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Recently, Google wrote one of those fact vs fiction posts, this time on the topic of "sites with auto-generated or otherwise unoriginal content." In short, Google said they do not allow sites with auto-generated or otherwise unoriginal content to participate in the AdSense program.
Google explained:
Fact: We don't allow sites with auto-generated or otherwise unoriginal content to participate in the AdSense program. This is to ensure that our users are benefiting from a unique online experience and that our advertisers are partnering with useful and relevant sites.
I spotted discussion around this post at DigitalPoint Forums where some publishers were shocked to hear this. One said, "I think content generated with article spinner softwares is also not allowed." Really, you think? Do you live under a rock?
But honestly, they have a reason not to know this. There are plenty of sites out there scraping and auto-generating content with AdSense on them. Google doesn't always do a great job preventing this from happening. Yes, it might be against their guidelines, but it still happens.
Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.
Comments:
Justin Seibert
01/14/2011 01:57 pm
I wouldn't expect a non-scraper site owner to know this. "Doesn't always do a great job preventing" is putting it very mildly.
CredibleContentProvider
01/14/2011 04:54 pm
How is "unoriginal" defined? What if you're business is to legitimately license previously published article archives that may (or may not) also be live on the original publishers' sites?
J Nicholas Gross
01/14/2011 06:28 pm
by that definition, isn't the Google News Agreggator an unoriginal site?
Archana Bhat
01/15/2011 07:21 am
that is great
WebEnrich
01/16/2011 04:11 am
Good they have done it at last... should have done it long back. It is now gonna help the advertisers, previously all these spam sites used to eat up good portion from the advertisers budget.
Right Agents
01/16/2011 06:38 am
How is that different from ads on domain hosting sites?
Pablo Perez Wlasiuk
01/16/2011 04:11 pm
So i'm guessing all the sites that uses API's are not allowed to use adsense? that is auto generated content :)
Barry Schwartz
01/16/2011 04:12 pm
No, using an API does not mean the content is all auto-generated.
Rudym
01/16/2011 05:46 pm
While I don't see how Google can always parse content separate from feed aggregation unless the spider can now read and parse custom php code.
Android Forest
05/04/2011 12:28 pm
thanks
Guest
01/24/2012 02:28 am
What "original content" is is a Google search result set? Somehow it's okay to plaster ads all over if you are Google. Meh. Hypocrites.