Dilema - Should I blow the whistle?

Okay here's the scoop. I was doing some competitive intelligence and saw that my main competitor is running adsense. After close oberservation I noticed that they are publishing 4 Ad units on their pages. I did a little more digging and found they have a sister site, which is also doing the same. Now these sites are very high traffic sites (alexa ranking of 4000k).

I guess my questions are:

1) Should I blow the whistle on them or not?

2) I don't want to look like an idiot, so is there anyway of figuring out if they are a high end / special publisher?

3) Are there different rules for high end publishers than normal joe blows like the rest of us, especially in terms of how many ad units we can publish?

thanks in advance

 

If they violate the TOS then turn them in.

 

High traffic sites DO have different rules.

Usually if they are displaying extra units without permission, google simply fails to display ads in the fourth unit (apparently this fails occasionally, though).

 

well .. I was mistaken - it wasn't 4 ads - it was FIVE - they seem to rotate ads from different suppliers ... and their algo is screwed as they are displaying 5 adsense on one page ... here's a screen snag ... I have removed the company name from it BUT IT IS CLEAR that they are in breach with 5 ad units.

http://www.wilpenaoutback.com/busted2.JPG

Feedback?

 

Proves nothing unless you know they don't have special permission.

You can point out the link to G and say "I'm interested in getting permission to do what site X is doing in term of ad unit quantity (see this link). What do I need to do?"

If you don't say specifically what the site is doing, G may be more likely to have someone actually look at the site.

But I wouldn't start off confrotational about it.

I'm all for ratting out the competition when they violate the rules. I believe in a level playing-field. Just be sure not to make an ass of yourself!

 

I love the AdSense on there for "Healthy Dog Jerky" LMFAO

 

Sent message asking how to go about getting 5 ad units on my page! I'll post the reply here once I get it ...

cheers
Frank

 

Try publishing 5 ads on your own page right now. It won't work. You can't do it even if you tried.

The extra ads do not display. That would lead me to believe they have special permission.

 

Instead of spying on your competitors, why don't you spend more time learning what they're doing right and copying them so you can one day surpass them, instead of trying to sabotage them with Adsense. Wouldn't that be a better use of your time?

 

jackburton2006 - thanks for your feedback! Why not do BOTH? Wouldn't that even be better?

 

i think they have speical permission too. i tried displaying a fourth unit and it just won't show up.

 

well I got a response from G adsense group today and here is what they had to say:

 

nice one. i was wrong then.

 

They must be using frames or something else to display more than 3 ads then. If you place 25 adsense blocks on one page, only 3 will show.

 

Nicely done.

 

Whether in breach of AdSense terms or not they are still your competitors.

What has been achieved here? Except that your competitor will shortly be in compliance with the terms after Google notify them and request they rectify the breach.

I'm failing to understand your motive behind reporting them to Google and what you personally have gained from it asides perhaps a little satisfaction that your competitor was 'notified' by Google of a breach. In a funny way you have helped your competition comply with the terms.

I'm really puzzled!

Pete

 

I would have left it alone unless they had done some dirty business in the past to me. regardless, I would probably take that pic down just to cover your own ass now in case the owner of that site stops by and sees you blew the whistle on him. Nothing like getting into an online war, I have seen how ugly those can get.

This is probably something you should have kept to yourself, rather than post publically. Somehow, these things can easily come back to bite you.

 

a breach of tos is still a breach, regardless of whether they're a competitor or not. he was just being a good samaritan by reporting it. i would have done the same.

 

Yea I agree. Report 'em. Why not. It may not do nothing, but it also shows that people are watching you . . . don't try something stupid.

Google should really suspend the account IMO.

And I would blot out the slogan at least . . or take it down. I googled that and found the site in question.

Skinny

 

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.