The terms that Google filters for often occur in news stories, particularly big news stories. And that’s problematic for publishers who could really use the bump in ad dollars that stories like those generate. Consider the plight of one news outfit that recently signed a premium Google advertising contract. A few months back, it ran a series of stories about a major bombing in Iraq. Within hours, its Google ads vanished from its home page. “They said we had the word ‘kill’ on our site, and that killed the ads,” the publisher told The East Bay Express. “I wrote them and said that would be very difficult for a news site, which would often use the word ‘kill.’ They said, ‘Those are the rules.’ I asked them for a set of keywords, and they wouldn’t give me one. I don’t know what the words are; we just have to approach it by toning down the language in our articles. … It’s just ridiculous. I don’t think the [advertisers] are going to have a problem with us reporting the news. … But they’re Google, and we’re a small site. So we’ll have to conform to their regulations if we want their money.”