I wrote this big post about how profoundly disappointed I am in Google’s lack of response to the AdSense initiative (and how repulsed I am by some of the advertisers who are complaining about bloggers encouraging people to click on their ads). However, Google has a perfect right to donate (or not) to whomever they choose. Just because a bunch of bloggers have decided to donate their AdSense revenues to help tsunami victims, it does not mean that Google has to bow to their will and help them out. They are a money-making enterprise, after all. It’s not like they pledged to go out of their way to do good. Just “not be evil.”
I will keep the ads up for the rest of January, since I made a promise at BlogAid, but after that those suckers are outta here.
It’s true. Land of the free and home of capitalism. And there could possibly be logistical problems of which we are unaware that make the idea unpracticable. And i can understand why some companies might not want to pay for meaningless click-thru that doesn’t sell their product (although I imagine that’s a large part of what they get regardless).
I’ve been debating how I could come up with a donation and I’ve decided to clear my change jar. I don’t know how much is in there right now — it’s only half full — but there’s a lot of silver in the copper. I figure that every little bit helps.
But it would have been nice if a company as well known as Google had stepped forward to make it possible. I stopped using Google as a search engine a while back.
Therein lies my problem. A company with the technology to scan a post, see that it contains the word “monkey,” and instantly generate 4 ads for feces cleanser should be able to set up a way for people to contribute their revenues to a single fund or at least come out and say, “Hey, ya know what? We can’t do this because of legal restrictions,” instead of whining about invalid clicks.
If they were really good, they’d offer to match the donations from everyone pledging at BlogAid (or some more accountable list they could make up themselves).