Uproar at Google AdSense referral program changes

Talk about “pulling the rug from under”. Google has announced, with no warning, that there will be some changes, to put it mildly, to the Google AdSense referral program.

Those changes include ditching the entire referral program across the globe, with the exception of North America, Latin America and Japan. Those lucky enough to be in the right countries will see the AdSense referral pricing structures change, but the program will not be scrapped.

The announcement on the Google blog gave little explanation for the decision stating only that the “referral product has not performed as well as we had hoped in these regions”.

Affected webmasters and bloggers are up in arms, such as Darren Rowse (ProBlogger) who works out of Australia. Despite his audience being mostly U.S.-based and the lengths he’s gone through to promote AdSense, he, too, will no longer be able to participate as from the end of this month.

Tags: Google AdSense, referral program, worldwide