On: Pay up or we’ll make Google ban your ads

[mceachen]

I think you're overselling how much Google cares (or needs to care) about trust.

They dominate search traffic (in the markets/countries they exist for). Businesses don't use AdWords because they "trust" Google. They suffer through using AdWords because it's the only game in town.

[halflings → mceachen]

This article is from 2015: https://adage.com/article/digital/inside-google-s-secret-war...

"If advertisers believed the company's operation were fraud-filled, they could take their money elsewhere and the business would falter."

That's it, in a nutshell.

(and if they had 100 people working on this in 2015; you better believe that number is much higher now)

[mirimir → halflings]

> This article is from 2015 ...

Maybe Google had more competition in 2015.

Although I find even that difficult to take seriously.

Where else would they "take their money"? Facebook? I doubt that Facebook ads show up in web searches.

[owl57 → mirimir]

A lot of people probably see more Facebook ads than Google ones. And Facebook knows a lot about users, probably including some things that Google knows less reliably. The relevant problem is, do they seem any less scummy?

[skrebbel → halflings]

> elsewhere

And where would that be, exactly?