Saturday, September 27, 2008

Google Ads and Islamic Content


I used to have google ads on my blog, via blogger's Google Adsense. The way google ads work is by scanning the blog text for recurring key words, and using those as part of the advertisements. I used to get a variety of ads from "learn to draw" to Christian-themed ads. But, at one point, I was getting repeated hits for Muslim and Islamic advertising, mostly Muslim dating sites. I'm not sure if these groups are especially aggressive at getting their ads out, since I don't think my site dwells especially on such topics. The number of ad hits seemed to outweigh the number of times I've posted on that topic.

I have since stopped using google ads.

Apparently, it goes both ways. Google is fast to pull its services off sites it deems are involved in "hate speech", which also includes "negative" writings on Islam and Muslims.