Google AdSense
Ranked 4 of 7 advertising platforms by recommenders
People recommend it for steady early income from websites, with many recalling payouts that paid for rent and school. Critics most often cite sudden account bans and falling earnings.
People recommend it for steady early income from websites, with many recalling payouts that paid for rent and school. Critics most often cite sudden account bans and falling earnings.
58 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 11
- criticize it
- 47
- approval share
- 19%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Owned for 20 years
Median of the 6 owners who said how long they have had it.
Each square is one year.
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 11 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Early income for small websites
“Google AdSense was like the cambrian explosion allowing tons of businesses to get traction in the early days”
Comment from 2 Apr 2026 in “LinkedIn Is Illegally Searching Your Computer” “that first couple cents/bucks a month from Adsense convinced me to spend more time on it”
Comment from 2 Jul 2026 in “PeerTube is a free, decentralized and federated video platform” “That first check bought us a freezer. The next paid our rent.”
Comment from 7 Apr 2026 in “After 20 years I turned off Google Adsense for my websites” Paid for education and living costs
“thanks Google Adsense for paying for practically half my education”
Comment from 7 Apr 2026 in “After 20 years I turned off Google Adsense for my websites” “I owe my life to ads. Thank you Google AdSense and Yahoo! Ads”
Comment from 25 Aug 2026 in “OpenAI restores 5-hour Codex and Work limits for ChatGPT Plus users” “That first check bought us a freezer. The next paid our rent.”
Comment from 7 Apr 2026 in “After 20 years I turned off Google Adsense for my websites”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Accounts suspended or banned without payment
“Google support was not helpful and after a series of reviews, they permanently shut down Adsense for this site.”
Comment from 7 Apr 2026 in “After 20 years I turned off Google Adsense for my websites” “My AdSense account was suspended three times because I had an exclamation mark in my ad.”
Comment from 3 Nov 2025 in “Google suspended my company's Google cloud account for the third time” “Every person and company I know who had an Adsense account was banned and not paid.”
Comment from 7 Apr 2026 in “After 20 years I turned off Google Adsense for my websites” Income falling despite more visitors
“I noticed it ticking down year over year after 2018.”
Comment from 7 Apr 2026 in “After 20 years I turned off Google Adsense for my websites” “over time things really dropped off. Despite increasing visitors I was getting less and less income from the adverts”
Comment from 7 Apr 2026 in “After 20 years I turned off Google Adsense for my websites” “Then one month it suddenly halved for no apparent reason. And it kept dropping.”
Comment from 7 Apr 2026 in “After 20 years I turned off Google Adsense for my websites” Malware and privacy concerns
“they don't need breaches for them to have privacy issues given that elephant sized conflict of interest”
Comment from 13 Feb 2026 in “Gemini 3 Deep Think” “Ad blocking is necessary to avoid malware and spyware which is spread by google adsense all the time.”
Comment from 10 Dec 2025 in “GrapheneOS is the only Android OS providing full security patches” “Hasn't AdSense been known to be a malware delivery vector for over a decade by now?”
Comment from 9 Feb 2026 in “More Mac malware from Google search” Intrusive, repetitive ads
“Google had initially a good program that was based on keywords and non-intrusive ads. They killed that in the pursuit of more profits.”
Comment from 7 Apr 2026 in “After 20 years I turned off Google Adsense for my websites” “Because ads are cancerous, it may make you a few dollars, it massively reduces the usage of the internet”
Comment from 7 Apr 2026 in “After 20 years I turned off Google Adsense for my websites” “the typical Google Adsense garbage where the same ad is plastered in 4 different places on the page”
Comment from 13 May 2026 in “Tell NYT, Atlantic, USA Today to Keep Wayback Machine”
Other advertising platforms people recommend
The four most recommended other advertising platforms, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Ads | 25 | 144 | 15% | 11 | 16 yrs10 owners | — |
| Meta Ads | 14 | 28 | 33% | 6 | — | — |
| Instagram ads | 12 | 4 | 75% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Google AdSenseThis page | 11 | 47 | 19% | 6 | 20 yrs6 owners | — |
| Facebook Ads | 7 | 23 | 23% | 5 | 10 yrs3 owners | — |
What people said
40 of the 69 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Google doesn't care that its AdSense ads marketplace is flooded with malware.”
“injecting crypto-scams and porny/gaming ads for trashy site/apps”
“The problem is the scummy adsense ads don't hurt Google's reputation.”
“Adsense is unusable with the constant scareware content on the network”
“it does so by creating a closed ad space economy that Alphabet manages”
“I owe my life to ads. Thank you Google AdSense and Yahoo! Ads”
“Literally just built a custom Adsense dashboard based on not integrating with Google's APIs”
“that first couple cents/bucks a month from Adsense convinced me to spend more time on it”
“I couldn't figure out how to contact a human, so I ended up just paying because I didn't want to risk getting my account closed.”
“Google AdSense was originally text-only and small-sized ads. What happened?”
“the typical Google Adsense garbage where the same ad is plastered in 4 different places on the page”
“gmail, google adsense, facebook, instagram and twitter (and others)”
“Google contractually forbids AdSense-enabled websites from using competing services”
“Any sane nation would have banned it decades ago, unless it was propping up a global influence campaign for their government.”
“Because ads are cancerous, it may make you a few dollars, it massively reduces the usage of the internet”
“thanks Google Adsense for paying for practically half my education”
“over time things really dropped off. Despite increasing visitors I was getting less and less income from the adverts”
“Google had initially a good program that was based on keywords and non-intrusive ads. They killed that in the pursuit of more profits.”
“It is a bait and switch strategy, but they'll certainly say that it is just an algorithm improvement”
“gets flagged for writing about the very legal cases he's an expert on”
“That first check bought us a freezer. The next paid our rent.”
“Every person and company I know who had an Adsense account was banned and not paid.”
“I noticed it ticking down year over year after 2018.”
“every ad they were running was a deceptive green "download" button”
“So if you don't say anything then Google will think - yeah, that's one way to make profit!”
“barely breaking even with the added expense of complicating my taxes”
“Google support was not helpful and after a series of reviews, they permanently shut down Adsense for this site.”
“Then one month it suddenly halved for no apparent reason. And it kept dropping.”
“Google AdSense was like the cambrian explosion allowing tons of businesses to get traction in the early days”
“they've been abusing the hell out of their chokehold monopoly on ads, via adsense, at every level of the system”
“YouTube and AdSense are both extraordinarily profitable”
“I used it for fun not realizing it keeps going and then billed me”
“they don't need breaches for them to have privacy issues given that elephant sized conflict of interest”
“Hasn't AdSense been known to be a malware delivery vector for over a decade by now?”
“great to add free Google services that enhanced my site/shared revenue”
“Even their advertising is tasteful - and relevant!”
“figures out how to support a product lifecycle that isn’t AdSense”
“Ad blocking is necessary to avoid malware and spyware which is spread by google adsense all the time.”
“Google needs to be broken up into three or more companies. Search, Android, Chrome, and AdSense should not live together.”
“My AdSense account was suspended three times because I had an exclamation mark in my ad.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.