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October 3, 2007

Google Hits Snag in Monetizing Orkut

Google removed ads from its Orkut social networking service in August after facing complaints filed with a Brazilian advertising body, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Brazilian nonprofit group SaferNet lodged a complaint alleging that Orkut contains child pornography and other illegal content on some users' pages. Google removes such content when it's found

According to Google, the ads were part of a test, and only appeared on only 1% of Orkut pages. A Google executive in Brazil, Alexandre Hohagen, told the WSJ that the company was working closely with Brazilian authorities, and future plans for ads on Orkut were unclear.

Lack of control over the content ads appear near has been an issue for advertisers, especially big-brand owners. Add to that the reported poor performanceof ads, along with the risk of offending the core audience by disrupting their user experience, and it makes one wonder how sites like Facebook will ever be "the next Google," or why folks like Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer think the hype around social networks is going to die down.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at October 3, 2007 11:30 AM