Possible admob TOS violation

AndroidAppsforYou

HI.

When I am in an Andromo app with ads banner on the bottom... and I click on the "share" button and then on "see all"...

I have a lot of share possibilities in mi device and the list that appear is so long that covers the banner ad partially.

This is a violation of TOS of admob, I think.

Can You, Andromo, fix it?

only limiting the long of this list is enough in order to not cover the ad.

colinadams

No, sorry but that doesn't make sense. There is nothing to fix and why do you think this is an 'admob TOS violation'?

AndroidAppsforYou

Well, its difficult to find, but I found this:

https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/4533983?hl=en

Drop-down menu obscures ad

A common reason that these warnings are issued is because a drop-down menu on the site partially or fully obscures AdSense ad.

Check that none of your drop-down menus, including social media sharing icons, overlap any portion of AdSense ad units on your site.

Additionally, sometimes publishers have ads that overlap with content on your site, which can be confusing for visitors.

For more details about these types of policy violations, see our ad implementation policies.

And  https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/1346295?hl=en&ref_topic=1271508&rd=1#Encouraging_accidental_clicks

Avoiding accidental clicks

Encouraging accidental clicks

Publishers are not permitted to encourage users to click on Google ads in any way. This includes implementing the ads in a way that they might be mistaken for other site content, such as a menu, navigation, or download links.

Be careful when placing links, play buttons, download buttons, navigation buttons (e.g., “Previous" or “Next"), game windows, video players, drop-down menus, or applications near ads because they might lead to accidental clicks. Even if the layout unintentionally leads to accidental clicks, publishers may still receive a violation notification.

The problem is the possibility of accidental clicks that the log drop-down menu may provoke.

AndroidAppsforYou

And the attach file doesn't works!

I want to attach a screenshot with the problem but I cant.

("Internal error, could nos save the file")

AndroidAppsforYou

Well.... this image may show an example

https://lh5.ggpht.com/LW_LzrxTifT1IIcc6BeGiJ9xWZiq-yUM3mcBpNVxDUd-cl_VHCkSJJg9scf4YKE8DTE=h900-rw

AndroidAppsforYou

I have one app "disabled" and "not eligible for admob" for the next reasons, in spanish:

Explicación de la infracción
DISEÑO QUE PROPICIE CLICS ACCIDENTALES: los editores no pueden incitar a que los usuarios de su propio sitio hagan clic en los anuncios de AdMob. Esto incluye cualquier elemento que lleve a clics involuntarios, por ejemplo, anuncios situados cerca del área de juego o de barras de navegación, o bien anuncios y enlaces muy próximos entre sí.

CONTENIDO DE TERCEROS EN MARCOS: los editores no pueden publicar anuncios de AdMob en aplicaciones que incluyan en marcos contenido de otros sitios o aplicaciones sin la autorización de sus propietarios.

ANUNCIOS Y CONTENIDO SUPERPUESTO: según se estipula en las políticas del programa, los editores no pueden alterar en modo alguno el funcionamiento de los anuncios de AdMob, por ejemplo, no está permitido colocar los anuncios de tal modo que cubran parte del contenido de la aplicación o partes de una aplicación con el fin de cubrir una parte de los anuncios. Si su aplicación tiene menús desplegables, estos no deben cubrir los anuncios de AdMob.

the first and third reason are about the problem of drop-down menus and similar

AppsDevelopment

Thanks for bringing this to our attention.
Also, when you read here
https://support.google.com/admob/answer/6128877?hl=en
and look at "Placing ads between menu items (Not recommended)"
this is exactly what our andromo apps currently do (e.g. in radio activity, where the banners are on top of the page, but below navigation).

This is NOT good at all! Andromo please fix this ASAP!

AppsDevelopment

Also the drop down menu for navigation (if you have a long list of activities) interferes with the banner ads (top and bottom ones)!

Insplisity

Hm, I remember reading the exact same thing for AdSense, but I wasn't aware it also holds true for AdMob.

However, I'm sure it's not that big of a thing, because I saw this many times in other apps/games as well.

But a second look from Andromo would not hurt.

AppsDevelopment

Obviously @notraf 's app got disabled on admob, because of the drop down menu (when you translate the spanish text he posted).

Maybe it wasnt a big thing, but it seems to be now ...

AndroidAppsforYou

yep  fiends!!

My app was banned. And one of the explanations of this is the drop-downs covering banners.

And yes...silvia..

the drop down menu for navigation (if you have a long list of activities) interferes with the banner ads 

This can be fixed, I think

lorne

@sylvia: Note that it's not recommended, but not technically a policy violation. Only that "This placement can put your app or your account at risk of further action if too many accidental clicks occur."

The placement of our banner ads has been fine in all your apps so far, so I doubt it is generating too many accidental clicks. Unless there has been an unannounced policy change I haven't see any evidence yet of this suddenly becoming a problem.

There aren't many places where you can show a banner ad in a radio activity without being near something. There are controls at the top (action bar) and at the bottom (audio controls). The list items themselves are selectable, so even placing the banners in the middle of the list might not be any better (and then they would move around as the list was scrolled). If you are going to show banner ads, there is going to be some risk of accidental clicks no matter where you put the ad.

I'm also not convinced that the Share button is an issue. The share button is showing a list of items generated by the OS. Its length depends on the number of appropriate activities that could handle the intent. There is no built-in way to limit the length of the list to prevent it from overlapping another control. In fact, there is no way to limit the height of the drop down of a Spinner view (Android's drop-down control) at all. If you want to control the height of the drop down you would need to build a custom control.

Do we know for sure that an app has been disabled because of a drop down menu in Andromo, and not a drop down menu within the content of a web page?

AndroidAppsforYou

Hi @lorne.

Well. I have received 5 banning messages for 5 apps in last month and only one has the message about drop-downs overlapping ads. 

This one is combined with the issue about "content of third person in frames".

May be if the problem of the 3rt person content in frames (the other web opened in app) were not in the app... may be they had not sent me any warning.

But the message for this one is an alert that they can put their eyes in this issue. 

It deserve to be considered in the future if the length limitation of drop-downs were possible.

And... well... I think the content in frames is closed to this frames. No possible drop-down in web pages in frames overlapping outside the frame....I'm wrong?.

But does not matter because I have changed all RSS to "RSS content" or "open in external browser"

AndroidAppsforYou

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/20597584/how-to-limit-the-height-of-spinner-drop-down-view-in-android

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/21426038/how-do-i-set-the-maximum-length-for-a-spinners-drop-down-list

custom drop-down list

Please... implement it at least for the list of activities, in caution of future warnings.

lorne

@notraf I mean whether there were drop-downs within the web content that you were showing, that were overlapping the adsense ads within that web content.

I've seen those stackoverflow posts already and unfortunately it isn't that simple.

I've been looking into this since yesterday to see what we can do to further reduce the risk of accidental clicks, and I think we will make some changes to improve things if we can, but it's not an easy balance to achieve on such small devices. When showing banner ads I don't think accidental clicks are something you will ever eliminate entirely.

If you're truly concerned about this I would suggest not using admob banners and instead using interstitial ads.

AndroidAppsforYou

Well.. thanks.

I hope not to have more banning apps for this reason.

I will inform if happens.

AppsDevelopment

Thanks @Lorne for the explanation!
When I read something like this I am always panacking a little
I understand the problem with the radio activity.
Maybe you will find a solution for the drop down menus.
Thanks as always!