I heard about IncrediMail's "misfortune" from What IncrediMail's Ban from Google Teaches Us over at TheAlphaMarketer, a Know More Media blog.   The most amazing thing, with all the AdSense scams is that Google actually bans a large company from AdSense .. I've never heard of such a thing (Google actually has quality control?).

Ok, I have to admit, as IncrediMail got Banned from AdSense/AdWords, as discussed in The Mortly Fool -  Banned by Google - I'm wondering what they actually did - it must have been some pretty aggressive SEM to have ticked Google off that much.

You know what - it's gotta be because of this shlock - I found a post about Incredimail on TechCrunch from last year showing 3D Mailbox: Worst. App. Ever.

- see below.  I also understand there was a bunch of affiliate spam and spyware "embedded" in the Incredimails (no pun intended).

This goes to show that

1. Google is a monopoly (kinda) - they pretty much rule search; that puts them in an awkward position - even when the "police" their own programs (like AdSence) for quality control - being dropped from Google is like, going to the poorhouse for many, many companies.
2. Google was probably right to drop Incredimail, based on what I've read.   However, the problem is not so much that Google banned Incredimail as there is no viable option where they can  replace AdSense revenues with other third party advertising parters because of Google's overwhealming dominance.
3. The entire field of online advertising may need to be "regulated" someday soon - and it might be too much to ask Search Engines to police themselves.
• But that brings up a can of worms because regulation is often seen as a bad thing (but is it really bad to "regulate" airlines, or "regulate" health insurence?   Should it be left up to Google to decide if someone's advertising violates it's terms of service if, in fact, it's the only real game intown that's viable?

And then, the fact IncrediMail stock dropped so much after the announcement brings up the idea that businesses who depend so much on online advertising, particularly Google, need alternatives - real alternatives, and right now Microsoft and Yahoo aren't really viable alternatives because they can't replace the traffic that was lost with AdSense.

So.. I don't know … what do my readers think about this one: