Note: I have went back and tried to make this post a bit more clear and cleaned up some HTML. The substance is the same…

The Director meets Researcher / E-Commerce Specialist over Google Badwords
This is a long entry, but needed to clarify and summarize the questions coming in over the issue. I have set forth a recap of the discussions between Rosenbaum and myself over the Google “censorship issue” The story kicks off at Steve Rosenbaum’s IndieWire blog. For those not in the know- Steve is a well-respected film personality, director, Emmy award winner, etc.etc. Also known by some as sort of the old man of “user generated content”…

Rosenbaum’s Video DNA

This is important and the heart of the matter. If you are not familiar with Rosenbaum check the extensive Wikipedia Entry. Many of my generation might recognize him as the creator of MTV’s
News Unfiltered. The mid 90’s the premiere of “MTV News Unfiltered.” invited viewers to call an 800 number with story ideas, then sends cameras to the most promising respondents for use in telling their stories. MTV edits a few, a wild half-hour show.
A quantum leap forward for the era too showing that not all people are retards. Imagine letting viewers submit their own stories and films (man… sounds like YouTube in a way). Steve is widely acknowledged as an early innovator in video journalism, the process where journalists are deeply immersed in the stories they report, using a handheld video camera to capture events as they occur. Knowing his DNA you can see the obvious drive behind his current experiment of video aggregation with his Magnify platform using video footage around the Israeli and Lebanon conflict caught by real people- you know the ones wading around in all the unreality… the only thing Steve might not have counted on was Google Adwords being an impediment.

Backgrounder- How People Meet & Dialogue Starts

I don’t know why I do this, but I am fascinated by how people meet. Clark, who I cite below would probably tell me I was being Fooled by Randomness ala Taleb, but I think there is more to these collisions.

People always seem to ask details like this too- I guess to understand the “campfire nature” of the Internet. Fair enough.
J.D. Ashcraft, Production Manager for GMD Studios, firm heavily involved in Indiewire passed the story on to me (being a past and current collaborator e.g. Nothing so Strange and Eldtritch Errors) knowing my seething disgust for censorship. Brian Clark, CEO of GMD Studios introduced me by e-mail to Steve Rosenbaum perhaps because of my recent brushes with Indian censorship and the MSFT/Google ecosystem pollution research I worked on around Blogspot and Microsoft’s “algorithm” (cough). Perhaps it was simply that Rosenbaum, Clark and I were members of a Secret Cabal that I cannot name. Right- as if that really happens. There are no conspiracies- pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

After introductions, my thoughts to Steve were to try to amplify the story a bit, see what would happen and hopefully Google would reverse their policy if some heat were tossed around. Started at Digg only, but a much longer attack would be needed, as expected not much movement, however we kept our dialogs going by e-mail. (I will not reveal that, but much of it is posted in the blogs per his permission and mostly Q&A). Incidentally I have been testing a colleague’s new system (and very cool system) to look at how some of this spreads so it was an interesting experiment from a technical angle too.

Blogs- Dates and General Breakdown- Key Points – Extractions - Mail
:
(Note this is a meta-summary by me so please visit blog entries for the full story and take. One day I will go back and make them more readable…)

Rosenbaum 08-08-06 Entry: Google Erases Israel/Lebanon Ads - but why?

Steve explains the situation. He has provided a platform for users to aggregate various “citizen journalism” video pieces on the Israeli/Lebanon situation and for users to comment on them. He didn’t upload them, didn’t take sides, No pro Israeli or Lebanese bias or agenda. Just wants a platform where people can discuss what is really going on.

Like many people he opens up an Adwords account to drive traffic to the site. Much to his dismay the entire campaign is rejected and he lists the all the rejections, sample ads and references the policies.

SUGGESTIONS:
-> Content: Due to the sensitive nature of this matter, we are not able to run this ad at this time. As noted in our advertising terms and conditions, we reserve the right to exercise editorial discretion when it comes to the advertising we accept on our site.
———————
POLICY DEFINITIONS:

Unacceptable Content: Google believes strongly in freedom of expression and therefore offers broad access to content across the web without censoring search results. Please note that the decisions we make concerning advertising in no way affect the search results we deliver. Please note that both your ad and keywords have been suspended at this time.

Of course Google reserves the right to do this as they control and approve advertisements, however it was interesting to note that other ads of a similar nature came up.

Hezbollah vs Israel
Hezbollah capture 2 Israel soldiers
Will this lead to Israel-Iran war?
vanrcook.tripod.com/nextwar.htm

War in the Mid-East
Israel, Lebanon and Hezbollah.
Read the Latest News.
www.RealTruth.org/SpecialReport

As Steve notes the only real difference is they point to text and not Video.

INTRO TO THE ADWORD BADWORDS

Steve Rosenbaum 08-08-06 Entry: Disapproved Keywords

Steve goes on to list a long list of keywords all disapproved although they seem contextually targeted. I later use this list to do some extensive e-commerce analysis on the words and hope to post chart at Revenews and perhaps a basic one here. E.g. bid ranges, overture costs vs. Google costs, query volume predicted, etc. I also noted some strange anomalies with Google Trends when I trended some of these words. For such a momentous event- search volume is quite low- perhaps poor keyword selection on his part.

While Google news displays tons of ink being pressed about the conflict- Google Trends comes up with almost nothing in search volume. Could be normal, but after almost a month- it is odd. However it is in beta.

THE STORY IN A NUTSHELL

Wayne Porter 08-08-06 Entry: Google Disapproves Israel Lebanon Hezbollah War Ads- Reminds me of India?

In short I amplify much of Steve’s findings in this entry and then ramble on because I can (it is my blog).

The Story in a Nutshell: As the conflict in the Middle East heated up Steve Rosenbaum began to search the web for videos shot by real people in and around the conflict. He found plenty of video citizen journalism and to get the word out he created a channel to aggregate the videos and organize them in a central area. Nice- Great idea! Something Google might have thought of doing since their mission is to, and I quote, “Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

I go on to pull key points from Google’s philosophy, and apply them to the current situation and end up with my own advice for Google- after quoting a lot of stirring Shakespeare to try to get people fired up into action… plus those plays are like awesomesville.

In Summary To Google: “Perhaps you mean well, but the user, many of us are intelligent ones, can decide on the sensitive nature of world matters. After all we are your customers. We drive your business. We rely on you for relevant information in both advertising and search.
In this case, it was a needed civic experiment.”

Someone should have been paying Steve…not Steve trying to pay Google via CPC deals.

Also of note and I e-mailed Yahoo! about this next twist…my contact was intrigued and asked for clarification…waiting to hear back on them and THEIR policies in a situation like this. I doubt they go public (why stick your head into a noose?) but intrigued was enough. Yeah Yahoo! I know you’ll see it- take a stand! I assume you will on what constitutes click fraud and invalid clicks- assuming you can really handle rogue web agents/bots and botnets…
Too be really “insensitive” and for contrast I tried Googling- gasp: execution videos.
Paydirt: I got an ad!


Execution Videos
Find hundreds of new and popular
Execution videos now!

I didn’t know there were so many popular and new execution videos! Wow! The irony was the “execution videos” lead to a page that had no videos, just decoy images and a bunch of text (apparently cobbled from ezine articles material on LCD projectors).

Thus relevance = zero and Goal = Game the system.

So Google would accept an advert for execution videos? Tasteful indeed, but let information flow. Even though the advertisement was totally and completely non-contextual given the content of the page… YPN! Ads however, were targeted well, showing ads for LCD projector stuff based on the page’s content- I guess so you can watch execution videos in full glory on big projectors. I notified my contacts at Yahoo! and the ads are still there so maybe they are ok with it. After all their contextual targeting is working fine- Google’s search targeting is the screw-up. (I still find it tacky.)

THE ROSENBAUM DILEMMA

Wayne Porter 08-10-06 Entry: Rosenbaum’s Dilemma: The Lost Lebanon/Israel War Videos Return Without The Help of Adwords

In my eyes this is the interesting part of the whole dialog…Steve Rosenbaum was almost caught in the same “censorship trap” as Google.
In the end, after an e-mail exchange with Bennett Hazelton of Peacefire.org, I had to circle back around to Steve with some questions of my own.

While the censorship issues intrigued me, I also found out he had taken down a few of the videos because of a harsh post on Google groups (opens in new window)- in his own words “he felt bad”.

This worried me. He hadn’t even created the videos, found them or posted them. He merely created a venue, a platform, to help people archive them by vertical or niche and went on to help call attention to them by spending his own ad dollars. In my eyes this was noble- to call our attention to world problems. So I had to ask the obvious question…
Was Steve practicing well-meaning censorship to protect others from the harsh realities of these war videos? Perhaps just as Google did?
(I might have done the same. However, Steve rallied to his convictions and conquers what I call the “Rosenbaum’s Dilemma”.)

I also asked him some questions about his site, and how it was setup, etc- did users get shocked or have chance to change minds, etc. See entry for the Q&A but overall it took four deliberate clicks to view the war videos- again some of the videos are very “mainstream” and some shot by citizens while under hostile conditions.
In the end Steve told me by e-mail he pulled four because “he felt bad” over some posts- one post in particular…we discussed this via e-mail and he let me know he had put them back up. As a sign of solidarity (that he wasn’t alone- he had a “brother in arms”) I also posted links directly to the videos on my own blog- the ones some found so disturbing. For two of them you must register for mature access at YouTube. If people find them disturbing- they should. The truth is disturbing.
Rosenbaum’s Dilemma ‘Recovered’ Videos: (Hosted at YouTube) linked from my blog.

Steve also restored the videos to http://warzone-video.magnify.net/

The site is obviously a serious site about desire for user interaction and social commentary on real and current events. This is social commentary, although harsh commentary because some of the footage is real- and hey- it is footage not just words. Again this really is not surprising given his well known production DNA.

THE BADWORDS of ADWORDS

Porter 08-10-2006 Entry: Google Disapproved Adwords- More on Google’s War Sensitivity Issues

For anti-spyware insiders I give you an insider’s joke- badware.org…badadwords.org

In this entry select trackbacks and comments come in on the issue that I highlight and quote as well as the list of banned words as reported by Steve. Out of curiosity I began doing some analysis on it in a separate spreadsheet also making comparisons to Overture pricing, positions, etc.

The table is below out of academic interest- it is not yet complete (for example Overture traffic estimates) and could use some more fields and study. I just lack the time… let the myriad of PPCSE experts at Revenews do their thing or bring in big guns like Dan Murray at Ravenswood Marketing or Craig Danuloff at Commerce360.

Keyword Statistics
Price Marketing: Overture - Google
Click Range Estimates: Google

Price Target Market: United States
Language Target: English
Google Traffic Estimate Inclusion:: All Countries

CAVEAT: Because the Google campaigns did not yet have a performance history, keyword estimates were based on system-wide performance information.

Google Cost Scenario: Average CPC: 0.89 (at a maximum CPC of 4.78)
Estimated clicks per day: 1,441 - 1,820 (at a daily budget of $1,900.00)
All estimated positions were in slots 1 to 3 and set to Broad Match.

Estimates were based on bid amount (left open) and geographical targeting selections (all countries).Because the Traffic Estimator did not consider daily budget, the ads may receive fewer clicks than estimated.

So at best, for his project, it would have cost him 2 grand a day to bring in 1400 to 1800 visitors. From a budgetary standpoint he might be better off getting banned and letting the Net route around the damage and people create buzz about it. I think the ROI sucks in the Google scenario- although we have to let it run to see how the NQ index would impact cost over time.
Still it leads us to Steve’s clever routing around damage on his own.

CLUETRAIN MANIFESTO- INTERNET ROUTES AROUND DAMAGE

Wayne Porter: 08-10-2006 Routing Around Misguided Adwords Policies

Partial Version from Entry above, and
I have added notes from myself.

An update from Steve Rosenbaum on Google’s Adword Censorship affair I have gotten fired up into this week: Steve reports no answer from Google Adwords yet.

Meanwhile back in the bat cave the videos have emerged at http://lebop.blogspot.com/ on a site called the Lebanese Political Journal, hosted at Google’s BlogSpot service. I have it on good word that Steve and Co. are proud of it…I have to wonder if Google would reject ads from the Lebanese Political Journal?

In my e-mail exchange with Steve he noted:

“They should have paid attention already. The fact that they didn’t is scary.”

Damn straight I think.

Steve wants a correction from Google that it was a mistake and to re-instate the campaign. (Rightly so Steve, although after analyzing the potential economics of the campaign I think you would be better served through BlogAds- or going to Overture where the prices are inline or better putting a serious memetic engineering campaign into the mix.)

Perhaps most importantly, Steve wishes, that the person who dinged the campaign understands that sites talking about world affairs are not ‘distasteful’.

My Take: Some will argue it wasn’t even censorship…maybe it wasn’t- maybe a misread policy and Google was in still in contractual rights. But c’mon this is Rosenbaum- pay attention people. No matter HOW you slice it is a slippery slope worth noting and again “sites about world affairs are not distasteful.” Maybe hard to watch, but if we don’t watch the real footage, we might as we just insert the propaganda IV lines. Not to mention inconsistent implementation of policy.

This is an important battle folks…

When corporations, especially powerful ones whose primary, and self-stated mission is to organize the world’s information can close off the release of controversial information, no matter how well meaning their intent…we move one step closer to losing our freedom of communication, our freedom of speech and the power of the net is diminished. EVEN IF IT IS AN ADVERTISEMENT. We must demand higher standards.

My Message to Google- let’s get back to Don’t Be Evil- and move on to organizing the world’s information and letting it flow. To be honest I have watched your behavioral changes since going public, and frankly I see many things that I don’t like- this is the kind of stuff other e-commerce insiders see and discuss quietly too. Do I blame a corporation? No- its job is to earn money for share holders, but I still believe this can be done without selling out completely and it is the people behind it that have to make it happen.

Please don’t turn me from a real fan and an advocate of your brand into a disgruntled Googler. (I can be just as arrogant btw, I understand your business model’s precarious foothold quite well.) I also liked that you moved “Video” search (with a shiny, red “new”!) to your home page and knocked out Froogle. Interesting…
So let’s get back to that information thing and by the way advertising is information too- especially contextual advertising. You told us so right? Those relevant text links (unless we count execution video queries right?) that you syndicate. BTW- hope you get a handle on THAT situation too.
Great idea, poor implementation if you want it to last long term. Take a lesson from affiliate marketing circa 1999-2000.

THE FINALE- GOOGLE QUIETLY REVERSES

Steve Rosenbaum 08-13-2006: Update on Google Keywords

In the end Google reverses the situation with little fanfare. Doesn’t surprise me- Google doesn’t like fanfare around silliness. I have taken the liberty of quoting Steve’s entry and make note he doesn’t even get a phone call. I know platinum spenders that get phone calls from their reps. Steve- you must not spend enough money.

Direct quote from blog:

Well, it appears that Google has changed it’s mind and agreed to run the my keyword ads. That said, it appears that Google hasn’t read The Clue Train Manifesto.

Rather than have a real person contact me, and actually explain what happened, instead we get a form letter from “lizzie” without a contact email address or phone number.

Here’s the email ‘resolution’ - see what you think

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————

adwords-support@google.com

Hello Steve,

Thank you for your email. I’ve confirmed that your ad is approved and running on Google.

Our AdWords Specialists review ads that run on Google to ensure that they comply with our advertising policies. I apologize if the prior disapproval of your ad was made in error. However, after reviewing your ad again, our Specialists have found that your ad meets all our Editorial Guidelines and advertising policies.

If you have additional questions, please visit our Help Center at https://adwords.google.com/support to find answers to many frequently asked questions. Or, try our Learning Center at http://www.google.com/adwords/learningcenter/ for self-paced lessons that cover the scope of AdWords.

We look forward to providing you with the most effective advertising available.

Sincerely,

Lizzie
The Google AdWords Team

Steve here is what I think- you can still get “execution videos” advertised by eBay and TopLineVideo- well maybe you can get them at eBay. TopLineVideo still carries nothing but content about LCD projectors and runs YPN! ads…but since there are no perceived politics involved no one probably gives a flying damn that the page is completely and totally misleading- unless you count the MySpace Videos, Funny Videos, Music and Sexy Videos as part of an execution series….wait you can’t even get those. There are no videos you can access.

As for the most effective advertising possible- just run some tests (if you can get past Google), do the math, understand invalid clicks versus fraud… or if you have absolutely diabolical and have no ethics- team up with Zango and Invade Myspace with an army of teenagers. Not only is it cheaper- it is more profitable. Of course you won’t be able to look at yourself in the mirror in morning. That’s a jest of course- I know you don’t want to do that, but that reminds me to tip off Chris Boyd and do some black ops intel gathering.

Oh yes the ads…

Execution Videos
Whatever you’re looking for
you can get it on eBay.
http://www.ebay.com/

Execution Videos
Find hundreds of new and popular
Execution videos now!
http://www.topvideoinfo.com/

ADDENDUM: Other Notable Entries (Query if I missed some) Jimmy Daniels of RealTechNews (Note some commentors argue Google has the right to reject ads- Neither Rosenbaum or myself disputed that- we read contracts. It was the inconsistency and the slippery slope factor.

Chris Kramer , To summarize, Mr. Rosenbaum created a useful site that collected various user shot videos of the Middle-East conflict and built an Adwords campaign to spread the word. What happened was that Google not only rejected the ads but deleted the entire campaign from his account

Sam Harrelson … Amazing look at how the world is quickly realizing that politics, advertising, marketing, pr, religion, sociology, anthropology, economics and a host of other once seperate disciplines have melded together on the world wide web to form an inescapable reality that can be controlled by corporations (not governments) at the top… unless citizens realize the manipulation and demand transparency.

Nationalism is finally dead, and we clicked our way to its funeral. Let’s hope corporationalism isn’t as bad long term as its looking so far…”

Chris Boyd a.k.a. PaperGhost
Apparently you can’t mention the whole Israel / Lebanon “thing” in your Google Adwords campaign or your ad(s) will be rejected. A guy who runs a site which aggregates all kinds of footage shot in the warzone (think Youtube, but less “fluffy”) had his marketing campaign given a rather large thumbs down. The ads went a little something like this..

Blog Summary Reference List:

Rosenbaum 08-08-06 Google Erases Israel/Lebanon Ads - but why?

Rosenbaum 08-08-06 Disapproved Keywords

Porter 08-08-06 Google Disapproves Israel Lebanon Hezbollah War Ads- Reminds me of India?

Porter 08-10-06 Rosenbaum’s Dilemma: The Lost Lebanon/Israel War Videos Return Without The Help of Adwords

Porter 08-10-2006 Google Disapproved Adwords- More on Google’s War Sensitivity Issues

Porter: 08-10-2006 Routing Around Misguided Adwords Policies

Rosenbaum 08-13-2006: Update on Google Keywords

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