Dr Easychair runs foul of Google

An old friend of this blog, Andrew Bolt – our Doctor Easychair – has been encouraging his readers to wantonly click on Google Ads for the Greens on his blog

The idea apparently is that each click on a Greens’ Google Ad will cost the party whatever the going rate is for clicking on a Google Ad, thus cumulatively sending the Greens into financial ruin.

Ingenious! . . . Except that prompting readers to click on Google Ads in fact violates the terms of the host’s (i.e., Dr Easychair’s) Google Ads agreement.

It was for a very similar offence that Tim Blair took Webdiary to task back in May 2006. I can’t actually link to that post of Tim’s because he’s apparently forgotten to pay the hosting bill for his old blog site. (Hit the link and you get the message: “The system path does not appear to be set correctly. Please open your path.php file and correct the path”).

But I can tell you Tim’s post was a riot of mirth about “ethical and accountable Webdiary” having violated the Google Ads terms, with dark hints of dire consequences. (I know this can’t be right, but it’s almost as if the Muftim was goading Google into clobbering Webdiary with all sorts of nasty consequences. Of course, we know our venerable Muftim is beyond such base impulses of Schadenfreude...)

Naturally we can now expect Tim Blair to do a searing exposé of Doctor Easychair’s recent naughtiness.

Or can we? Things’ve been rather quiet at the Muftim’s of late; when I looked today he hadn’t published a post since 5 November.

C’mon Tim, the blogosphere still needs you!