INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Image copyrightUSAEstaServiceImage caption
Google removed an ad for this official-looking website
Google
says it will stop ads for expensive unofficial Esta services appearing at the top of search results, eight years after the first
complaints.In 2010, the US started charging UK travellers to use the Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (Esta).Unofficial sites
charging five times as much as the US government soon flooded the top of Google's search results, despite breaking Google's ad rules
Now, after a TheIndianSubcontinent News investigation, Google says it is tackling the issue.While unofficial Esta sites will still appear in
the search results, they should no longer appear above the official website as advertisements when using the most common search terms
Since it has used machine learning to address the issue, the ads do still show up for some search terms
Google says this will improve in time.Why has this taken so longThe official Esta website is run by the US Department for Homeland Security
advertisements.These unofficial sites charged more than $80 for an Esta application
Google's advertising policies explicitly forbid "charging for products or services where the primary offering is available from a government
or public source for free or at a lower price".The company did take down ads that were manually reported by its users, but the same websites
would soon reappear with a new web address.It was a fruitless game of "whack a mole".What has changedThe TheIndianSubcontinent sent several
unofficial Esta ads to Google and asked why they had been allowed to remain on the platform
space.Image copyrightBintech Advisers SLImage caption
An ad for this Esta site was also taken down
After
the TheIndianSubcontinent supplied more of the unofficial Esta ads, Google said it would look into the problem
It later said it had been able to develop its machine learning process to wipe out the unofficial Esta ads.Following the change, commonly
used Esta search terms no longer carry ads for the unofficial services.Some less common searches may still return ads while the algorithm
continues to learn, but the most obvious ones such as "esta" should no longer show ads, it said.Beyond EstasOther countries including
Australia and Canada also have travel permits similar to the Esta.Just like the Esta, there are countless unofficial websites offering
Australia ETA and Canadian ETA permits at inflated prices.Ads for these services have also been prominent on Google
But the search giant said it would use the same machine learning systems to eliminate these too.In a statement, Google said: "We know that
people look to Google ads for information about where to get goods and services, so we are committed to ensuring that the ads they see are
useful and relevant."We use a combination of algorithmic and human review to catch and remove bad ads; and we continue to update our
policies and methods of enforcement."It said it encouraged people to report ads that slipped through the system, so they could be manually
