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November 12, 2007
Google's Penny Stock Promotion: OTC:EVIL
I was having an otherwise pleasant and unrelated chat with an equities lawyer today and he asked me a question that caught me somewhat flat-footed: Why, he wanted to know, am I talking up OTC penny stocks on this site?
I'm not, I said.
Oh, but you are, he said. There are links to OTC:[ticker redacted] right here, and he named a page.
Oooooh, I said. That's a Google Adsense banner. I don't have any control over what it puts up, and now and then the deranged ad service software apparently decides that my site, which is adamantly opposed to all things promotional and penny-stock-ish, should puff up a few OTC stocks. Mention stocks, and that's what you get. Apparently a ticker is a ticker is a ticker.
More seriously, what's with Google? Why does it serve up these ads? And does "Don't be evil" -- Google's supposed corporate motto -- really square with running ads for penny stock promotions? Unless EVIL is an OTC ticker, of course.
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This is a sound security argument for blocking adsense: a conflicted second party (google) accepts money from a third party (EVIL) and places arbitrary links on a site I am viewing. The site also gets a small cut (and so bears some of the responsibility). You've got to be kidding me!
In this day and age, it's hard to believe people still serf the web without adblockers, and that corporate firewalls/microsoft explorer do not block adsense by default!
Looks like Google's all-knowing brain understands Paul Kedrosky and his audience better than Paul Kedrosky does. Don't live in denial, embrace it.
Paul,
I happen to be the Nigerian Ambassador to Lichteinstein. If you help me move my $36 million worth of pirate treasure out of the country, I'll give you 10% and you won't have to run ads anymore.
Hey Paul -- you can block specific sites in your Google AdSense account. Don't know if that will take care of ALL the possible penny stock sites, but at the very least you could give it a try.
haha! I've noticed that on your site. And this post reaaallly brings them out. It's like the housing bubble blogs that get the mortgage spammers.