Google Ads in Emails

I know I just posted, but I was just checking my e-mail, and it reminded me of a rant that I really want to get out of the way.

I have a big beef with About.com. I have been using their site for years, and over the years their site has gotten progressively worse in terms of ads. Now, it's as if they base their content around their ads rather than the other way around. On some pages, the content actually serpentines around the ads, so that you have to read the content around ad boxes. This makes it beyond uncomfortable to read. Not only that, but they have designed their pages in such a way that it makes it difficult to tell what are links to actual articles on their page, and what are ads. To wit:


This is only a portion of their site (the ads continue if you scroll down), but see how the content wraps around the ads? It gives readers (at least this reader) a very claustrophobic feel.

So that is bad enough, but that is not my beef. Many of us who use Google ads know that it is against their policy rules to place Google ads in emails. The other day I signed up for a course on About.com, and this is what I got in my mailbox:



This is my e-mail. The big red circle is a cluster of Google ads. Mind you that this is not the bottom of the e-mail; this is a portion in the middle--so again, the content is interrupted by ads.

The surprising thing is that About.com is apparently not breaking any rules (at least not that I know of); some sites, I've read, have special privileges with Google when it comes to putting ads in emails. We regular people can't do it, but About.com--a site whose purpose is already dead clear when you notice the insane amount of ads on their pages--is allowed to further annoy us by placing ads in emails.

Blogger Locking Blogs

UPDATE: The problem is fixed. I think I owe it to Blogger to let people know that, seeing as they did resolve the problem promptly.

I have four informative blogs--serious blogs regarding the treatment of various health issues--that Blogger has chosen to lock. Apparently, their spam software has determined my blogs to have "spam blog" tendencies. Let's look at this for a moment: I am a real person posting things; I never post at the same time every day (and even if I did, that doesn't mean I'm spamming); I post informative articles and occasionally links to items in the news, not 20 links to the same site.

These blogs are meant to be informative and to help people out--how in the world are these regarded as spam? Is there a rule that if your blog isn't of a truly personal nature, then it is a spam blog? Are blogs not allowed to be helpful and informative? Are blogs not allowed to teach people things, to help them? I don't get it.

As for posting articles on your blogs--about.com, yahoo news, new york times online...these sites do it all the time. I have never posted an article that I didn't have the rights to post--I always include an author byline (as requested). Basically, I have four blogs that are blog versions of sites where you go to read articles and become informed about a subject. The only difference is that they are in blog form (which makes them easier to read). I thought the idea was ingenious (who cares to read about what I had for dinner or what party I went to last Friday?): a blog that has information to actually help people. I guess that's spam now.