Acro.net – Technology Rants & Raves by Acroplex®

As I reported in my previous blog post, Sedo.com responded to my reaction towards their pornographic banner invasion, by removing the text referencing certain adult domain names for their upcoming adult auction.

In a nutshell, their amendment of the original ad retained the main image, which displays a semi-nude blonde seen from behind. This version of the banner was deemed borderline acceptable for the thousands of unsuspecting visitors to the offer pages of my non-adult domain portfolio, parked at Sedo.com, and for the millions of other domains owned by other Sedo customers.

Only a day later, on August 1st, I discovered that Sedo reversed the changes and re-instated the explicit banner ad, which contains the names of pornographic domains rolling over the image of the semi-nude blonde.

As of now, Sedo displays this pornographic ad on millions of pages of Sedo customers’ domains; visitors who want to place an offer or go through the sign-up process are facing an image and words which are completely incompatible with the average visitor’s definition of conducting business. The ad is *not* displayed on adult domains only, as it should have been the case.

Sedo has yet to comment on this reversal of a decision. Meanwhile, other vendors and publications that innocently pull in ads from Sedo, are displaying the explicit version – this is an image from DNJournal with editor Ron Jackson’s picture next to the Sedo porn ad. (image was captured from this URL)

Knowing Ron Jackon and his professional role in the domain industry, I am certain that he would not approve of this adult image being displayed next to his picture – if only he were aware of it!

This unexplained change leaves Sedo exposed as a company with a focus on the domain business and tarnishes the image of thousands of domain owners that are unaware of the pornography being displayed at the offer pages of their non-adult domains. Sedo has been advised to remove the image without any further delays.

Update:

Sedo has now changed the image so that it does not contain the offensive domains, for all English-speaking traffic.

When Sedo.com introduced themed domain auctions, it was clear that they are targeting a particular segment of the domain market. For example, their Geo Auction was about geographic domains, the Jobs Auction was related to domains pertaining to the employment industry, and so forth.

Themed auctions allow for a group of sellers to attract a particular group of buyers, interested in the specific domain auction theme. Sedo advertises these themed auctions that usually last for a week on its network of affiliated sites and on their pages under Sedo.com, by displaying related prompts, text and graphics ads.

Sedo is having an Adult Auction starting August 6th and for that purpose they created this adult banner ad (view at your own risk) right here. The ad is displayed with at least a 40% “weight” – in other words, 4 ads out of 10 impressions would show the adult banner; the rest would be unrelated banner ads.

The problem lies with the way that this ad – which features a semi-nude blonde seen from the back – appears on any Sedo.com page, without regard to the audience that might be viewing it. For example, it appears on offer pages for domains listed at Sedo for sale. Anyone with the intention to place an offer on a domain, stands a chance of seeing the ad, which also contains three domains from the adult inventory up for auction: DirtyVideo.com, Pornos.net & SeePorn.com

With thousands of visitors viewing “offer pages” of domains parked or listed with Sedo daily, almost one out of two viewers would face the adult themed ad without any warning or preparation of any kind. For example, someone might be browsing for a domain that is about kids’ toys, or books or medical supplies and will see this ad alongside the offer page for this non-adult domain.

Since I reported the consequences of such a thoughtless promotion at a DNForum thread yesterday, a Sedo representative responded with the following statement:

Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention. We apologize for any offense that was taken to the banner advertisements; it was not Sedo’s intention to offend anyone with this campaign. While we understand our users’ concerns, this image does not contain any explicit adult material. Also, this specific advertising banner is cycling through the offer pages and should not appear on every offer page viewed.

Your concerns regarding this have been shared with the appropriate people for review; a response with more information will be posted shortly.

Almost five hours later, the ad is still visible without any changes made to where it is displayed. With the Internet moving faster than corporate bureaucracy permits, this blog post is now #2 on Google for the terms “Sedo porn“.

Perhaps this will be the catalyst in removing the ad before it causes additional financial loss and negative publicity, both to domain portfolio holders and the unsuspecting visitors of Sedo pages.

Update – 8 hours later:

It appears that Sedo has removed the image frames that displayed the porn domains. While not a fully satisfying solution, I am glad that Sedo responded to my justified reaction to this unwelcome imagery. Let’s see what Sedo will announce officially tomorrow.