Google In News: Introduces Hindi Adsense Ads, Faces Legal Action Over Inaccurate Maps

The tech giant has been in the news over the last week for two reasons. The Maps division is facing the wrath of government agencies for showing inaccurate maps. On the other hand, they have tried to put a huge smile on the face of Hindi language publishers and bloggers by allowing Google AdSense support in Hindi…finally!

Google Introduces Hindi Adsense Ads

Google AdSense, which is one of the largest and best paying contextual ad networks used by thousands of web publishers in India, has finally added Hindi language support to their network. Google ads were not earlier supported on websites and blogs which posted content mainly in Hindi, as a result of which bloggers and publishers in Hindi- a popular language spoken by more than 500 million people around the world- could not monetize their sites ell enough.

Hindi bloggers and publishers can now apply for Google AdSense and start earning from their hindi language websites, once again.

Once again?

Yes, you heard it right. For all those who may not be aware, Google did support Hindi Adsense till they decided to revoke it in 2008 for reasons best known to them. consequently, income from websites and blogs in Hindi dropped. One of the reasons being cited for Google’s decision to revoke their ads was the poor click through rate (CTR) on Hindi websites.

While advertisers were paying to Google for putting up their ads on Hindi blogs, they were not getting good ROI from them. In absence of good business and income, Google had revoked the official support but continued to allow Google ads on Hindi website that have good page authority (e.g. newspaper websites).

Ok, reason enough. But what makes them rethink over their decision to revoke the ad network on Hindi six years back and re-introduce it?

For all that I can think, there could be two reasons for behind the move:

1. Due to a huge spurt in the number of internet users in India over the last few years (attributed to falling prices of internet usage and popularity of smartphones), the market for Hindi content over the internet has increased manifold. Along with it has the market for ads in Hindi, which Google does not want to leave outside its purview anymore.

Google wants to test the waters once again and see if allowing ads on Hindi blogs and websites can convert well for them this time.

2. The political scene in the country has undergone a sea change in the last few months. The Narendra Modi led government in New Delhi has made it clear that they want to promote the usage of the language in the country. Seeing this as a rapidly expanding market for content in Hindi, Google did not want to lose out on the opportunity to encash it.

Whatever the reasons behind Google’s move, this looks like a pot of gold for Indian bloggers and publishers who, till date had to be content with putting up Google ads on Hindi websites only to be penalized by way of getting an AdSense ban as soon as Google learnt of the policy violation. And anyone who has tried cheating on Google would know how difficult it is to do that!

No need to try cheating on the search engine giant anymore- a Christmas- Hew Year bonanza for all Hindi language publishers!

Google Maps Faces Legal Action

Google has been accused of depicting India’s international boundaries wrongly in its hugely popular Google Maps and other websites belonging to them.

Rajyavardhan Rathore, ace shooter turned MP who is now a Minister of State in the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, confirmed this while submitting a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha. The Minister confirmed that the Survey of India had looked into the matter after getting complaints about wrongly displayed map of the country.

“On receipt of complaints regarding display of incorrect map of India by Google, Survey of India found that Google is displaying incorrect map of India on its different websites namely google.co.in (India), ditu.google.co.ch (China), google.pk (Pakistan) and google.org (General).

The Survey of India is the national survey and mapping organization of India and works under the department of Science and Technology.

Putting up an incorrect or improper map of the country is an offence according to section 69-A of Information Technology Act, 2000, told the minister.