SearchEngineWatch: Google Ad Policies To Be Expanded Publicly

Following up on a leaked document reported by the SF Chronicle, SearchEngineWatch found that Google is in the process of determining how to give advertisers more visibility into its standards and practices rules - the factors that make Google reject some ads, seemingly spuriously. Google's policies have been kept secret, which frustrated many advertisers. Worse, the secret rules have been changing. For instance, in the beginning of the summer, "anti-" ads were routinely rejected. Anti-Bush, Anti-Kerry and anti-corporate ads were regularly pulled. But by the end of the summer, they seem to have been liberalized so that issue advocacy ads are getting through, but "hate ads" aren't. (SearchEngineWatch interprets this to mean you can say John Kerry's healthcare policies are bad, but you can't advocate tarring and feathering him). A Google executive said that guidelines should be available weeks or months.