Google If You Want Give Us Transparency How About Telling Us Our Quality Score

2010 May 24
by Michael H. Berkens

As you have no doubt read today, Google “in the spirit of greater transparency”, disclosed the revenue share it was paying its adsense publishers.

However as anyone in the domain business can tell you the revenue share is irrelevant because of smart pricing.

Google has refused to give anyone their quality score or any information as to how smart pricing affects their account.

Yahoo clearly lets publishers know there Traffic Quality score on a 1-10 scale and they update the number frequently.

Google, without telling your publishers what their quality score is, there is no transparency.

If the revenue share of “X” is reduced by an unknown and undisclosed factor “X-”,  unless you know what that factor is, you really know nothing.

Google is just giving you 1/2 of a mathematical equation.

This mysterious quality score allows Google at the end of the day allows them to pay you whatever they want, regardless of “revenue share”.

Where was that information in Google blog post?

15 Responses leave one →
  1. 2010 May 24

    .

    “transparency” … ten years later… :|

    .

  2. 2010 May 24
    MHB permalink

    And under threat by the government of Italy

  3. 2010 May 24

    smart pricing = shaving on mass scale

  4. 2010 May 24

    I don’t know if Google applies a quality score to each individual domain. It might be on a visitor-by-visitor basis. Anyone know?

  5. 2010 May 24

    Andrew, it used to be on the feed by feed basis.
    However i’m not so certain that is the case anymore.

    Also you cant explain smart pricing by google as the reason for 2 years of declining parking revenue. Yahoo feeds are showing a nearly identical decline over the same amount of time.

  6. 2010 May 24

    @ FX –

    thanks.

    Although Yahoo has been doing its own smart pricing over the same period.

  7. 2010 May 25
    MHB permalink

    Andrew

    No one knows for sure, and that’s part of the problem

  8. 2010 May 25

    And does smart pricing affects our all account if we have one domain with “lower quality”? And if we remove it how long does it take for our quality score to be reviewed?

    All questions I would like to see answered…

  9. 2010 May 25

    I automatically assumed the 68% was the _average_ rev share (51 for search). Otherwise it makes no sense.

  10. 2010 May 25

    they don’t have to disclose if the publisher agrees, by the way, so far they have been the best payers, disclosing or not…

  11. 2010 May 25
    GooglevsGold permalink

    How about updating the Google vs Gold thread?

    Gold looks like it has crushed Google since you started the thread. It appears that domainers have no clue about fiat currencies, and that you never buy and hold equity in companies that don’t pay dividends.

  12. 2010 May 25
    MHB permalink

    You were reading my mind thought about updating it every day this week, but everything is moving all over the place.

    next day to two.

  13. 2010 May 25
    Matt permalink

    It will never matter.

    At the end of the day what you get is what you earn.

    Transparency is just a buzz word. That revenue share number is not going to make any difference.

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