Google Ads fails basic advertiser trust on malicious software

A founder posted a detailed account of successfully advertising what they described as malicious software through Google Ads, with Google's systems apparently unable to distinguish legitimate terminal software from the AI slop and scam campaigns that run constantly. The thread drew sharp reactions about Google's relationship with advertisers: the platform is optimized for revenue extraction, not for vetting what runs through it.

This fits a pattern that's been consistent across years of HN threads: Google treats advertisers as inputs to a revenue machine, not as customers with relationships. The specific failure mode here, algorithmic approval of sketchy content combined with no human review, is exactly the failure mode that makes the platform unreliable for technical products that look unusual to a classifier.

Several commenters questioned why a technical founder would use Google Ads at all, given that HN readers and developers use ad blockers at high rates. That's a real point, but the broader issue is that Google Ads is often the only scalable channel available, which means founders are stuck trusting a system that doesn't trust them back.