I work for a non-profit organization, and I have a few Google Ads running for them through Google's Ad Grants program. I've had the same ads basically on auto-pilot for literal years. Google recently suspended my Ads account, claiming I was trying to circumvent their policies to bait and switch people in order to infect their devices with malware. After an appeal, it took 2 weeks, but my account and ads were reactivated. Given the subject matter of this video, I found my recent experience to be highly ironic.
@@pranupranav6279 most non profits are that. Not for profit. For instance Creative Commons is non profit and they allow people to have a creative common license to use msuic and photos from the public domain.
I work in advertising and Google has been trying to strong arm advertisers into moving into using “broad” matching to search terms over the last few years which basically means that Google will serve search ads to almost anything with the justification of “just trust us, we know more about the user than you do.” So I can almost guarantee Cambridge landscaping probably had a keyword like “buy trees in Massachusetts” and Google’s system thought “trees” would be the same
@@9y404 Yeah but if I were that company I wouldn't want to spend money just so some random person looking for photos of trees can have that extra text they don't care about appear on their screen
@@Spacey. Try doing that on Android. I'm using Brave and a system-wide local VPN ad blocker and still see sponsored results sometimes. (Yes I know you can use Firefox with add-ons but Chromium based browsers are just better on Android imo.)
@@jmanners So would I. It's the weird rendering on some pages that I don't like. My setup blocks 99% of ads anyway, just not always the Google search ones.
Not gonna lie I purposely click some for companies I dislike but am forced to used for one reason or another. Knowing them that it probably costs then a couple dollars every time I do.
I've been using Adblockers for probably over 15 years by now. Every time I'm on someone else's computer it's like a whole other world. A world that's somehow even more depressing.
I CANT UNDERSTAND HOW PEOPLE JUST DONT GET OVER THEM THERE IS SO MUCH TIME LOST MAN WITH THOSE ADS ITS FUCKING SAD FOR PEOPLE DOIMG NOTHING TO REMOVED THEM OR WATCH TV I HAVE 0 ADVERT IN MY HOUSE AND WILL NEVER ITS LIKE YOUR ALL AGREEING WITH A BUNCH OF DOOR TO DOOR SELLER TO COME MULTIPLE TIME EACH DAY
things can go much worse. One student in my university searched for hospital/doctors on baidu (chinese equivalent of google), went for the higher ranking result which is an ad, got scammed and died of not getting proper treatment.
I've seen a fake Microsoft website trusty Google ad playing audio saying i had a virus, someone actually uploaded the same ad on RU-vid very little traction
@@terbospeed I think that i am on some youtube secret blacklist because i can't use many words even non vulgar ones unless i want my comments getting deleted within 30 seconds I know because i tested it many times And i definitely are on a blacklist because i saw people using the same words as i would want to and their comments never got deleted So probably if someone uses too often non political correct words then they are put on such list
To think that a couple days ago, one of my parents implied that "Google is todays dictionary". He is in for a treat. And before someone asks me to convince em to change their mindset -- I just can't. They are the "Nobody can change my mind!"-kind of parents.
If I remember correctly, they do to a certain extent (major offenses). But the thought process behind it was, “well they’re paying for it, surely no one will use it for other purposes.”
I just use teamviewer to do stuff my mom asks about, lest she install some wacko ransomware on accident just trying to order food off grubhub or something. I recommend doing the same thing if it's that much of a worry.
I've locked away admin rights on all my family computers and make them call me. I don't trust them as end users. If they want a new app. I do it for them.
Learning of winget from this video was amazing. Toying around with it for a bit now and it's so insanely nice seeing huge lists of what I have installed that can be updated, being able to update them so easily, or being able to make export lists to use elsewhere and easily get a bunch of general programs I use all the time. Holy hell, thank you for opening my eyes to this beauty
@@randomness6956 supposedly they don't, like they tell you pls don't scam thru our ad system, but there are actually no checks (im serious, try to start an ad, they just ask for a link and your credit card) and no way to report malicious ads. After all, breaking googles terms of service doesn't matter to people that are committing felonies. Until google starts checking their ads to see if it's some sort of virus, it is better to just never click ads. Ever. For any reason.
There is actually a bulletproof solution to avoid Google Ads Links, "Blocking Unwanted Connections with a Hosts File", it's a compilation called mvps hosts made by internet community that redirect Ads Link into the void. I've been using it for years now, and I LOVE IT.
There’s also something called Microsoft Store where you can get most used apps like VLC, OBS, Discord, Acrobat Reader, etc. that being said, I always lock the ability to install new software on machines that I know will be used by casual users, so we don’t have to deal with the headache of them installing malware and having to restore a pc.
Also, selling ads words for people who are not affiliated with the brand is half of their business. When you search a brand name on Google, it's a great opportunity for all the competitors to pay for that word and get exposition based on their competitor's actual brand visibility, which in turn will force the name brand to bid on their own brand to ensure competitors don't get it from them instead, increasing the bid value even more. It's basically free money for Google, they will never give that away.
Unfortunately, Pihole does not proxy anything so I can't hide these from my less tech-savvy family but I've been trying to bring awareness to them about Google ads, Thanks for this!
Google's blatant disregard for user safety or even just convenience, in exchange for cash, is IMMENSELY concerning, since they're such a massive company. Like, most massive corporations are evil, but Google is one of those that doesn't even try to hide it, like Square Enix or Facebook [I'm not calling it "meta" it stole that name and it's stupid]
Even the FBI recommended using an adblocker. A government agency joins with the adblocking bandwagon. Just Awesome. Even if you take away the maliciousness of ads. They can still be absolutely garbage to the user experience. I really miss those times when ads are nothing more than just a banner at the edges of a page, but then there’s ads that require user input to even view the page; interstitial ads, and ads that do something intrusive and anything outside the page; pop-up/unders *including* new tabs and seperate window. I know this is deliberate when mediafire even stated under the download button saying it would “show a message from our advertisers in a new window.” Malvertising is the cherry on top of the cake of annoyance.
Rule number one, always check the properties before running anything. Rule two, if you run something for the first time and NOTHING happens and it's not in task manager, or it is but it's usage looks weird, shut down. Instantly. That drive needs too have its important shit recovered outside of an OS.
Nah, just unplug the internet cable. Then recover your files on that PC if you only have 1 PC. What the virus goin to do without an Internet connection?
I've seen this happening on other search engines too, not just Google. I've loved using Qwant for the past few months, but they've unfortunately been hit by this as well. I think they incorporate Microsoft's ad system minus the trackers? (Could be wrong there) So that's probably why.
Sometimes I wonder what multi billion dollar corporations do with all their money. Do they just wipe their asses with it after shitting? Do they smoke their money? What the hell do they do with their money? So many questions...
Funnily enough, I never trusted ads in google search, because they never gave me what I wanted and always looked scetchy. But still thanks for the info!
yeaaa boi brave! It's so good on the phone too. My favorite feature is Background video playback. Let's you have the playback run while you are sifting through other tabs or apps and even when the phone is locked.
This has been happening for a very long time. I distinctly remember infecting an old laptop in the early 2010s by doing just this. Now I never ever click on ad results
Honestly, Google should pay up for scamming that NFT guy. After all, it was the Google product that delivered it. If supermarket sells poisonous food, it is not the victim's fault if they get poisoned. And we all know this to be moral and just.
The traditional windows way of installing software is as convenient as circumcising yourself with a spoon you found on the street. And people will get nasty infections. So on every occasion where I have to use windows I install chocolatey first. Which then allows me to install most things the easy and fast way. Winget seems good if they don't mess it up.
I was scammed by one of these ads a few years ago because I assumed Google vetted them. I 'sold' (what would now be worth) tens of thousands of dollars in Bitcoin to a site I found through an ad on Google Search. I never received the money.
Whta's funny is, I tried some of your examples and, I think because I'm watching / watched this video, I didn't get ANY ad link results. Google knows...
It would be great if PMs had an accessible GUI. Until then, PM use will always be infeasibly difficult for some users and straight-up impossible for others.
Yeah Google sucks for software downloads. Was searching for balena etcher one time, clicked the first non-sponsored link and landed on a fake site anyway. Realised it after wondering where the downloads for Mac and Linux went.
Wondershare, a desperate chinese software company, was impersonating competing brands (such as filmora pretending to be olive video editor, openshot, divinci resolve, and, of course, OBS), while that is sketchy (especially when they want you to download their crippleware instead) and potentially illegal (trademark), it is just the tip of the iceberg. Malvertising is even worse.
In regards to package managers. They too aren't even close to a silver bullet. And they too are sometimes also riddled with malware. Often through typo squatting. To be fair, I partly don't trust the package managers on Linux distros, since most aren't particularly transparent about anything. Not that Windows is really any better. In either case it is rather lackluster as far as trust and security goes. But yes, Google really needs to cater towards doning some checks before accepting people's money.
@@merlin9657 In regards to alternatives, that isn't really needed. Since it isn't these two ways of data acquisition that are problematic to security. Package managers and/or manually acquiring software are both practical. What is missing is mainly authentication and a root of trust that takes their job seriously. Manual acquisition of software is mostly about finding trusted sources oneself and validating that said sources are who they say they are. Package managers is mostly about trusting whoever runs the service that the package manager relies on. Effectively "outsourcing" the issue to someone else to deal with and trusting that they will do the job correctly. But in either case. If one don't have the means to authenticate then one can't really trust any of the two options. Usually one does have ways to authenticate. But this often relies on trusted 3rd parties, and they don't often care about doing their job seriously. Else typo squatting wouldn't be a thing. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Haven't even gone into the mess that is dependencies. A developer of a program might already be unknowingly using a library that has malware in it. But this can be at any point down our chain of dependencies. But in the end. This authentication and validation that there isn't intentional harm down the chain isn't related to the way of acquisitioning the software/data. It doesn't matter if one downloads it from a website, package manager, DVD/CD, or manually copies code from a printed book. What matters is if we can validate the source in a trusted way. And if we trust said source or not. It is a mostly about where to put the line for a healthy degree of paranoia.
I use Pihole to block googleadservices. I can still see the ads, but the ad links can not be opened. My Pihole server combined with ublock, script blocking and my brain are my best cyber security defence
This is why google should only be licensed by officially via a trademark. The future versions of google should, Only license official websites, via a deal. If this update ever did happen, scams will fall slightly.
Googles really should do a better job at monitoring ads. the fact you can pay to get people hacked is just bonkers Been solely using Brave Search for mnths
Just installed chocolatey, never looked back. It's the closest thing to a windows app store. Has a good library of opensource apps. I use it with chocolatey gui. Gone were the days checking for updates for every software. Best switch I ever made
Almost got hit with one of these, except bing did it (I didn't realise it had redirected me to Bing for the search at first) - actual search result was on page 5, but there were at least 3 front page ones that were supposedly the thing I was looking for.
I think uBlock Origin blocks Google ads too. I don''t get ad links in my searches, ever. I have "Top stories" and "People also search for" bullshit, but no ads.
I remembered a video series of a guy creating fake CS:GO hacks, buying google ad space and having his fake hackware ruin wannabe hackers and record their gameplay demonstrating random payloads that would ruin the hacker’s games. I can’t say I’m too surprised seeing the adspace used for Trojan stuff.
Today's internet is practically unusable without an ad blocker. Even if you make it past the Google ads to the official website of the program you're trying to download, good luck finding the actual "Download" button amongst the sea of fake ad ones.
i was trying to download anydesk one day and clicked the top result, which ended up being a virus. i was paranoid about it because it didnt have a icon as a application, and i realized it wasnt the real anydesk. didnt run anything, deleted it and found the real anydesk. suprised windows defender didnt pick it up, as this seems pretty common to do.
My number one rule is find something that isn’t Google. I know I’m posting on YT own by Google. Other than that I use other search engines or web browsers that have ad blockers built in.
This has been happening for years and years and it's so sad. Runescape has a big issue with it as there's a fake runelite client that shows at the top through an ad when you search runelite. Google should do a much better job of vetting who its showing ads for.
Every time i go to Google Search, there are some search results that obviously will linked to malicious websites (look at the weird URL link). I don't know how to report it.
Even if i am like that looks cool i will go there site mainully and look if there safe and will actually send me whatever i buy for at lest 10 mins sometimes longer
I am gonna be real with you no one is gonna go "oh installing programs by just pressing a single button is so inconvenient I want to go through a 80 step process everytime I want to download anything" And most people can't even use the extremely easy to use windows options yet you expect them to use terminals
