Open eyed Neowin readers managed to snap a very interesting shot of the front page this week; no, not another impressive exclusive, but an advert. Neowin "sub-contracts" it"s advertising requirements to search giant Google and its program, Google Adsense. Widely used and widely regarded as getting the online advertising industry back on its feet, the program has seen large adoption and sucess in the online community.
What was so interesting about the advert was that it appeared to be advertising a link to a pirated copy of Doom III, the soon to be released game from ID Software. The link took readers a notorious software and film piracy site, Suprnova. Suprnova provides a centralised base for tracking torrents, or files often illegally hosted on the bit-torrent protocol.
Google claims to "uphold the quality and reputation of Google AdSense, all publishers who apply are reviewed according to these program policies", and says that sites that "promotes illegal activity" are not allowed into the program. Or not!
Neowin was unable to get a response from Google for comment. One would hope that in future the program would take more time reviewing the adwords accepted, and certainly not leave the job to a computer to do. Illegally issued shares might not be the only misdemeanour Google"s committed of late.