How I advertise malicious software on Google Ads

Okay, I need to analyze this Hacker News discussion to identify the four most prevalent themes. Let me start by reading through the entire discussion to understand what it's about.

The discussion seems to cover several topics: 1. Google's treatment of users/customers - many comments about Google being user-unfriendly, not caring about customers, treating users poorly 2. Issues with Google Maps and contributions to it - problems with submitting corrections, getting rejected edits, etc. 3. Problems with customer service from companies in general - Ryanair, Amazon, British Airways, etc. not providing proper support 4. Ads and monetization issues - scam ads on Google, YouTube, etc. 5. Some discussion about a terminal app called RACE (from xlii's comments)

Let me go through the comments more systematically to spot recurring themes.

First, looking at Google-related criticism: - soltanov: "Google treats its customers so blindly. in short, Google is not user centric company at all." - astrashe2: "Google treats its customers like a monopolist." - thesuitonym: "Used to be you'd say Google was bad because the users weren't the customers, the advertisers were. Nowadays even the advertisers aren't the customers. They only customers Google has anymore are the shareholders." - OptionX: "Google is the worst offender, but a lot of companies are increasingly hiding themselves behind a wall of automated systems to completely neuter users ability to challenge any decision unilaterally taken by the them." - wat10000: "As long as it makes them money, they're incapable of caring. Make them liable for what they show, and watch them suddenly discover they are able to care a lot." - an0malous: Detailed story about Google Workspace account suspension with no support and being charged while locked out. - 1970-01-01: Story about Google Maps rejecting Supercharger location submissions multiple times. - chrisandchris: Complaint about Google Maps business removal process being complicated and non-transparent. - nkrisc: "The lesson here is: don't do free work for corporations." - wat10000: "I don't even fill out surveys anymore for the most part, unless it gets me a discount or something." - Someone1234: Similar complaint about Google Maps photo submissions being rejected. - Various others about Google Maps issues.

Second, about Google Maps specifically: - Multiple people discussing problems contributing to Google Maps (adding businesses, correcting locations, etc.) - 1970-01-01's Tesla Supercharger story - chrisandchris about removing a business - Someone1234 about photo submissions - soultanov? Wait, I need to check again. - Also discussion about OpenStreetMap as an alternative (Vinnl, nhecker, etc.)

Third, about general customer service issues with companies: - thisisauserid: "You should take your ad viewing elsewhere in protest." - freediver: "wave" (not sure what this means) - OptionX: Talks about companies hiding behind automated systems - usernametaken29: Detailed Ryanair story about no customer service - sscaryterry: Comments on Ryanair and similar issues - ShinyLeftPad: Amazon Japan blocking account with no contact - sensanaty: British Airways story about having to escalate to authorities to get compensation - cube00: DoorDash example - anjel: Mentions laissez faire, binding arbitration, deregulation - iteria: Reporting to government as solution - Retr0id: Small claims court discussion - StilesCrisis: Same - joshuaissac: Jurisdiction details - ryandrake: "These companies have correctly figured out that customers will still give them money, even if they provide no customer support, are actively hostile to their customers, and only respond to lawsuits." - dam_jackalopes: Debit card issue with no support - matkoniecz: Ryanair discussion - ben_w: Very detailed Ryanair story - asetmusic: Banking industry hostility - nellophonic: Instagram account suspension with no recourse - x__: Comment on nellophonic's story - kevin_thibedeau: Work/personal life separation - WarmWash: Meta knowing you work for them - deltoidmaximus: Similar to nellophonic - qingcharles: Meta employee bribe suggestion - macintux: ID theft concerns - Cthulhu_: Mentions EU Digital Services Act - tryauuum: GitHub account blocked by Microsoft with no support - trashb: "Making the decision is easy, dealing with the consequences is not." - an0malous: Google Workspace story (already noted) - Various others about scams, ads, etc.

Fourth, about ads and monetization: - throwawayffffas: "Maybe Google have detectors of some sites that are mostly vibe-coded also being associated with AI slop." - That is definitely not the case. At least 90% of google results are AI slop now. (throwawayffffas replying to themselves?) - OptionX: Already mentioned about automated systems - rvz: "Also why use Google Ads in the first place? Given that HNers and technical users are extremely allergic to that?" - gen2brain: "Detectors can clearly identify the exact issues. So, what are those issues here? We know, but we don't want to tell our cash-paying customers." - bookofjoe: "Because the proportion of "HNers and technical users" in the general population is vanishingly small." - dangerlibrary: About RACE terminal - rvz: "Except that his product is for technical users as well as HNers here? I won't expect the "general population" that use Google to care about this software." - xlii: About their Show HN failing - throwawayffffas: "At least 90% of google results are AI slop now." - OptionX: Already covered - usernametaken29: Ryanair as strategy - sscaryterry: "The fact that this has become acceptable is the real problem." - tcfhgj: "You don't want to harm the economy, do you?" - sscaryterry: "I'm sure the people who will get hurt have plenty of money." - ShinyLeftPad: Amazon Japan - sensanaty: British Airways - cube00: DoorDash - anjel: Laissez faire, binding arbitration - iteria: Reporting to government - Various others about scam ads - WarmWash: Discussion about scammy ads targeting people with no profile - AlexandrB: "You're missing the fact that all ads are scammy..." - WarmWash: Discussion about ad economy - butlike: About paying for ad-free services - carlosjobim: Defense of some ads - rootusrootus: About getting burned by scam Google ads - Toutouxc: About seeing scam ads - bogwog: About holding Google accountable for scams - ryandrake: Response to bogwog - tomjen3: About advertising for bad products - asdff: About advertising not working on them anymore - de6u99er: "Google doesn't care. They advertise online betting to kids..." - dakolli: Extreme claim about Google participating in slaughter (likely hyperbolic) - sspiff: "They are begging you to spend your ad budget elsewhere." - qingcharles: About Google Ads being quick way to lose money - delegate: About Google employees - wat10000: "They made over one hundred billion dollars last year. Seems like by and large they're doing their jobs pretty well." - fwip: About overworked/underpaid employees - LtWorf: About business controlling side allowing scam ads - anon84873628: About layers of outsourcing - chrisgd: About Anthropic - xlii: Update about their account being reinstated - Various others

Fifth, about the RACE terminal app (seems to be a side topic): - faeyanpiraat: "Neat terminal, I've been building the same thing in my free time but haven't reached a point where it is complete / stable enough for being my daily driver." - xlii: "This is my driver since it become usable. I have 140 terminals on 2 workspaces." - GrinningFool: "Any chance we'll see this for linux?" - xlii: Response about Linux version - bede: "FYI https://race-term.com is blocked by NCSC's Protective DNS service..." - rozab: "Looking forward to the update where his vibe-coded site has been compromised..." - Snoddas: "I hope so. It's hard finding a good Command & Conquer server nowdays" - poody: "Natch!" - rkachowski: "According to the article it's a static site served from cloudflare..." - titularcomment: "I recommend you read the authors' other two latest articles." - taco_emoji: About work web filter blocking it - charcircuit: About malware using recently registered addresses - taco_emoji: Response - bede: "Seems not to be blacklisted, but I see the domain is only 22 days old..." - Toutouxc: "Just a data point: UK Mobile Broadband resolves the product site fine." - 2b3a51: Similar - Toutouxc: "That’s surprising, because in my opinion Google doesn’t care about malicious anything..." - hnlmorg: About reporting scams - wat10000: About ads making money - WarmWash: Discussion about ad targeting - skyberrys: About paper world equivalent - WarmWash: More ad discussion - AlexandrB: About all ads being scammy - WarmWash: Response - butlike: About best time to do ad blocking - carlosjobim: Defense of some ads - rootusrootus: About getting burned by scam Google ads - Toutouxc: Response - WarmWash: More discussion - bogwog: About sane world accountability - WarmWash: Response - carlosjobim: About paid services - tomjen3: About advertising for bad products - asdff: About advertising not working - throwawayffffas: About Chrome flags and suing - andriamanitra: About "race term" being flagged as racial slur - xlii: Response - leni536: "Just don't name it 'terminal solution'." - tgv: Probably a regexp - monegator: Play console suspension story - skylurk: Positive comment about RACE - xlii: Discount code - de6u99er: About Google advertising betting to kids - dakolli: Extreme claim - stronglikedan: Response to dakolli - sspiff: "They are begging you to spend your ad budget elsewhere." - qingcharles: About Google Ads - delegate: About Google employees - wat10000: About Google making money - fwip: About overworked employees - LtWorf: About business side allowing scam ads - anon84873628: About outsourcing - chrisgd: About Anthropic - xlii: Update about account reinstated - skyberrys: Congratulations - goldmine0147: Question about fix - xlii: Response - Trung0246: Want Linux/Windows version - talhaanwar: Accusation - WarmWash: Question about advertising to ad-averse demographic - mcast: About fake government service ads - nekusar: About .gov vs commercial - qingcharles: About USPS - ButlerianJihad: About legitimate third-party services - drdexebtjl: About underlying services being hard to access - the_sleaze_: About legitimate 3rd parties - deaton: About adblockers - maerF0x0: About homebrew install scripts - cbeach: About fake Homebrew site and Adsense account - ozim: About feedback helping bad guys - hermitcrab: Detailed Google Adwords suspension story - xlii: Joke response - hermitcrab: About Kafkaesque world - skeptic_ai: About ChatGPT Astra - hermitcrab: Response - pessimizer: About no human appeal and social media consequences - GoToRO: About Facebook accepting money from fraud sites - notatoad: About regulatory failure - classified: About Twitter as helpdesk replacement - shevy-java: About ad blockers - micromacrofoot: About ad networks full of scam - burnte: About AI seeing "terminals" and "race" - tolusky: About Google needing safety verification

Now I need to distill this into the 4 most prevalent themes.

Looking at the volume and repetition:

1. Criticism of Google's user-unfriendly practices, poor customer support, and treating users poorly (especially regarding account suspensions, lack of appeal process, etc.)
2. Multiple examples: soltanov, astrashe2, thesuitonym, an0malous, 1970-01-01, chrisandchris, hermitcrab, etc.

3. This seems very prevalent.

4. Issues with contributing to Google Maps (rejecting edits, lack of transparency, etc.)

5. 1970-01-01, chrisandchris, Someone1234, nkrisc, wat10000, etc.
6. Also discussion about OpenStreetMap as alternative

7. This is a significant sub-theme but might be part of the broader Google criticism.

8. General frustration with companies providing poor customer service and hiding behind automated systems (Ryanair, Amazon, British Airways, etc.)

9. usernametaken29, sscaryterry, ShinyLeftPad, sensanaty, cube00, anjel, iteria, Retr0id, ryandrake, dam_jackalopes, ben_w, nellophonic, etc.

10. This appears very frequently throughout the discussion.

11. Problems with online advertising, particularly scam ads on platforms like Google/YouTube, and the lack of accountability

12. throwawayffffas, OptionX, rvz, gen2brain, bookofjoe, WarmWash, AlexandrB, bogwog, tomjen3, asdff, de6u99er, dakolli, sspiff, qingcharles, delegate, wat10000, fwip, LtWorf, anon84873628, hermitcrab, etc.

13. Also tied to the Google criticism but distinct enough.

14. The RACE terminal app discussion seems to be a smaller side topic, not one of the main themes.

Let me check which themes have the most comments:

Theme 1: Google's poor treatment of users/lack of support - soltanov, astrashe2, thesuitonym, an0malous, 1970-01-01, chrisandchris, hermitcrab, OptionX (partly), wat10000 (partly), etc. - I count at least 8-10 distinct comment threads

Theme 2: Google Maps contribution issues - 1970-01-01, chrisandchris, Someone1234, nkrisc, wat10000, etc. - Maybe 4-5 distinct comments

Theme 3: General poor customer service by companies (beyond Google) - usernametaken29 (Ryanair), sscaryterry, ShinyLeftPad (Amazon), sensanaty (BA), cube00 (DoorDash), anjel, iteria, Retr0id, ryandrake, dam_jackalopes, ben_w (Ryanair), nellophonic (Instagram), etc. - I count at least 10+ distinct comment threads

Theme 4: Scam ads and advertising problems - throwawayffffas, OptionX (partly), rvz, gen2brain, bookofjoe, WarmWash (multiple), AlexandrB, bogwog, tomjen3, asdff, de6u99er, dakolli, sspiff, qingcharles, delegate, fwip, LtWorf, anon84873628, hermitcrab (Adwords story), etc. - I count at least 12+ distinct comment threads

Theme 5: RACE terminal - only about 4-5 comments directly about it, plus some ad-related discussion that got tangled in.

So the top 4 themes appear to be: 1. Google's user-unfriendly practices and poor customer support 2. General corporate poor customer service (Ryanair, airlines, etc.) 3. Problems with online advertising/scam ads 4. Issues with contributing to Google Maps (though this might be subsumed under theme 1)

But let me see if I can refine this.

Actually, looking more carefully, the Google Maps issues are very specific and recurring enough to be a distinct theme from general Google criticism.

But the discussion also has a lot about: - The broader trend of companies avoiding accountability and hiding behind automation - The acceptability of poor treatment because "customers still pay"

Let me see what the most concentrated discussions are:

A) Google-specific criticism (accounts, Maps, Ads): - Account suspensions: an0malous (Workspace), hermitcrab (Adwords), monegator (Play console) - Maps contribution: 1970-01-01, chrisandchris, Someone1234 - Ads/scam ads: throwawayffffas, OptionX, WarmWash, AlexandrB, etc.

B) General corporate criticism (non-Google): - usernametaken29 (Ryanair), sscaryterry, ShinyLeftPad, sensanaty, cube00, anjel, iteria, Retr0id, ryandrake, dam_jack