Google and Bing: Search Engine Giants Banning Risky Ads for Customer Safety

Google, the giant of all giant search engines, has decided that losing $34.5 million in desktop ad revenue (roughly .05% of all ad revenue) is worth helping customers avoid potentially harmful situations. Myself, and many other respondents of this action, agree.

Google announced that as of July 13, 2016, “we will no longer allow ads for loans where the repayment is due within 60 days of the date of issue. In the U.S. we are also banning ads for loans with an APR of 36% or higher.” Google has deemed these products as “deceptive” and “harmful” and wishes to protect their customers as best they can.

However, Google is not the first to take this stance. In August 2005, Facebook put a ban on ads for payday loans. Google is also not the only company taking a stance. Microsoft’s Bing will no longer accept ads from third-party tech support services. Bing claims that these ads often tend to look like they come from tech companies themselves, but are really third-parties that often lead to scams.

Both Google and Bing aim to direct searchers away from harm, deceit, scams, and fraud. Google does still allow for third-party tech support service advertisements and Bing does allow payday loan ads. It would not be a surprise to see the companies jumping on board with each other’s bans as well.

Despite the millions of dollars of ad revenue forfeited by these search engine companies, I (as a search engine user) greatly appreciate their dedication to providing the best service with the least room for unwanted activity for their customers.

Continually, this ban should provide marketers with a greater sense of security and authenticity. Customers now know that potentially dangerous ads are blocked by these search sites and that ads not blocked are welcomed and safe.