This Monday Google added a new policy which will ban the promotion of porn sites from its advertisement network. The policy concerns the websites which use explicit graphics in advertisements for promotion through Google's ad network. These graphics include sexual acts of masturbation and oral sex.
The policy change was already announced by Google in March this year. It was only on this Monday that it put it into practice officially.
Google's advertisement network, popularly known as AdWords allows assorted websites and blogs to promote themselves through it. AdWords is also the major revenue generation program of Google. Google reportedly generated $13.8 billion through AdWords in the recent quarter. The money accounts for over 90 percent of company's total revenue generated.
When a Google spokesperson was requested to reveal the percentage of such sexual-explicit websites that promote through AdWords, the person denied commenting. However, the person stated that the company updates its policies regularly, and has strict guidelines for sexually explicit content.
"I was one of the very first advertisers for AdWords back in 2002," Theo Sapoutzis, chairman and CEO of AVN Media Network stated. "It's something that's been [untouched] for 12 years, so you don't expect change is going to start happening."
The reason behind Google's big decision is unclear for now. However, it is worth noticing that a few years ago Google had taken a similar step when it started banning the Blogger based blogs which were making money through porn ads.
The step taken by Google might not affect its revenue generation much though. This is because Google continues to invest in other kinds of advertisement programs such as online video advertising. It is worth noticing here that last month the tech giant announced that it shall acquire the video advertising giant mDialog.