MyBlogLog = Tracking Google Ad Clicks?

February 23rd, 2007

Technology It’s been an odd week for the former startup MyBlogLog that was acquired by Yahoo!. After some spamming problems, noted blogger Shoemoney noticed some “hacks” and got banned. Now he’s done a little more digging and noted that because MyBlogLog tracks what links your blog’s users click on, that means they can track all your advertising click-through information, specifically Google Ads. Check out this article for a bit more info.

Well, I must say I didn’t put two and two together, but if you recall my comments regarding Yahoo! buying MyBlogLog the clues were there. At the time, I noted “who knows what fun stuff Yahoo! can learn from all this blog-tracking data.”

As far as I’m concerned, there’s no indication that MyBlogLog is doing anything nefarious here. In fact, they even admitted tracking AdSense clicks in the past. It seems tracking various ad clicks was even requested by users. So perhaps this is no big deal to many MyBlogLog users.

I still want to give them the benefit of the doubt because I enjoy seeing who’s visiting this blog at a glance, and I’ve discovered many other cool blogs through it.

But the biggest thing I’m concerned about is that in the Google AdSense Terms of Service it states under “confidentiality” that we’re not supposed to disclose “click-through rates or other statistics relating to Site performance”. So is it a violation to have the MyBlogLog widget handing click-through information to MyBlogLog (Yahoo!)? Clarity, someone?

Unfortunately, if I have to choose between Google and Yahoo! regarding a widget, I’m siding with Google. I hope MyBlogLog fixes this so I don’t have to make a choice. But it’s entirely possible that this is one reason why Yahoo! bought their technology.

Update 1: Please read here for MyBlogLog’s update regarding this matter. Looks like a conflict with Google is unlikely. Update 2: Shoemoney isn’t banned anymore. Stuff moves so fast on the net.

Additional Reading: 091 AM, Net Business Blog, Caterina.net, WebProNews, Mathew Ingram, Finding The Money, Andy Beard, Blogger’s Blog