Google to block ads for knives, starting in September

hardheart

hardheart

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They attempt to be specific, but the wording seems to cut a massively wide swath.

https://support.google.com/adwordspolicy/answer/6014299?hl=en

This is a preview of the upcoming Policy Center

The policies here will not go into effect until around September and are subject to change. To see the policies in effect until then, visit the current Policy Center. We'll be adding more sections to help you comply with the updated policies, so check this page again around September.


Our policy:

We want to help keep people safe both online and offline, so we don't allow the promotion of some products or services that cause damage, harm, or injury.

Dangerous knives
Disapproval and suspension reason: "Dangerous knives"
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Knives that are designed or promoted as products that can be used to injure an opponent in sport, self-defense, or combat
no_good.gif
Any knife design that provides a confrontational advantage (including disguised appearance or assisted-opening mechanism) Examples: Switchblades, tactical knives, fighting knives, sword-canes, balisongs, military knives, push daggers, throwing axes​
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I don't see the problem. The only people who would get knife ads are people who look at knives. It's pretty much all dependent on your cookies and what site you're currently on. That and I use adblock plus. I haven't seen an ad on the computer for years.
 
TotalDbag said:
I don't see the problem. The only people who would get knife ads are people who look at knives. It's pretty much all dependent on your cookies and what site you're currently on. That and I use adblock plus. I haven't seen an ad on the computer for years.
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Same. I block all ads for everything.

If it were a case of search results not coming up, then we might be on to something, but that would be weird even if it did happen.
 
TotalDbag said:
I don't see the problem.
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About 85% of traffic from google to the search result sites is driven by ads. Specific to knives, it may be lower or higher, but Google made $50 billion dollars last year, so the impact on knife makers and sellers could be significant seeing as how singularly important they are to web traffic. If the people who make knives have more trouble selling them, then ultimately we will have more trouble buying them.
 
hardheart said:
About 85% of traffic from google to the search result sites is driven by ads. Specific to knives, it may be lower or higher, but Google made $50 billion dollars last year, so the impact on knife makers and sellers could be significant seeing as how singularly important they are to web traffic. If the people who make knives have more trouble selling them, then ultimately we will have more trouble buying them.
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Most persons' cookies will not tailor their ads to knives though, unless they're already into knives. Heck, I am into them and most times I just search for a specific knife I am already looking for. I guess this could potentially hurt the newcomer or someone thinking about getting into knives but, again, I think they're more likely to just do a Google search than wait for an ad.
 
TotalDbag said:
I don't see the problem.
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Its the Thought Police at work, who are slowly and systematically chipping away at our way of life. A little here, and an little there - right before your eyes. And everyone says "no prob!". And someday, before you know what has happened, everything is gone. At this rate, the day will come when Big Google and the Thought Police will tell us that knives can't be seen, purchased or even talked about on the interweb.
 
Just to help my aged brain follow this - They are going to block the annoying pop up ads from companies they deem dangerous in their educated opinion.

But, if you a search, say for Hinderer or Benchmade, you will still get your normal results as before.

Is that it in a nutshell?

Guess I'll need to look for another search engine.
 
powernoodle said:
Its the Thought Police at work, who are slowly and systematically chipping away at our way of life. A little here, and an little there - right before your eyes. And everyone says "no prob!". And someday, before you know what has happened, everything is gone. At this rate, the day will come when Big Google and the Thought Police will tell us that knives can't be seen, purchased or even talked about on the interweb.
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It's Google's site so legally they can do whatever they please. They could make knife searches not even pop up if they want. They could ban BladeForums.com from showing up in any knife related searches. What Google does on a private company level doesn't effect want happens on a government level. Google doesn't own the Internet. You have many other search engine/Web browser options that would love your service.
and like I said before, if your cookies don't have knife related content you wouldn't see anything about it anyway.

It's just like Facebook banning gun sales on their site. They can legally do that as a private company. Facebook banning it isn't the same as the government banning it. None of your rights are being infringed.
 
powernoodle said:
Its the Thought Police at work, who are slowly and systematically chipping away at our way of life. A little here, and an little there - right before your eyes. And everyone says "no prob!". And someday, before you know what has happened, everything is gone. At this rate, the day will come when Big Google and the Thought Police will tell us that knives can't be seen, purchased or even talked about on the interweb.
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Exactly.

Things like this, something that reduces general freedom or possibilities, might seem insignificant or small, and consequently people don't really care. But it's actually a huge problem.

If the government, corporations, etc. wanted more control, do people really think that they'd do something very obvious, something that would "obviously" face a lot of resistance?

I really don't think this is something that Google came up with -- the more ads, traffic, etc, the more they earn, so this ban on knife-ads probably came from the government, or a group, or whatever, in exchange for their support.
 
Google can show poop for every search result if they want to. Google is not a government service, and them restricting stuff is not encroaching on our freedom. Some Wal-Mart's not selling guns is not an attack on the 2nd amendment because they can sell what they do and don't want. Facebook not allowing you throw racial slurs around without being able to be banned or whatnot is not an attack on freedom of speech. Private companies can do what ever they want with the confines of the law and their property. Target could add a defensive line to stop people from entering the electronics section, they reserve that right.
 
Joe58 said:
Just to help my aged brain follow this - They are going to block the annoying pop up ads from companies they deem dangerous in their educated opinion.

But, if you a search, say for Hinderer or Benchmade, you will still get your normal results as before.

Is that it in a nutshell?

Guess I'll need to look for another search engine.
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No. Google makes their money from ads, and not pop-ups or banners. Google places sponsored results at the top of search results, andthey own 68% of the total search market - two of every three searches go through them. Those links are actually ads. Google also has adwords, where keywords in text are also converted to links. Neither of those will provide links to 'dangerous' knives, starting in September. Google is responsible for about 25% of consumer traffic in N. America, and when Google went down last fall, there was a 40% drop in web traffic, likely since their robots also were not crawling sites to update their indexes. This would be more like all broadcast and cable stations not showing knife commercials, nor showing programs where knives are featured or named, and viewers just stumbling upon scenes with nondescript knives in movies or shows that don't feature them with any prominence.

Google has every right to do this as a corporation, but no one has any obligation to be content with it. Though they are more than free to not care what the more powerful and influential corporations do that affects businesses in entirely different industries which materially affects the ability for producers and consumers to find each other. Maybe they'll all go back to mail order, I'm sure no money will be lost and everyone gets to keep their job and all the knife collections get to keep growing.
 
Not surprising. Time for me to find a new search engine as well......

Thanks for the heads up........
 
Esav Benyamin said:
My Windows phone preferences Bing, and I also put Bing weather and news up. Very nice. Screwgle. Whatever happened to letting customers choose?
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I would have to guess, but it seems that Google is being backed by lobby groups of some sort. I've always been a fan of companies that do their job, run their business and stay out of mine. Unfortunately, as previously mentioned we will be seeing a lot more of this in the next couple years. I don't mean to be diminutive, but some folks need to be told what to do by others in order to simply survive. That can explain why so many rules exist in marketing, sales, and business/finance in general. When I have spoken to folks much older than myself, they always fondly remember when times were much simpler and better. I would have to agree.
 
I always fondly remember when times were much simpler and better. The word for a store that sells food in English today is "supermarket". I grew up in New York City with a butcher selling meat, a fish market selling fish, a grocer selling produce.

Bigger and better turns rancid, opaque, needs labels to see what's in the food, needs laws to say where you can sell it.
 
powernoodle said:
Its the Thought Police at work, who are slowly and systematically chipping away at our way of life. A little here, and an little there - right before your eyes. And everyone says "no prob!". And someday, before you know what has happened, everything is gone. At this rate, the day will come when Big Google and the Thought Police will tell us that knives can't be seen, purchased or even talked about on the interweb.
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Very well said, thank you.
 
Esav Benyamin said:
I always fondly remember when times were much simpler and better. The word for a store that sells food in English today is "supermarket". I grew up in New York City with a butcher selling meat, a fish market selling fish, a grocer selling produce.

Bigger and better turns rancid, opaque, needs labels to see what's in the food, needs laws to say where you can sell it.
Click to expand...

I could not agree more, and it is accurate on so many more levels than we even realize.
 
powernoodle said:
Its the Thought Police at work, who are slowly and systematically chipping away at our way of life. A little here, and an little there - right before your eyes. And everyone says "no prob!". And someday, before you know what has happened, everything is gone. At this rate, the day will come when Big Google and the Thought Police will tell us that knives can't be seen, purchased or even talked about on the interweb.
Click to expand...

Very much agree. All part of the mania for more laws and thus criminalizing more and more activities.

Just because a private corporation does it and not a government makes it no less worse. Corporations are more powerful than govts anyway. They have the right to do what they like bla bla...That's the kind of passive refrain /"no probl" that they want to encourage. Self-censorship even. Deciding what can or cannot be advertised, searched for, thought about etc. Restricting freedom of though for perceived 'common good/safety' is a convenient mechanism, ultimately it also guarantees a monopoly control of products and services.
 
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