Next time you search for something on Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), you won’t have to be subjected to any advertisements related to pornography because the search engine juggernaut has officially banned them.
The company reiterated the announcement early last week when Google listed the number of changes that will be instituted, including prohibiting “graphic sexual acts with intent to arouse including sex acts such as masturbation.” A Google spokesperson noted that it has had restrictive policies on adult content for a long time and had believed advertisers already sought elsewhere for their advertising needs.
In March, Google published a blog post that outlined the changes the company had made that no longer approved pornography in its ads in order to improve users’ experiences with its ad network (AdWords), which already appears on millions of websites across the Internet.
In an effort to reiterate its policy modifications, Google sent out an email early last month that was first noticed by Morality in Media. The email states that many companies were in the position of potentially violating the policy and terms of agreement.
“Beginning in the coming weeks, we’ll no longer accept ads that promote graphic depictions of sexual acts including, but not limited to, hardcore pornography; graphic sexual acts including sex acts such as masturbation; genital, anal, and oral sexual activity,”.
“When we make this change, Google will disapprove all ads and sites that are identified as being in violation of our revised policy. Our system identified your account as potentially affected by this policy change. We ask that you make any necessary changes to your ads and sites to comply so that your campaigns can continue to run.”
Adult industry insiders averred that they were taken aback by the announcement. They say that it will be a while until the market can determine if the Google policy change will affect them or not. It’s unclear because many adult websites become popular due to word of mouth and natural web results.
The term “porn” remains one of the most popular searches on Google and the Internet. Also, other terms such as porn, porno and free porn garnered more than 350 million searches.
“There are many people who say the biggest losers are the ones who play by the rules,” stated Tom Hymes, senior editor at industry trade publication AVN, in an interview with CNBC. “The winners are the huge properties with a lot of free content and frequent updates—the type of actions the Google algorithms really like. But at the end of the day, there are some people out there who have been abiding by every [rule] that Google sets and they’re getting cut off at the knees now.”
Michael Fattorosi, an attorney with Fattorosi & Associates, presented the case that this is just another example of a big company turning its backs on the very industry that has supported the search engine since the beginning. He now speculates that Google might ban adult content from its search engine.
If adult advertisers want a different search medium then perhaps Microsoft’s Bing may be the next best thing as it offers an ad program marketed towards this industry in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Hong Kong, Germany and elsewhere.
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