Will Google Adsense ban me for this?

[mdopro1]

Sorry for blurring out part of the picture, don't want the big G to find me out. I use adsense and now getting into adsense for search. I want to know if having the page look like google.com will get me in trouble.

I want to ideally have it like the screenshot below, should I add my company logo to be safe? Please help, don't want to get on the bad side of the big G.

Not doing anything illegal here, I fix people's computers and can make homepage to this instead of good ole google.com and make a few pennies.

 

[boffmaster]

That's very creative thinking!!
I don't know the answer to your question but I do know google is very protective. About 5 years ago I had a couple of domains that were similar to the word google. They tracked me down pretty quick.

 

[mdopro1]

my domain is fine, it's a small company I started. The only thing is the google.html in the URL. In time if I can have 100 kids who don't know how to change their homepage (that's why they bring their computer to me) I could bring in some good dough.

Now I see there is a adsense forum, if a moderator can move my thread there I might get some more input. I'd hate to read through the whole Adsense TOS but I will if no one knows.

 

[gregstereo]

If I understand what you're going for, in a nutshell, you're using their logo and trying to make at least one page on your site appear to be their site. Goog will ban you the second they see that.

 

[deankeen]

my domain is fine, it's a small company I started. The only thing is the google.html in the URL. In time if I can have 100 kids who don't know how to change their homepage (that's why they bring their computer to me) I could bring in some good dough.

Now I see there is a adsense forum, if a moderator can move my thread there I might get some more input. I'd hate to read through the whole Adsense TOS but I will if no one knows.

That's so awesome!!

 

[mdopro1]

If I understand what you're going for, in a nutshell, you're using their logo and trying to make at least one page on your site appear to be their site. Goog will ban you the second they see that.

Would it help to add my logo along with it?

I glanced through the TOS, can't find anything solid so I posted on adsense forum. I hope they won't start investigating me based on my question

 

[fiebs]

I bet if you put under the google logo, powered by instead of Canada, you might be okay. Just blend it in so it looks similar.

 

[MikeLac]

If I understand what you're going for, in a nutshell, you're using their logo and trying to make at least one page on your site appear to be their site. Goog will ban you the second they see that.

I agree with this 100%.

The Google Logo is their trademark. Your adsense account would be history the moment Google sees that page. But if you really want to piss Google off, try setting up the exact same page, but instead of Google results, display results from the Yahoo Search Network. Using the Google Logo, of course.

 

[mdopro1]

Just so I cover all basis, we see Firefox's default google search page with google's logo on it. The terms should really be the same if it's firefox or lil me somewhere in the corner?

 

[businessminder]

Google will ban you when they see you using a logo very similar to theirs.

Why don't you use your own logo, or even remove the Google Canada logo since it doesn't make much difference for your kids anyways.

Google is a trademark. Some google typo domains can't even put anything related to Google, not even search related (yes can't even put google adsense for search). That's how protective they are to their trademark.

 

[mdopro1]

Would something like this work ok? It's linked from the main page as "Google Search" and now it's just another page in joomla CMS.

Should I just remove Any reference to Google typed by me?

Also, now the link says search.html instead of google.html

 

[mdopro1]

Sort of not so nice but what if I mimick total google search engine page and upload the files (images, html) to a hidden location on customer's computer and set their homepage to that? Even more-so, put a 1 pixel frame with google's address in the address bar. Google can't find the pages then, can they? Now that's evil though and would leave me no control over it.

Just for the record, I wouldn't do that because my customers can hunt me down and beat me up if enough get pissed by it.

 

[jodys]

Why people insist on screwing around with trademarks and copyright material is beyond me. I guess we all have to learn the hard way. The litmus test for whether you should do something similar to a large Corporation is whether or not you'll create consumer confusion. If a customer could / would possibly think they're on a Google page then you're in deep water without a boat or oar. The only reason people create and use pages that look / feel like google search pages is to create this consumer confusion. If you proceed please don't come crying here when you're hit with a million dollar suit from CA in a few months. And oh yes, you will have to hire Attorney's in their jurisdiction.

 

[frankeh]

Here's an idea.
Put the google logo on their local PC as you have access and display it from there.
<img src="c:\image.jpg" />

When google look at your site they will see a white page with a search box, when your customers see the site it will have the logo.

This is really creative. I almost did the same thing at a school i worked at. Search box in the intranet page.

Edit: I should fully read threads before posting.

Another idea, mimic their site with images hosted locally but everything else on a server. Then add a host entry so http://www.google.com goes to your servers IP address.

 

[businessminder]

Why people insist on screwing around with trademarks and copyright material is beyond me. I guess we all have to learn the hard way. The litmus test for whether you should do something similar to a large Corporation is whether or not you'll create consumer confusion. If a customer could / would possibly think they're on a Google page then you're in deep water without a boat or oar. The only reason people create and use pages that look / feel like google search pages is to create this consumer confusion. If you proceed please don't come crying here when you're hit with a million dollar suit from CA in a few months. And oh yes, you will have to hire Attorney's in their jurisdiction.

The 2nd screenshot looked okay. But I wouldn't go further than that as far as making yourself look like google. jodys is right, if you are looking to create consumer confusion, which I think you are, there is never an okay for that. You will just have to be responsible for the risks you are taking that's all.

There's nothing wrong with having a Google search or adsense optimized homepage that you can place on people's computers as the homepage while you fix their computers. As long as you don't try to be Google you are fine.

Besides, I am assuming you are targeting:
- People who are not smart enough to realize that the page they see is not Google.
- People who doesn't care where they search. (e.g. I use google extensively and even if you put in any other search page in front of me I will spend my time retyping google.com in the URL)

In short you are targeting people who are not Internet savvy and people who don't already use Google, Yahoo, or Bing as their primary search tools.

With that said, with the respect to the audience you are targeting, I don't see any reason to put yourself at risk pretending to be Google.

 

[DebtFreeMe]

Multi-Billion dollar corporations like Google take trade mark violations quite seriously. So, good luck with trying to mimic their site. Like what was posted earlier, the key is are you trying to create brand confusion if you are, then you are violating their trademark and not only could they kill your adsense account, but they could come after you in court...

 

[g111k]

You obviously can't duplicate Google's home page and hope for the best, that's just silly.

However you can use tools LEGALLY and PUBLICLY available FROM Google... like... Google Search bar!!!! DING DING DING

Nobody says you have to put tons of content around it??? So just make your page with nothing but a google search bar... check out boogle.com

 

[businessminder]

You obviously can't duplicate Google's home page and hope for the best, that's just silly.

However you can use tools LEGALLY and PUBLICLY available FROM Google... like... Google Search bar!!!! DING DING DING

Nobody says you have to put tons of content around it??? So just make your page with nothing but a google search bar... check out boogle.com

I guess Boogle.com isn't big enough to catch google's attention.

I've worked with google typo domains that get more than 500k typo traffic a month and that site is banned from doing anything search related (not even yahoo search or bing search), adsense, or any contextual advertising services such as adbride

Yes if you are into typo domains monetization you will be able to find out which domains im talking about in a flash.

Domains like that are forced by google not to do anything search related, basically anything that google does cannot go onto the site.

 

[pyronaut]

Here's an idea.
Put the google logo on their local PC as you have access and display it from there.
<img src="c:\image.jpg" />

When google look at your site they will see a white page with a search box, when your customers see the site it will have the logo.

This is really creative. I almost did the same thing at a school i worked at. Search box in the intranet page.

Edit: I should fully read threads before posting.

Another idea, mimic their site with images hosted locally but everything else on a server. Then add a host entry so www.google.com goes to your servers IP address.

+1 for these ideas. The local image is incredibly smart actually .

You could write a bit of code to check "If image is available locally, show it, otherwise show the "powered by google" part.

Doing the host entries is also very very smart.

 

[deankeen]

Here's an idea.
Put the google logo on their local PC as you have access and display it from there.
<img src="c:\image.jpg" />

When google look at your site they will see a white page with a search box, when your customers see the site it will have the logo.

This is really creative. I almost did the same thing at a school i worked at. Search box in the intranet page.

Edit: I should fully read threads before posting.

Another idea, mimic their site with images hosted locally but everything else on a server. Then add a host entry so http://www.google.com goes to your servers IP address.

Lol.... well played w/ the local location. i was thinking the same thing