{"id":12152,"date":"2019-05-10T09:00:13","date_gmt":"2019-05-10T16:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/?p=12152"},"modified":"2019-05-10T08:31:27","modified_gmt":"2019-05-10T15:31:27","slug":"googles-ad-api-is-better-than-facebooks-but","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/blog\/2019\/05\/10\/googles-ad-api-is-better-than-facebooks-but\/","title":{"rendered":"Google\u2019s Ad API is Better Than Facebook\u2019s, But…"},"content":{"rendered":"

… with a few important omissions. Google\u2019s tool meets four of experts\u2019 five minimum standards<\/i><\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

Last month, Mozilla released<\/a> an analysis of Facebook\u2019s ad archive API, a tool that allows researchers to understand how political ads are being targeted to Facebook users. Our goal: To determine if Facebook had fulfilled its promise<\/a> to make political advertising more transparent. (It did not.)<\/p>\n

Today, we\u2019re releasing an analysis of Google\u2019s ad archive API. Google also promised the European Union it would release an ad transparency tool ahead of the 2019 EU Parliament elections.<\/p>\n

Our finding: Google\u2019s API is a lot better than Facebook\u2019s, but is still incomplete. <\/b>Google\u2019s API meets four of experts\u2019 five minimum standards<\/a>. (Facebook met two.)<\/p>\n

Google does much better than Facebook in providing access to the data in a format that allows for real research and analysis. That is a hugely important requirement; this is a baseline researchers need. But while the data is usable, it isn\u2019t complete. Google doesn\u2019t provide data on the targeting criteria advertisers use, making it more difficult to determine whom people are trying to influence or how information is really spreading across the platform.<\/p>\n

Below are the specifics of our Google API analysis:<\/p>\n

[1]<\/b> ✅<\/p>\n

Researchers\u2019 guideline<\/b>: A functional, open API should have comprehensive political advertising content.<\/p>\n

Google\u2019s API<\/b>: The full list of ads, campaigns, and advertisers are available, and can be searched and filtered. The entire database can be downloaded in bulk and analyzed at scale. There are shortcomings, however: There is no data on the audience the ads reached, like their gender, age, or region. And Google has included fewer ads in their database than Facebook, perhaps due to a narrower definition of \u201cpolitical ads.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

[2] ❌<\/b><\/p>\n

Researchers\u2019 guideline<\/b>: A functional, open API should provide the content of the advertisement and information about targeting criteria.<\/p>\n

Google\u2019s API<\/b>: While Google\u2019s API does provide the content of the advertisements, like Facebook, it provides no information on targeting criteria, nor does the API provide engagement data (e.g., clicks). Targeting and engagement data is critical for researchers because it lets them see what types of users an advertiser is trying to influence, and whether or not their attempts were successful.<\/p>\n

\n

[3] <\/b>✅<\/p>\n

Researchers\u2019 guideline<\/b>: A functional, open API should have up-to-date and historical data access.<\/p>\n

Google\u2019s API<\/b>: The API appears to be up to date.<\/p>\n

\n

[4] ✅<\/b><\/p>\n

Researchers\u2019 guideline<\/b>: A functional, open API should be accessible to and shareable with the general public.<\/p>\n

Google\u2019s API<\/b>: Public access to the API is available through the Google Cloud Public Datasets program.<\/p>\n

\n

[5] ✅<\/b><\/p>\n

Researchers\u2019 guideline<\/b>: A functional, open API should empower, not limit, research and analysis.<\/p>\n

Google\u2019s API<\/b>: The tool has components that facilitate research, like: bulk download capabilities; no problematic bandwidth limits; search filters; and unique URLs for ads.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Overall: While the company gets a passing grade, Google doesn\u2019t sufficiently allow researchers to study disinformation on its platform. The company also significantly delayed the release of their API, unveiling it only weeks before the upcoming EU elections and nearly two months after the originally promised deadline.<\/p>\n

With the EU elections fewer than two weeks away, we hope Google (and Facebook<\/a>) take action swiftly to improve their ad APIs \u2014 action that should have been taken months ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

… with a few important omissions. Google\u2019s tool meets four of experts\u2019 five minimum standards   Last month, Mozilla released an analysis of Facebook\u2019s ad archive API, a tool that … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1144,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[311448],"yoast_head":"\nGoogle\u2019s Ad API is Better Than Facebook\u2019s, But... - The Mozilla Blog (Archived)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/blog\/2019\/05\/10\/googles-ad-api-is-better-than-facebooks-but\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kevin Zawacki\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/blog\/2019\/05\/10\/googles-ad-api-is-better-than-facebooks-but\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/blog\/2019\/05\/10\/googles-ad-api-is-better-than-facebooks-but\/\",\"name\":\"Google\u2019s Ad API is Better Than Facebook\u2019s, But... - The Mozilla Blog (Archived)\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-05-10T16:00:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-05-10T15:31:27+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/#\/schema\/person\/7c7ad6eb29a99e84d7ca5551b9edf703\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/blog\/2019\/05\/10\/googles-ad-api-is-better-than-facebooks-but\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/blog\/2019\/05\/10\/googles-ad-api-is-better-than-facebooks-but\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/blog\/2019\/05\/10\/googles-ad-api-is-better-than-facebooks-but\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Google\u2019s Ad API is Better Than Facebook\u2019s, But…\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/\",\"name\":\"The Mozilla Blog (Archived)\",\"description\":\"Dispatches from the Internet frontier.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/#\/schema\/person\/7c7ad6eb29a99e84d7ca5551b9edf703\",\"name\":\"Kevin Zawacki\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/2a0ca11387b6ecf23c824b31c5217a74\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5bd4bb6ea619b2ac91ae1de26c064155?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5bd4bb6ea619b2ac91ae1de26c064155?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Kevin Zawacki\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/blog\/author\/kevinmozillafoundation-org\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Google\u2019s Ad API is Better Than Facebook\u2019s, But... - The Mozilla Blog (Archived)","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/blog\/2019\/05\/10\/googles-ad-api-is-better-than-facebooks-but\/","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Kevin Zawacki","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/blog\/2019\/05\/10\/googles-ad-api-is-better-than-facebooks-but\/","url":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/blog\/2019\/05\/10\/googles-ad-api-is-better-than-facebooks-but\/","name":"Google\u2019s Ad API is Better Than Facebook\u2019s, But... - The Mozilla Blog (Archived)","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-05-10T16:00:13+00:00","dateModified":"2019-05-10T15:31:27+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/#\/schema\/person\/7c7ad6eb29a99e84d7ca5551b9edf703"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/blog\/2019\/05\/10\/googles-ad-api-is-better-than-facebooks-but\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/blog\/2019\/05\/10\/googles-ad-api-is-better-than-facebooks-but\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/blog\/2019\/05\/10\/googles-ad-api-is-better-than-facebooks-but\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Google\u2019s Ad API is Better Than Facebook\u2019s, But…"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/","name":"The Mozilla Blog (Archived)","description":"Dispatches from the Internet frontier.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/#\/schema\/person\/7c7ad6eb29a99e84d7ca5551b9edf703","name":"Kevin Zawacki","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/2a0ca11387b6ecf23c824b31c5217a74","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5bd4bb6ea619b2ac91ae1de26c064155?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5bd4bb6ea619b2ac91ae1de26c064155?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Kevin Zawacki"},"url":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/blog\/author\/kevinmozillafoundation-org\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12152"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1144"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12152\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12152"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=12152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}