Posts Tagged ‘Canada’

Google’s Drug Problem: Ads Continued in Spite of Warnings

Published by pratyushkp on May 21st, 2011 - in Social, Technology

Image via CrunchBase

Google may have continued to serve ads for illegal drug companies even after being warned by several groups that the ads and the online pharmacies they promoted violated the law.

If the company did knowingly allow illegally operating companies to use its advertising platform, it could have to pay the Department of Justice up to $500 million, one of the largest sums ever paid to the government in a corporate dispute.

In the DOJ’s investigation, officials are trying to determine whether Google worked with advertisers who were promoting illegal activities, such as selling controlled pharmaceuticals to U.S. citizens from pharmacies operating in Canada and other countries.

Now, according to evidence that has been reviewed by the Wall Street Journal, “state regulators and industry watchdogs” may have repeatedly alerted Google to the illegal activity. These warnings had been coming to Google since at least 2003 and intensified in 2008, when ads from illegal online pharmacies appeared in Google ads even after the company started using a third-party verification system.

Just a few months ago, Google announced it was suing online pharmacy advertisers for breaking the search engine’s terms of service and violating U.S. federal laws by using the Google ad network to sell prescription medication without a prescription. However, given the timing, this announcement may have simply been a face-saving reaction to DOJ probes.

We’ll continue to follow this case. Do you think Google was innocent in these matters, the victim of illegal advertisers who were intent on gaming the system? Or could the web giant have been complicit, collecting fees and turning a blind eye to its advertisers’ activities?

Source :- http://mashable.com

  • Google’s Drug Problem: Ads Continued in Spite of Warnings [REPORT] (mashable.com)
  • Google’s Drug Problem: Ads Continued in Spite of Warnings [REPORT] (fakeiitian.com)
  • Google was ‘warned repeatedly’ about rogue drug ads (go.theregister.com)
  • Report: Google warned repeatedly about online drug ads (news.cnet.com)
  • Google praised by White House, investigated by DOJ (news.cnet.com)
  • Google praised by White House, investigated by DOJ (news.cnet.com)
  • Is Google profiting from illegal ads? (windsorstar.com)
  • REPORT: Google Was Warned About Illegal Drug Ads In 2003 (businessinsider.com)
  • Google ‘close to $500m settlement’ over illegal drug ads (go.theregister.com)
  • Google’s $500M DOJ fine all about illegal online drug ads (venturebeat.com)
Tags: , , , , , , United States Department of Justice,

The Social Media Buzz Behind the Royal Wedding

Published by pratyushkp on April 29th, 2011 - in Social, Technology

With hours to go until the Royal Wedding, online buzz surrounding the big event has surpassed the chatter that surrounded the Egypt uprising and the Japan earthquake.

New stats gathered and analyzed by Webtrends reveal that the world simply can’t stop talking about the Royal Wedding (not that you needed us to tell you). According to the web analytics company, people have sent 911,000 tweets in the last 30 days, or just a little more than 30,000 tweets per day, which accounts for 71% of the buzz Webtrends tracked. For comparison, there were approximately 217,000 Facebook status updates and 145,000 blog posts about William and Kate’s big day.

And while you may think most of the social buzz surrounding the royal nuptials is coming from the U.K., think again. Webtrends says that a whopping 65% of tweets, blog posts and Facebook updates are coming from the U.S., while 20% are coming from the UK. Canada is in third place with a mere 2.6% of social media buzz. This matches stats from Nielsen, which also says that the U.S. is the #1 source of Royal Wedding chatter.

Check out the infographic if you want to see the rest of the Royal Wedding stats:

Note: this infographic is split into two parts.

  • Royal Wedding Chatter Amps Up on Facebook, Twitter [STATS] (mashable.com)
  • Facebook Friday- the royal wedding edition! (ghostwritermummy.wordpress.com)
  • Sorry, Social Media Addicts: Tweeting Ban In Effect For The Royal Wedding (newsfeed.time.com)
  • I’m sure glad I’m not invited to the royal wedding (thepunch.com.au)
  • Biggest online event is Royal Wedding! (telecomaustralia.wordpress.com)
  • Royal Wedding and Social Media (sandykora.wordpress.com)
  • Royal Wedding 2011: Nielsen study shows US publishing twice as much media as UK (dailymail.co.uk)
  • Tracking the Royal Wedding in Social Media (futurelab.net)
  • Twitter prepare their servers for the Royal Wedding (chatootsboots.wordpress.com)
  • Royal Wedding: A Two-Screen Experience Like You’ve Never Seen (huguesrey.wordpress.com)
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