Internet Giants Form Ads Integrity Alliance to Fight Bad Ads
Google, AOL, Facebook, Twitter and the IAB formed a partnership aimed at fighting bad ads on the Internet. StopBadware, a nonprofit organization launched in 2006, announced the launch of the Ads Integrity Alliance created to fight bad ads and maintain trust in the online advertising ecosystem.
“The Ads Integrity Alliance is a natural extension of StopBadware’s mission to make the Web safer by combating badware,” stated Maxim Weinstein, StopBadware’s executive director. “No one can address Internet-scale threats on their own, so we’re bringing together industry leading organizations to tackle the problem collaboratively.”
The Ads Integrity Alliance has already established several goals for its activity:
- Develop and share definitions, industry policy recommendations, and best practices
- Serve as a platform for sharing information about bad actors
- Share relevant trends with policymakers and law enforcement agencies
“Bad ads, such as those that facilitate malware distribution or deceive users, diminish the online user experience and threaten trust in the Web,” declared Eric Davis, global public policy manager at Google. “The Ads Integrity Alliance will serve as a forum for us to work together to protect users from bad ads and strengthen trust in the advertising ecosystem.”
Since its launch, StopBadware enabled many websites, service and software providers to share real-time information used to warn users and significantly eliminate malware (such as viruses, phishing sites and malicious downloads) on the web. The founders consider this organization can have a similarly powerful impact on bad ads.
The advertising industry is a very important one for any website and, of course, a leading money generator for Internet giants like Google, Facebook, Twitter etc., therefore this alliance that brings together the most prominent online companies is an interesting and also profitable nitiative and has the chance and means to do something worthwhile in the war against bad ads. No one likes bad ads, but they are everpresent. In fact, in 2011, Google alone disabled more than 130 million ads and 800,000 advertisers. Everyone that does advertising campaigns in a correct manner can only hope the alliance’s efforts in fighting bad ads will be successful.
