"In an effort to provide more relevant results and a high quality experience for our users, we’ve made the decision to disallow multiple display URL domains within a single ad group," explains Emel Mutlu of the Inside AdWords Crew.

The following are acceptable for an ad group:

- www.example.com
- www.widgets.example.com
-  www.example.com/widgets/redwidgets/
-  www.example.com/index.html

These ones are not:

- www.example.com
- www.example.widgets.com

"While we understand there are legitimate use-cases for multiple display URL domains within one ad group, we ask that you use separate ad groups for each domain," says Mutlu. "This will not only provide a better user experience for your potential customers, but will also allow you to better organize and track the various domains within your AdWords account."

The change to the policy applies to ALL advertisers. Google encourages users to make sure their groups are set up properly before the 24th comes, and notes that display URLs must match the URLs of their respective landing pages.

Blogs became a problem quickly once the meme hit critical mass a few years ago. What used to be a novel event – an employee being fired for blogging – has become so standard that it is hardly newsworthy anymore.

While a blogging policy may work to an extent on a top-down basis, even if the company comes out occasionally looking like the bully, what do you do when an executive airs the company’s dirty laundry? Pack your desk, probably, as the company’s often sunk when that happens.

It used to be that the main risk you faced was an employee blabbing at a bar to a few indifferent earlobes, or worst case scenario, a disgruntled employee going to the press with a complaint, whether valid or not. But there was no guarantee the press would cover the incident.

And now it’s out there, just out there, on blogs, on social networking profiles, over instant messaging, via SMS, on YouTube, on Twitter. Everybody has their own personal broadcast network.

On a macro-level, that’s a good thing. It gives voices to the voiceless, puts pressure on the corrupt, robs the powerbrokers, spooks the machine. But idiots, too, can use it. And humans, who sometimes make mistakes.

Michael Krigsman at ZDNet, writing specifically about Twitter and the danger it poses as a many-to-many communication device, suggests companies have three options when dealing with a new platform that’s clearly not going away: ignore it; block and/or monitor; establish clear information-sharing guidelines. He recommends the last one, with strong enforcement.

But there’s something else that could evolve as well, something that will make the communication professionals job easier in the long run. It’s an optimistic model that will have to allow for the occasional negative exception.

When everyone’s a potential whistleblower, and the ears potentially listening to that whistle are ever expanding, we could see the rise of greater corporate consciousness toward ethical consistency, Google’s Don’t Be Evil philosophy expanded beyond Mountain View. This is a somewhat traditional moralistic view, an invisible eye that makes you behave.

I told you it was optimistic, as even Google has trouble with it. But the potential is there, a goal to strive toward, if a company is in this game for the long run. Transparency breeds trust (or distrust, if you don’t watch it), and when there’s trust and fulfillment of trust, controlling the message is easier as there is less to control.
 

The group reviewed the privacy policies of 484 online retailers in October and November, examining how well customers were informed about how their information would be used, and how much control they would have over who has access to their personal data.

Sites that did well received "screen door" and "steel door" ratings. Disneyshopping.com and homedepot.com received screen door ratings. Netflix.com, ralphlauren.com and rocawear.com received steel door rankings.

Disneyshopping.com was criticized because its privacy policy is "very technical and lengthy" and may be hard for people to understand, said Tracy Shelton, consumer attorney with NYPIRG.

Homedepot.com was flagged because its policy say personal information can be transferred if the company is sold. In a statement the company said Home Depot "clearly discloses its policies prominently on homedepot.com concerning the potential to transfer non-private customer information in the unlikely event of the sale of the company. This is standard language throughout the industry. We take data security very seriously and have many proactive measures to ensure the protection of customer information."

Shelton advised shoppers to research the privacy polices of the site where they make purchases. "Their personally identifiable information is a big important asset that people have and it should be protected," she said.

The Lexington Herald-Leader said the suspensions took place after a review of Internet usage took place in October 2006. That was before the ex-boss, Jose Ceballos, took his job.

His underlings filed complaints, accusing him of falsifying time sheets and making sexual comments. They suspect their suspensions came about as a result. One suspended person had a couple of newspaper sites, the Herald-Leader and the Louisville Courier-Journal, cited as examples of non-work related browsing.

Such crackdowns may happen again as the state enforces a new Internet policy that started in late June of this year. Neither paper is friendly to the Republican administration of Governor Ernie Fletcher.

The issue of Internet usage at work has always been a tough one for some employers to handle. Some take very draconian measures, like filtering, to keep people from hitting non-work related sites. Others are more relaxed and permit it so long as work is being performed as specified.

Few people will side with government employees hitting Fark or YouTube on the taxpayer’s dollar. The best solution may be to permit surfing on non-work time, like breaks or lunch. State workers have real lives like anyone else and may have pressing needs to handle some personal tasks online during the day.

For one, Google will now permit the placement of three link units on a page. The idea seems to be one that gives site publishers more reason to be satisfied with only having Google on their pages, since a variety of units can be placed in some of the trickier spots.

The big update concerns the Page Quality Guidelines. Google has been cracking down on arbitrage, where people buy cheap ads that direct visitors to more profitable ad-filled pages.

This new guideline sounds like it is targeted directly at arbitrageurs, despite the nod to creating useful site content Beckmann made:

This new policy requirement doesn’t mean that you can’t use online advertising; it simply means that if you do, you need to be sure that the way you advertise meets with the guidelines, whether it’s through AdWords or through any other advertising program.

However you advertise your site, it can always benefit from significant and relevant content, clear navigation, and the other points in our quality guidelines.

If you’re paying for an ad that leads to a more profitable AdSense ad on your site, Google probably knows you’re doing it already. Hoping they won’t catch it may not be the most sensible strategy here.

AdSense users beware. Google has updated their policies, and if you have been running AdSense and a competitor’s service like Yahoo Publisher Network on a fifty-fifty basis, you could be in violation of the new terms.

Jennifer Slegg of Search Engine Watch warned publishers using Google and Yahoo ads that they will have to make some major changes. She said those webmasters will need to set one of those ad units apart visually by adding borders or a colored background to them.

Some sites run AdSense without borders. Jennifer found out from Google that they will not be very forgiving of any ad look-alikes:

The new policy from Google applies to all ad units one of its network publishers may have on display anywhere on a web site. Even ad units that are not contextual in nature will have to look different from AdSense to avoid a violation.

Blogger Darren Rowse welcomed a rewording of the AdSense copyright policy. He called the change that prohibits using AdSense on pages with copyrighted content, “great stuff for those of us who are getting our content scraped.”

That leaves the question of enforcement open for Google’s international publishers. In the United States, the highly controversial DMCA law enables people to request that Google remove links to copyrighted material. That could be used to call attention to AdSense policy violators too.

Google said that AdSense policy update changed much of the wording used. Most of the policies have not changed, but webmasters will still want to review them, if only to refresh themselves on the details.

We are interested in finding out what our readers think of the updated Google AdSense policies. Please visit our forum at WebProWorld and share you thought with fellow viewers.

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.