One protest against Google’s decision to offer search in China while agreeing to that government’s censorship led one prominent blog to discard AdSense from its pages.
The Blogger News Network posted its decision to discontinue using Google ads on its site. Robert Hayes wrote about their decision today:
As a news organization with aspirations to earning public trust, BNN must act ethically in its financial dealings. Accepting money from a company which is putting profit above its ethical obligations to stakeholders would represent a lapse in that ethical stance.
BNN would like nothing more than to resume running Google’s AdSense advertisements. On the day when Google announces that it will make its services available in China only in conformance with democratic and freedom-oriented values, we will happily resume our business relationship with Google.
While a few commenters offered their support, a couple did question Hayes’ choice. One, Darnell Clayton, wrote of his disagreement, “Google is not a government, and it would be more effective contacting your congressman than censoring Ad Sense.’
The decision to send AdSense packing hasn’t left Blogger News Network, which runs on Google’s Blog*Spot service, bereft of ads. The site is one of the few that has advertisements placed by BlogAds, the highly profitable invitation-only advertising network.
BlogAds appears on DailyKos, one of the Internet’s most-highly trafficked blogs, and display on Hayes’ site atop where Google’s AdSense once did. Ads from Kanoodle and Chitika also run on Blogger News Network.
While the decision to take a stand on Google is an admirable one, it may not be one that impacted the BNN site greatly from a financial standpoint.
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David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.
