Earlier this year, I noted that a background check company named Intelius had placed a Google ad on a search of my name. "We found Kashmir Hill," it promised. Further reporting revealed that I was one of "millions." (Take a sec to Google yourself to see if your name is being used to sell the company's services. It's okay. I'll wait...)
Concerned about the power this could give someone to place a link of their choice at the top of a Google search of your name, I reached out to Google back in May to ask about its policy when it comes to advertising using a person's name as a Google Adword. Jim Prosser, Google’s manager of global communications, sent me a link to Google Adword's advertising guidelines which prohibited the practice by a select group of actors. “Google AdWords prohibits the use of proper names when promoting people-finder sites, doctor and lawyer investigation sites, and detective sites,” it read then.
So, technically, Intelius had been violating the Goog-Rulebook. But lo and behold, Google's advertising guidelines have changed since May. The new policy makes clear that Google doesn't care who places an ad on your name:
We do not monitor the use of proper names in AdWords ads or keywords.
Users interested in removing an advertiser's use of proper names in ads and keywords should contact our Consumer Complaints team via our complaint form.
(Sidenote: Yahoo and Bing don't appear to have any policies that address this issue, but a search of my name did not reveal any linked ads.)
Clever Google. This gives users another reason to Google themselves fairly frequently to make sure no one's placed a search ad for something offensive on their name. As always, I would say that it's not only okay, but advisable, to be vain online and to check yourself out regularly in the digital mirror that is your search results page.
