An unknown Google ad server glitch caused major websites, including those of the BBC, CNBC and the Financial Times to load slowly, prompting some to temporarily remove ads from their sites Wednesday morning.
Google acknowledged the issue to CNBC, stating "Our engineers are already on this, and will be providing an update ASAP." Google representatives could not be reached for further comment. At around 10:35 a.m. ET, some on Twitter were reporting that the problem was fixed:
phew! #dfp is back online .. only down for an hour and 25 mins .. how many millions did that cost Google?
— Wendy Cocksedge (@gwendy_bird) November 12, 2014
okay, looks like #dfp is back up. phew.
— Steven Williamson (@steven_gamer) November 12, 2014
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The tool, called DoubleClick for Publishers, serves ads that appear alongside news stories. For a short period, publishers solved the problem by going ad-less:
Enjoy your ad-free experience on http://t.co/Nk9rACTvUi right now, brought to you by Google! #dfpocalypse
— Gannett Digital Ads (@GannettAds) November 12, 2014
For some, that was a cause for celebration:
Enjoy the ad free internet! #dfpocalypse
— Wim Van Winkel (@wimvanwinkel) November 12, 2014
DoubleClick is down -- Haven't seen this much white space online since 1996 #DFP
— Daniel (@oneblochaway) November 12, 2014
Google reported revenues of $16.52 billion in its most-recent quarter. About 89% of that was generated by advertising.
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