heading Android, Larry Page reiterated that the company has yet to make that announcement and had no plans to make news in that regard today.
Regarding Glass, Larry Page admitted the price tag for early adopters is certainly high, but stepped short of calling it a luxury price and stated the company wasn’t prepared to announce a consumer price tag.
Press release below:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6YI1E1-M-4&feature=player_embedded]
Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad.
“Bad” is the main word that stands out in the latest post by Google on the official AdSense blog, and the Internet giant repeats it that exact amount of times, too. But, why? Invalid activity, that’s why.
Google wants its publishing partners to keep AdSense strong, and, as it stated, that means “keeping good publishers’ accounts in good standing, while also protecting advertisers and users from fraudulent activity.” So, Google is making changes and adding tools to pinpoint bad actors (a.k.a. inactive/fraudulent publishers), stop bad ads, prevent bad clicks, and keep bad sites and bad traffic out of the network.
The video above gives a brief summary of what Google is talking about, while it’s blog post further details all the changes, which include:
— Considering tenure more actively when responding to detected invalid activity.
— Allotting publishers tools to submit more informative appeals via a new form.
— Providing more details on invalid activity’s causes via an email or a notification.
More changes below.
Internet giant Google found itself in a middle of a potential public relations nightmare following a Wall Street Journal article this morning. Tentatively titled “Google’s iPhone Tracking,” the article asserts that “Google Inc. and other advertising companies have been bypassing the privacy settings of millions of people using Apple Inc.’s Web browser on their iPhones and computers” to follow iPhone users even after they explicitly set Safari’s privacy controls to disable such tracking. According to authors Julia Angwin and Jennifer Valentino-Devries, Google used “special computer code that tricks Apple’s Safari Web-browsing software into letting them monitor many users.” Google apparently disabled the problematic code after the newspaper contacted the Mountain View, Calif.-based Company.
Stanford researcher Jonathan Mayer discovered that although mobile Safari’s default setting blocks cookies from third parties and advertisers, Google and advertising companies Media Innovation Group, Vibrant Media, and Gannett PointRoll fooled mobile Safari into thinking “a person was submitting an invisible form to Google,” letting them in turn install a tracking cookie on users’ iPhones and PCs without consent.
Once a cookie installed, a Safari glitch allowed subsequent cookies to attach. Both Google and Apple issued statements following this morning’s report…
Software maker Oracle estimated that each day’s worth of Android activations makes Google approximately $10 million in annual revenue while also strengthening its Google+ service, German patent blogger Florian Mueller wrote on his FOSS Patents blog today. Oracle made this claim at a German court in regards to its patent infringement claims against the search giant:
While this case awaits trial, more than 700,000 Android-based devices are activated every day, all fundamentally built around the copyrighted Java APIs and the enhanced performance enabled by Oracle’s patents. Each day’s worth of activations likely generates approximately $10 million in annual mobile advertising revenue for Google.
Oracle did not explain its math, however, leading Mueller to suspect that the figure is based “on the assumption of annual advertising revenues of $14 per Android user.” Interestingly, Oracle wrote in court documents “Analysts have predicted that the number of new Android devices will reach 2.5 million per day within twelve months.” However, it is not just about mobile advertising, the success of Android is benefiting Google’s other properties, namely its Google+ social network…
Google’s AdSense team is tweaking the AdSense adverts’ rendering process on desktop and mobile devices, according to a blog post by the AdSense team. As part of the change, the company noted AdSense would automatically optimize how ad units are displayed on computers, tablets and smartphones. The AdSense backend will sense the type of device a website is being viewed from and it will optimize for the given platform. This includes reducing the number of ads per ad slot and increasing the size of the text to make them more legible and noticeable. In addition, an AdSense advert now features a big button that helps a user select it on tiny screens.
WordPress, a popular open source blogging tool and publishing platform, launched today its own advertising initiative conveniently dubbed WordAds. Just to make sure everyone is on the same page here, the company began a post on its official blog by saying its users “deserve better than AdSense”. Ouch! In another nod at Google’s AdSense, the WordPress team explained why it took them so long to roll out adverts on their platform:
We’ve resisted advertising so far because most of it we had seen wasn’t terribly tasteful, and it seemed like Google’s AdSense was the state-of-the-art, which was sad.
They are teaming up with Federated Media, which connects top blogs and web sites with leading brand marketers. If you run a WordPress blog, feel free to apply here to begin making money from WordAds. Many established media outlets entrust their online publishing operations to the WordPress engine, including the CNN and Fortune blogs and this site. Yes, Google absolutely dominates the online advertising game, but WordPress is no ordinary company either.
In addition to being the world’s most popular CMS, WordPress powers over 14.7 percent of top one million web sites, according to Alexa, and was found on 22 percent of all new websites as of August 2011, up from 8.5 percent. Also important, 22 out of every hundred active new domains in the United States use the WordPress CMS engine and more than 50,000 WordPress-powered blogs come online every day.
Using their Content ID feature, YouTube can match song covers to a publisher to enable them to make money from a video they didn’t publish. Today to help Content ID along, YouTube announced they landed agreements with National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) and its subsidiary Harry Fox Agency (HFA). Today’s agreement will give YouTube another 46,000 more songs to match ads to. YouTube currently also has agreements with many more publishers.
Going forward, the 46,000 music publishers already affiliated with HFA will be able to license the musical compositions they represent for use by the YouTube community. When these publishers allow YouTube to run ads alongside user generated videos that incorporate their compositions, the publishers, and the songwriters they represent, can make money.
Some users don’t agree with Google/YouTube’s decision to place ads on content that they made — such as a cover of a song. The user isn’t actually using the artist’s song, per-say, but using their own voice..and they don’t get to make a cent from it. Expand
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