Yesterday we posted about a message from Google about our ads. We had guessed that our page on click fraud had triggered an automated bot looking for AdSense policy violations because it contained too many instances of the word click. We heard back from the Google AdSense team later that same day and our interpretation of the problem was wrong.

We found the following language above the Google ads on the page, which we feel brings unnatural attention to the ads: “These ads provide our students with coffee, an essential component of a healthy research laboratory”

We had added that comment because we felt vaguely guilty about putting ads on our academic site. We didn’t want people to think we were raking in large sums and spending it on luxuries, like donuts tee-shirts. This modest income stream goes entirely toward a single, absolute essential: coffee.

Categories: Uncategorized, Related posts: • Does the Google AdSense bot have a sense of irony?;  • Feedburner to include AdSense ads starting next week;  • Google AdSense - A year in review;