Google Removed 134 Million 'Bad' Ads in 2011

The number of advertiser accounts suspended by Google exploded last year. In 2010 Google ended 248,000 advertising accounts for terms of service and advertising policy violations. Nearly four times as many accounts were suspended in 2011 – 824,000.

In 2010 Google denied a total of 56.7 million ads, and that number more than doubled to 134 million ads killed in 2011.

Google said it has worked to improve its systems and utilize new techniques to prevent so-called bad ads from running on its properties and ad network over the last few years. The firm has put in place policies that do not allow ads containing misleading claims, spam or malware. Ads violating these policies will not be shown on Google or AdSense partner sites. For repeat offenders, Google bans not only advertisements but advertisers who look to abuse the system and take advantage of users.

After running into trouble with the Department of Justice over illegal ad sales to Canadian Pharmacies in 2009, Google could be taking a more stringent approach to preventing ads that violate its policies. The company agreed to pay a $500 million dollar settlement with the DOJ in 2011.

The company uses a human rater system as one of its methods to check up on how the system is doing. “These human raters review a set of sites that are advertised on Google,” noted a May 25 Google blog post. “We use a large set of sites in order to get an accurate statistical reading of our efforts…. By using human raters, we can calibrate our automated systems and ensure that we’re improving our efforts over time.”

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