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Comment by charcircuit | Hacker News Reader

>Google's policy is that both display and landing page URLs should be within the same website. This means that the display URL in your ad needs to match the domain that visitors land on when they click on your ad.

https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6246601?hl=en

The author paints the picture that bad actors can just use any URL when that does not seem to be the case.

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> This means that the display URL in your ad needs to match the domain that visitors land on when they click on your ad.

This policy is fundamentally impossible to enforce without domain ownership verification. 'It is against our policy' isn't exactly a good excuse when said policy isn't technically enforceable.

Google practices sampled URL resolution (which is insufficient as explained in my blog post) and does not currently require domain ownership verification for the use of vanity URLs.

I don't get it. Solving this is trivial. Simply display the url that the ad links to. Why the hell is it configurable?

Because disallowing those link redirection services would hurt the platform's profits by adding friction for advertisers. Link fraud makes them more money and they aren't punished for it.

These platforms operate more like oligarch crime lords than friends of society. There's no "free market" solution to fleecing the public, it's lucrative and all the players participate in it.

There is either a fraudulent market or a regulated market. Or a fraudulently regulated one.

Actual free market is a myth.

If browsers can load content from a different place than what they display someone is going to use that.