Ads Make Your Site Look Legitimate from a Harvard report on phishing

[amir400 0]

An interesting report (pdf)< https://www.webmasterworld.com/ > has been published by authors Dhamija, Tygar and Hearst entitled "Why Phishing Works". Apart from being interesting reading in itself, the authors note that if websites contained professional-looking ads, they were more likely to assume the site was legitimate (this also applied to other page elements).
The relevance of this to adsense users?

It is sometimes a concern that putting ads on a (legitimate!) site will reduce the perceived quality of a site--that somehow the site has been hijacked by the webmaster who wants to make a quick buck. (Whereas we're innocently just monetizing our websites, of course!) But this research seems to indicate that with careful page design and intelligent use of ads, the perceived authenticity or authority of our page content may actually increase.

Interesting, huh?

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[Plenoptic 0]

I personally am not going to belive a site is legitamate just because they have professional looking ads. Anyone can make "professional looking" ads with a little practice and some can just lead to other sites. Ads really in my opinion do nothing for me except to show that the person is hoping to make an income or to help pay for the site for them and they are seen regularly around the internet now that who knows what to believe or not.

[the_aggie10 0]

I personally am not going to belive a site is legitamate just because they have professional looking ads. Anyone can make "professional looking" ads with a little practice and some can just lead to other sites. Ads really in my opinion do nothing for me except to show that the person is hoping to make an income or to help pay for the site for them and they are seen regularly around the internet now that who knows what to believe or not.

pretty much what pleno said....except i would see a site with prof. looking ads as more legit than one with out it....but it would make a very drastic difference to me

[Voidless_Shadows 0]

I like how serious the subject was taken in that...lolFor me it depends on the ads, sometimes, they really do look too trashy for me to think it's a trustworthy site...I think the best chance somebody'd have at tricking me is having a very similiar URL, similar webpage and similar ads, in other words, I'm only going to REALLY think its legit if it looks and feels legit, not JUST because it has ads.

[special 0]

Thats belony, serieusly weak american talk. We have coperations ownd by the goverment that tell you if a website is legit and trustworthy. Doing ands and stuff overdo it and your yust a newb with a spam site.

[networker 0]

I've always believed this to be true.Advertisements reallydo increase a persons acceptance of a website. It may sound cheesy but it is true if you look at the physcological aspects of it. I mean,if you were driving through a new city and you didn't recognise anyof the advertisements and billboards,or if there weren't any advertisements at all,you would feel suspiscious.Theres is a strange comfort for people in crass comercialism. Strange but true,no matter how shallow.

Edited January 4, 2009 by networker (see edit history)

[rpgsearcherz 5]

I'm wondering if this study would be different now, in 2009.In terms of my personal feelings on the subject, it's really hard to say. Usually I judge sites based on what they are giving, compared to what they want in return.For example, to have a personal site or something without advertisements, I can see that happening.To have a website that gives away free items or something(even if you have to play games to win them), I would pretty much instantly know that they are fake.

[miladinoski 1]

Actually a site with more than 2 squares of ads no matter how long they are or how they are put for me is quite lame and even though I surf with an enabled adblocker I sometimes use another browser where I don't have it installed and it's really annoying.

 

Also I find the flash and animated gif ads the most annoying but only when I am left without Opera (where with F12 I can turn off animated images + plugins in 2 clicks)

 

As rpgsearcherz said, I too don't judge the site by the ads it has but by the content and how well it is organized.

[Echo_of_thunder 1]

Myself I find a site with Ad's very annoying. I mean I go to a site to find the info I need. not have to read a ton of ad's selling whatevery. Same with pop up's. Besides we all know some of these so called ad's are nothing but adding a tracking cookie to your pc.

[rpgsearcherz 5]

I don't really find the ads *annoying*. I mean, they bother me to an extent, but at the same time I think about the fact that without ads, the sites wouldn't exist anyways.So for me, ignoring the ads is well worth actually having the website up, . Think about a world with no ads. You go to Google(assuming it still existed) and search for something, only to come up with 2 results.That's not how I would want the internet to be.

[Ousk 0]

It could be true maybe because a lot of sites just spam you with a lot of trash, so maybe when the user gets to a site with low add space and no pop ups and some i don't know web application containing the ads like amazon's may feel like it's a quality web page.What i have about this add business is that people don't get that a web page costs a lot to run, like hosting, and the work that the admin does, so they just say oh this guy wants to make money with the site pff putting adds so lame. But without the ads there would not be an internet.

[ackotheadvertiser 0]

Yes I sure aree with this. When I started making sites and forums, for like about a year and a half from now, I wasn't looking for money, but something to fill my time with. I wasn't even good at it. But than I started learning photoshop and web design and everything went different... Would of I been that interested lately if there weren't any money in the game? I would not-for sure. A good site is like a TV channel, the best content you have, the more commercials you'll get(and in the web business that means more visits=more money). If there wasn't for the advertising, 99% of the sites we know weren't be in here. Advertising actually provides us the good content we get from the Internet every single day, and still, people know so little about it. But as soft as advertising policies get, as more copied and unlegimate content we get! Now that's the bad part, and there are so many 'web applications' which copy the keywords you searched, and they show up at the first page, so an un-experienced user would just search and search before they find what they need. And the spamming has become a real pain in you know where. We just get all these spam e-mails and all.. But we should ignore those, it's just a small price for what the Internet offers us.And yes, By The Way, Ads do make the Internet!

[nirvaman 1]

I think a lot of ads make your site look like an amateur website , or a MFA , and answering the idea that says that website serving ads look legitimate , i know a lot of warez websites that uses Google adsense , wich is against the tos , but they are doing just fine with it.If you want your site to be legitimate , do this :1-Put an about us section on your website with contact informations and phone if possible.2-Don't hide your informations from the whois database.3-If you can afford an SSL certificate , so this will be better.4-Try to register your domain name for more then a year * if i see a website selling something , and that website is registered for a year only !! means the webmaster's broke and he'll steal money from me!!!!i think that's all , good luck guys :angel: