Google Bans Environmental Group's Ads

[DuctapeFatwa]

Online search engine leader Google has banned the ads of an environmental group protesting a major cruise line's sewage treatment methods, casting a spotlight on the policies _ and power _ of the popular Web site's lucrative marketing program.

Oceana, a 2 1/2-year-old nonprofit group, said Google dropped the text-based ads displayed in shaded boxes along the right side of its Web page because they were critical of Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines.

Washington D.C.-based Oceana believes Royal Caribbean pollutes the oceans by improperly treating the sewage on its ships. It hoped to publicize its complaints by paying to have its ads appear when terms like "cruise vacation" and "cruise ship" were entered into Google's search engine. The ad, which said "Help us protect the world's oceans," appeared for two days last week before Google pulled it from its page.

When Oceana challenged the ban, Mountain View, Calif.-based Google responded with an e-mail advising the group that it doesn't accept ads with "language that advocates against Royal Caribbean."

http://www.lacrossetribune.com/articles/2004/02/12/ap/HiTech/d80m38k80.txt

[LostInTheMaise]

1. That's fair enough

I doubt Google is required to air advocacy ads if they attack commercial interests.

[CO Liberal]

2. Remind Me to Stay Off Google

There are other search engines, after all......

[ConcernedCanuk]

3. yuppers, yahoo is dropping google !

.
.

Yahoo, Google primed for search war

Last modified: January 14, 2004, 6:45 PM PST


Yahoo on Wednesday said it will drop search partner Google during the first quarter of 2004 in favor of its own technology, opening a new phase in the battle for Web search dominance.

The announcement from Yahoo CEO Terry Semel marks the first time the company has publicly disclosed a specific timeline for replacing Google, a move that has been widely expected since Yahoo announced plans to acquire search provider Inktomi for $235 million in December 2002. Inktomi has developed so-called algorithmic search technology similar to Google's that indexes Web pages and ranks them based on search terms.

"We've been hard at work with the assets that we've acquired to develop our (own) algorithmic search engine," Yahoo Chief Financial Officer Susan Decker said in a phone interview. "We'll be swapping that out in Q1."

Although expected, the announcement highlights the changing market for Web-based search, which has been transformed in the past two years thanks to fast-growing and profitable advertising programs.

Riding that crest, Google is preparing for a public offering that could raise as much as $4 billion, according to reports, giving the company a market capitalization of about $15 billion.

Google currently processes approximately 80 percent of all search requests on the Web through distribution deals with Yahoo, Time Warner's America Online and Ask Jeeves, according to market share data compiled by research firm Comscore Media Metrix. When Yahoo ends its deal with Google, that share is expected to drop to about 54 percent. Yahoo's reach, meanwhile, could jump to 42 percent, based on its own search traffic and a deal that provides Inktomi results to Microsoft's MSN Web portal.



Right on time eh ?


and I remember reading about a weird named site - "dogpile" ???

[Greyskye]

4. Dogpile

Dogpile was my favorite search engine 2 or 3 generations back. It was a nice meta-search engine; in that it pulled in the results of numerous other search engines and compiled the results in a nice way.

And as much of a tree-hugger as I am:smoke:, I don't have a problem with Google's policy on this one. I'd make the same business decision myself if I was in their shoes.

[schultzee]

5. They are on my boycott list now. Corporatist pigs.

[dArKeR]

6. I made an google toon when they cut Indymedia

toward the bottom;
http://darkerxdarker.tripod.com/push030813.html

[lostnfound]

12. They cut Indymedia?! I missed that one. For "antisemitism".

That is just aggravating. The power of the Internet, filtered for political purposes, so that eventually in can be as warped and skewed as the evening news.

[nolabels]

7. If you are going to pay good money for the P.C, internet service, software

and all kinds of other goodies, maybe spending a few dimes to get a good way to search for things might not be such a bad idea. I use Copernic and have for while now. I finds things google passes over or deleted all the time

http://www.copernic.com/en/index.html
They do have a couple of free ones that also work well. I got a free one first, liked it so well that I paid for an upgrade

Being Googled
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=17950

[northzax]

8. I'm sorry, 'believes' Royal Caribbean pollutes?

yeah, and I believe that if I let go of a brick, it will fall. Royal Caribbean has been fined over 30 million dollars for illegal dumping of sewage and chemicals.

Here's the DOH press release: http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/1999/July/316enr.htm

for anyone who cares, they once built a fake waste water treatment plant on a ship, so it would pass inspection, but the waste water simply bypassed the plant. This was in the 1990's. not the 1890's.

[lostnfound]

11. Wow. That's outrageous. This is a slippery slope for Google to tread, guys

It's not much different than refusing to air Moveon's Superbowl ad.

As long as the ad was factual and not slanderous, Google should accept it. Instead they've sided with a corporation because it has bigger revenue potential.

[Zhade]

9. "We are at war with Oceana. We have always been at war with Oceana."

NT!

[dArKeR]

10. Google criticized for suppressing ads of a non-profit group

Online search engine leader Google has banned the ads of an environmental group protesting a major cruise line's sewage treatment methods, casting a spotlight on the policies -- and power -- of the popular Web site's lucrative marketing program.

Oceana, a two-and-a-half-year-old nonprofit group, said Google dropped the text-based ads displayed in shaded boxes along the right side of its Web page because they were critical of Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines.

Washington DC-based Oceana believes Royal Caribbean pollutes the oceans by improperly treating the sewage on its ships. It hoped to publicize its complaints by paying to have its ads appear when terms like "cruise vacation" and "cruise ship" were entered into Google's search engine.

The ad, which said "Help us protect the world's oceans," appeared for two days last week before Google pulled it from its page.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/worldbiz/archives/2004/02/14/2003098747

[lostnfound]

13. Send an email to complain

to [e-mail]