The L.A. Timesreports that Yahoo Inc. has closed all of its user-created chat rooms this week after three advertisers found their online ads running alongside discussions of sex with children.
"We were horrified," Georgia-Pacific spokeswoman Robin Keegan said. The company — maker of Dixie products, Brawny paper towels and Quilted Northern toilet tissue — pulled all of its Yahoo advertising and hasn't returned.
More companies could pull their ads from similar "bulk web buys" when they start exploring where they ads are appearing. Often the companies simply purchase the ad with the knowledge that it will target a specific keyword and appear on hundreds of thousands of websites, chats or blogs without looking specifically at all of the blogs, discussion boards or chatrooms their ad is running on.
Internet advertising is surging to record highs as the percentage of homes with high-speed connections rises and growth at more traditional media atrophies. Online ad sales topped $2.8 billion in the first quarter, up 26% from 2004. Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo posted 2004 revenue of $3.6 billion, most of it from advertising.
Some advertisers, however, are realizing just how little they know about what their money is getting them. Users contribute all or most of the content at many increasingly popular types of sites, including discussion boards, social-networking companies and blogs.
Most companies have little control over where their ads run because they buy online ad space in bulk through brokers who purchase spots on various websites. Individual ads often are placed by computer programs that match up keywords so that, at least theoretically, car ads pop up in discussions about cars.
Internet advertising leaders like Google and Yahoo may find themselves having to find a way to filter out the unwanted content in order to keep some of their advertisers.
