Google has costly yellow ad blunder

They bought ads and those ads were displayed. If I print out $10,000 worth of yellow posters at Kinkos, I’m not off the hook for that just because it was a mistake.

Some publishers show ads based on the CPM that advertiser is willing to pay; that happens in almost real-time. So these yellow ads were dished out because they had a high CPM. It's probably difficult to tell what the real CPM might have been if these ads weren't in the system.

I would hope not. Google should have a non-prod env for training like this.

As someone that has been part of costlier incidents in the past, no. Blaming people for an accident the system allowed is generally not useful. You fix the system so that the accident isn't possible.

In Germany you would have problems firing someone over an honest and easy to make mistake.

Upon entering Mr Watson’s office the young man looked down and said, “Well I suppose you want my resignation.”

“You can’t be serious!” Mr Watson exclaimed, “We just spent 10 million dollars educating you! You’re not going anywhere!”

- Andy Stanley, “Next Generation Leader"