The outrage bandwagon

[Bloomberg] [Fully Charged]( From [Bloomberg]( [FOLLOW US [Facebook Share]]([Twitter Share]( [SUBSCRIBE [Subscribe]]( Hi, it's [Shira](mailto:sovide@bloomberg.net?cmpid=BBD032317_TECH&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=170323&utm_campaign=tech). I'm sure you've read Bloomberg's [excellent]( [coverage]( of the [semi-boycott]( of Google ads over advertisements sponsoring offensive YouTube videos. Google is no stranger to controversy about the quality of the content or ads it serves, but this latest tempest exposes a deep problem. This is what happens when Google, Facebook and the whole industry allow longstanding flaws with digital advertising to fester. Ads running next to horrible or faked content, bogus measurement of ad views, creepy collection of personal information or downright annoying ads have been a problem for as long as the web has existed. Remember those pop-up mortgage ads from the 1990s? (Or am I too old?) Ok, so few L'Oreal ads next to anti-Semitic videos is nothing new. And cynically, there is little to lose for advertisers pulling money from Google. They haven't stopped spending on Google's web search ads, which could have an immediate hit to their sales. With safety in numbers, they can try to squeeze concessions or discounts from Google. But there are three reasons not to dismiss the outrage bandwagon. - The gripes this time aren't coming from regulators, privacy groups, competitors or other longstanding Google critics. They're coming from the advertisers who pay the bills. Google parent company Alphabet generates 88 percent of its annual revenue from ads. - Digital advertising's longstanding problems aren't getting better. Newly published [research]( by a group of marketing firms found nearly 20 percent of digital ads were bogus—that is, not seen by humans, or purposefully invisible on websites and apps. That's a lot of wasted ad spending. Again, bogus ads are a [perennial problem](, but they've been tolerated for too long. - Advertising online is no longer a niche activity where some kinks can be tolerated. This year, internet ads are forecast to surpass TV commercials as the world's largest advertising category, according to Magna Global. The big risk for Google and Facebook is that this week's headlines will embolden advertisers to take a second look at whether their digital ad budgets are as effective as they believe. They might not like what they find. Marketing firm Adobe this week [said]( the costs of digital advertising were growing more quickly than the cost of TV ads, and that the growth in spending on Web search ads isn't resulting in a commensurate increase in visits to the advertisers' websites. That echoes the disillusionment [expressed]( by an executive at Procter & Gamble—the world's biggest buyer of advertisements—who said big companies aren't seeing fast enough sales growth to justify the $500 billion spent annually on advertisements. My Bloomberg Gadfly colleague Leila Abboud [wrote this week](about fixes Google should have made long ago, such as allowing independent software to verify where ad campaigns run, and to measure the effectiveness of those ads. There's no time like the present, Google. Do it before the outrage cycle breaks the spell of digital advertising altogether. And here's what you need to know in global technology news First Lloyd’s of London [insured movie stars’ legs](. Now it’s gunning for people who sell vitamins on Amazon. Lloyd’s is underwriting insurance [to cover lost income for Amazon marketplace sellers]( who get booted off the site. A gathering of Samsung shareholders is [sure to be dominated by the legal charges]( against its de facto CEO. Jay Y. Lee was jailed in connection with Samsung’s alleged role in a national influence-peddling scandal that brought down South Korea’s president. Tencent is the latest Chinese technology superpower to [bet big on artificial intelligence]( to stay ahead in the country’s fiercely competitive tech industry. Being irked by constant LinkedIn updates and spam is a rite of professional life. Now LinkedIn wants to annoy you with something new, “[trending storylines](.” It’s very, very, very hard to be a financially successful digital music service. Related: SoundCloud just [borrowed]( $70 million. You received this message because you are subscribed to the Bloomberg Technology newsletter Fully Charged. You can tell your friends to [sign up here](. [Unsubscribe]( | [Bloomberg.com]( | [Contact Us]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022