FileZilla FTP Client and Google Adsense Ads

By | June 19, 2009

FileZilla FTP Client and Google Adsense Ads

Do not use Filezilla if your pages contain Google Adsense code. Your Adsense code will be corrupted on upload and your ads will not show.

FileZilla seem to know about this (indeed, it is something in their product that causes it) but seem unconcerned about it.

Many people are now trawling the internet searching for a replacement for SmartFTP who just recently decided that their product was not free any more.

Googling “Free FTP Client” takes you to FileZilla most likely. You read all about the lovely cuddly open source software and the resource and back up forums and you probably do what I did; download it and give it a whirl. BIG MISTAKE!

I edited some code on one page in plain text, uploaded it again and huge gaps appeared where the Google ads should have been. I checked the code again, all looked OK, I tweaked a few things and tried again, and again, and again, and still no Google ads and huge spaces.

What next? I went to the FileZilla support forums and a guy had already asked this question:

Hello,
When I load my files via FilesZilla everything is fine, my ads show up. It’s when I edit them via FileZilla that my ads don’t show up. Has any body else had this problem?

The Site Admin of the FileZilla support forums said in response to this legitimate query:

Good content needs no advertisement. I’m so sick of ads.

Remember, this is the Site Admin – not just some Joe Soap poster who replied. And that was it! His “support” was at an end. The link to this is here.

I Googled this issue some more, I found this on a webmaster site:

I tried using the free FileZilla FTP program to edit and transfer
files to my web host and discovered that my Google AdSense ads were
being replaced with clever and hidden redirecting code which corrupted
my Google Ads!

When I removed or replaced the edits using my previous editor/FTP
program, the problem went away. My Google ads went back to work the
way they were originally supposed to work.

I may be crazy, but I believe FileZilla does not work as expected.
WATCH OUT!

He isn’t crazy. He is quite correct.

It would appear to me that the people at FileZilla have some kind of aversion to advertisements. Reading more there, they seem to feel it is the done thing to cruise the net with Java scripting switched off (so they cannot see Google advertisements and other content).

It would seem that there is something in FileZilla FTP client that changes your Google Adsense code so it does not work. What use is that to the average webmaster?

Deeper delving into the “official discussion forums for FileZilla” finds a similar query:

I know this may or may not be a Filezilla server issue, but nobody else seems to know…I purchased websites recently that were created for displaying Adsense ads…..

The Site Admin – a fellow who identifies himself as “botg” – [un] helpfully replied:

How pointless!

Clearly, these kinds of replies are what pass for “product support” over at FileZilla. In other words, you can expect zero support from them on any issue relating to their seemingly corrupted software and your Adsense ads.

You have been warned – do not use FileZilla if you are a webmaster who uses Google Adsense. I am now using CoreFTP which is free and does not corrupt your Google ads.

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