with the image from the Google.com main page. I have a section devoted to Google and have placed the Google image that everyone recognizes on my site. I also display Google Adsense on that same site. That is fine, as long as I have Google Adsense. I'm not claiming I created the Google image and I have a disclaimer indicating that all images should be assumed to be copyrighted by their respective owners. Am I still creating a violation of some kind?
I believe you need to ask permission from Google to display their logos. In practice very few people do ask and even fewer run into trouble but I think there's more chance they'd make an example of an AdSense publisher if they were having a crackdown.
A google guy will visit your site and if he think it's against the TOS you are in danger. To be in safe side either ask for permission or remove that.
Thanks for the links and tips guys. I'm going to ask Google and see what they think of it. I'd rather be on the safe side. If they decide that it is indeed a Google Adsense violation, I will simply use the dictionary words "google" and "yahoo" instead of the search engines and then resubmit my query to them. As of now, I've removed the images. Thank you.
I would ask permission first before using their logos as you are doing a copyright infringement by using their logos without any permission. If Google found out then it could mean that you may end up with a warning or it could even get you into a lawsuit. Good luck with this anyway.