BlogRush Debate: What Will Google Think?

BlogRush has taken the blogging community by storm. Still in beta release, it looks like John Reese has taken a page straight from Google's own play book: Make it available in it's infancy as a beta, then let the users' feedback shape the direction the service evolves.

There is a lot of "press" on this service. Folks who've already signed up are reviewing the service, and encouraging their readers to sign up.

I did a Google search for "blogrush" and "cutts" and found a post by Googler Matt Cutts (http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/lots-o-news/) where in the comments Matt is asked "Do you have any thoughts on BlogRush?"

Matt's answer? "I haven't had a chance to dig into it yet. It sounds like the widget uses JavaScript, so it wouldn't flow PageRank. That sounded pretty good to me."

But there are nay-sayers as well. Over at blog.webmasterforumph.com, teejay posted "BlogRush Against Adsense Terms of Service".

Teejay points out that some bloggers are wary of using BlogRush for fear it is against the Google AdSense TOS, and then quotes the Inside AdSense blog post on Traffic Exchanges, where Google makes it clear their policies "strictly prohibit any means of artificially generating ad impressions or clicks, including third-party services such as paid-to-click, paid-to-surf, auto-surf, and click-exchange programs."

The Google AdSense Program Policies state: "Clicks on Google ads must result from genuine user interest. Any method that artificially generates clicks or impressions on your Google ads is strictly prohibited. These prohibited methods include but are not limited to repeated manual clicks or impressions, using robots, automated click and impression generating tools, third-party services that generate clicks or impressions such as paid-to-click, paid-to-surf, autosurf, and click-exchange programs, or any deceptive software." (Emphasis is mine.)

The AdSense blog post explains the reason behind the prohibition: "These programs offer incentives for users to view web pages or click on ads, resulting in activity that is harmful to our advertisers."

This clearly states it's the offered "incentives" of the prohibited services that lead to invalid clicks or page impressions. And that would imply a traffic exchange service without any such incentives would not artificially generate ad clicks or page impressions.

Based on what I've read, published by Google, it is my opinion that BlogRush--in and of itself--will not hurt your standings as an AdSense Publisher. BlogRush provides a real service to your site visitor by offering a few topically related links to other blog posts. So, if your blog doesn't violate the Google AdSense Program Policies without the BlogRush widget, it shouldn't violate them with it.

Go to the BlogRush site now for more information, or to sign up for this free service.