When Google Adwords Rules are Applied Unfairly

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Knife Depot just put up a blog post about their chronic issues with their Adwords account getting banned. In the post they show how Walmart, Amazon, and Cabelas appear to go unscathed as Google bans Knife Depot for advertising on keywords such as "throwing knives" and "open assist knife". It's a good question, if Google is going after Knife Depot, banning their account, etc.. then why would they allow any advertising on those queries at all?

I had a similar experience in 2007 when Google Adsnese threatened to ban me for video content on my site that violated their guidelines, videos of games and other things deemed as "mature" that could be readily found on YouTube. I was told then in an email that Google had "a different arrangement and set of rules" for YouTube. Could it be possible that Google has made separate arrangements with larger advertisers and therefore they have different rules?



Different rules for corporations than smallbiz and working class

There are now and have always been different rules for corporations than there are for everyone else. For example, the games Yelp plays are common knowledge - but even when the get sued they win. I bet Angie's list wouldn't have. (See http://growmap.com/communications-decency-act-publisher-immunity-not-motive-based/ )


I read about the issues Knife Depot had months ago. This is obviously Google applying rules differently for them than they do for corporations. If a product is banned, then it should be banned for every seller.


More importantly, that should only mean that store can not advertise that item - NOT that they are banned from advertising ANY item. The product is legal. It has practical uses. And this is simply wrong.

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