Yesterday, I reported that DigitalPoint Forums members were concerned that a new widget, BlogRush, might be in violation of Google AdSense. Today, a new DigitalPoint Forums thread has emerged from a member who asked AdSense support if it was safe to participate.

Google's answer is that they don't condone it.

Thanks for checking in with us. We don't encourage or endorse the use of a program like this Thus, we're unable to give specific advice regarding BlogRush.

It's kind of a non-answer, as forum members say.

While I can see the concern, I don't think that BlogRush would conflict at all with Google AdSense since there's no confusion with ads and nobody is asking anyone to participate in clicking on ads. A forums member puts it this way:

Isn't this just like some sort of blogroll when two owners of blogs link each other ?

Exactly!

However, in another DigitalPoint Forums thread, a more understandable response is given by Google:

Thanks for your email. I understand that you'd like to have more traffic visiting your site. However, while we're unable to comment on any particular program or service, we do not recommend the use of any program that artificially drives traffic to your site. Use of these programs may lead to activity on your site that artificially inflates an advertiser's cost or a publisher's earnings, which would violate the AdSense program policies (https://www.google.com/adsense/policies) and Terms and Conditions (https://www.google.com/adsense/terms).

However, as I said yesterday both here and on my personal blog, I think the entire BlogRush program is overrated; there's way too much hype about it, and the traffic generation, if anything, will be minimal. Despite this, it's better to be safe than sorry.

Forum discussion continues at DigitalPoint Forums (thread 1) and DigitalPoint Forums (thread 2).

Like The Story? Vote For It On Yahoo Buzz! Or On Sphinn!