Google Reportedly Blacklists 'Ethereum' As a Google Ad Keyword, Startup Claims

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Yahoo: Google has reportedly blacklisted keywords mentioning Ethereum (ETH) on its advertising platform Google Ads, smart contract auditing startup Decenter tweeted on Jan. 10. The official Google Ads account replied to the tweet stating that cryptocurrency exchanges targeting the United States and Japan can be advertised on the platform, and that targeting other countries could be the reason for the ad rejection.

When Decenter explained that they are a group of developers doing smart contract security audits and that they were seeing the error message when trying to use the "ethereum development services" and "ethereum security audits" keywords, Google Ads' official account answered: "Although we wouldn't be able to preemptively confirm if your keyword is eligible to trigger ads, we'd recommend that you refer to the 'Cryptocurrencies' section of our policy on Financial products and services." When Decenter asked the Ethereum community on Reddit in an open query about the alleged Google Ads policy changes, the team specified that: "Any of the keywords that contain "ethereum" in our campaigns are no longer showing ads as of January 9th and are now reporting the following error." Decenter said they have tested keywords for "ethereum smart contract audits" and "eos smart contract audits" and found that only the EOS-referenced keyword showed ads.

Google banned all cryptocurrency-related advertising of all types in June 2018. However, Google announced in September 2018 that it would change its ad policy in October, reallowing some crypto businesses to advertise on its platform. Namely, the changes allow cryptocurrency exchanges ads in the United States and Japan.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

I think undependence terrifies editors and proofreaders.

In this case, people who know the problems with Et

[raymorris]

Their are several significant security issues around Ethereum. Basically, Ethereum isn't just a coin, it's a complete programming language. Ethereum is a vast collection not of coins, but of programs. You can write malware, or oopsware, in Ethereum.

One of the most interesting things about code released on Ethereum is that you can't update it. Any bug you have, you're stuck with forever. People have lost a lot of money that way, suffered damage. So it's important to make sure your Ethereum code is 100% perfect, and avoid to code that makes any assumptions about the future. DNS entries change, companies are bought and sold - even entire countries come and go, with a new country emerging about every three years, on average. There are lots of ways to have code that needs to be updated. Ethereum code, since it can't be updated, can't assume that a country that exists today will still be there when the code runs.

The advertiser in TFS is a security company that helps people make sure their Ethereum code is bullet proof. That's a useful service.

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[reanjr]

That doesn't change the fact that likely more than 90% of ads submitted with the keyword "Ethereum" are scams. Google operates using automated systems. It's reasonable they are trying to protect their customers from the cesspool of crypto advertising.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Ethereum is also a severe competitor to google, for a decentralized web.

Google is in essence; using its monopoly power to stifle competetiion

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[Desler]

Smoking too much weed today?

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[ArhcAngel]

Etherium is not a crypto coin. It is a blockchain company/platform with which one can build a crypto coin or any other blockchain based technology. IBM has a blockchain [ibm.com] department as do most of the big companies. I wouldn't be surprised to find Alphabet has either their own blockchain company or are heavily invested in a rival blockchain company.

Google is invested in Crypto Currency

[PKI Champion]

Alphabet invested $25 million into CurrencyCloud in 2017. Using its position as a search provider, I think this is a subtle way to influence the market in that direction.

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[reanjr]

So, you think Google finds crypto so valuable to their business model, they are willing to undermine user trust in their flagship product, and potentially open themselves up to anti-trust?

seller of ads dont wannt to sell spesific ads

[bn-7bc]

so go to another ad network then, personaly I don't see a problem no one forces anyon to use google add words, ther are alternatives right? I'm not up to speed on ads as I have not needed to take out one in a long time

A sure way to get your AdWords account blocked.

[Anonymous Coward]

I had the misfortune of getting my account banned for mentioning Ethereum.
Not even as a broker, but more on the distributed apps angle.

And do remember there is no real appeal process.
Requests to unblock result in an email from an automated system,
AdWords support centre just hangs up the call.

Time for a new search engine

[AHuxley]

A search engine not made by a politically active ad company.

Crypto

[Max]

That's a real problem for the ethereum, but usual costumers like me can take a look at bitcoins. The site https://duckdice.io/lottery [duckdice.io] gives an opportunity to win a great deal of cryptocurrencies! Good luck and don't fuck it up