Well maybe a disgruntled ex-employee was a bad example. But I suppose if you haven't experienced this concept first-hand then you might not understand where some of us are coming from:

I've seen too many situations where some seemingly innocuous piece of info gets tied to another seemingly innocuous piece of info, and paired together they can do damage.

May be is has to do with that little meaningful word called privacy.

Take out such questions and more will fill it in.

I've followed up with the survey team, and they've assured me that the % revenue question some of you are concerned about is optional. They are also looking into the message some of you are receiving when you click on the survey link.

I understand that some of you are concerned about why we're asking certain questions. I can assure you that the survey team is only interested in aggregate numbers, and it's purely to create the best possible user experience for everyone.

If you don't want to share certain things, you absolutely don't have to, but those of you who do fill out surveys for AdSense are really helping both us and their fellow publishers.

ASA

I hate these types of surveys, and it is always for the same reasons -

1. You cannot see the questions on page 2, until you give all the answers on page 1. So don't wonder why people drop out half-way through.

2. The survey always attempts to pigeon-hole people into the LIMITED preconceived answers of the survey creator. There should ALWAYS be a last option of "None of the above", or "I decline to answer."

If you want a better response, then you should -
1. Show ALL the questions up front, rather than blind-siding the respondent with the questionable stuff, after you have suckered them in. People really hate to be tricked (manipulated).

2. ALWAYS, ALWAYS provide the obvious, but absent, "Other option." How good can a survey be that forces answers which are different than what the respondent wants to say?

It is for these reasons that I don't respond to these surveys any more. They are just another source of frustration, which I don't need (rabid perfectionist).
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The survey always attempts to pigeon-hole people into the LIMITED preconceived answers of the survey creator

I completed one for eBay yesterday regarding my purchases over the past 3 months and you're right.

You had a single choice of rating 1 to 10 across numerous questions. Miss one and it complained loudly.

Some questions had no relevance to my [happy] experiences whatsoever. So I simply answered 1 to be done with and they get scewed results.

A column for "N/A" would have made all the difference.

Saw this thread, found link on my AdSense page, and (like tim222) I get "Thank you for your interest! Unfortunately, this survey is not open at this time."

Reali_T, when do you see this message ? Is it as soon as you clicked the link ?

This morning when I looked, you could access the survey and questions were still present.

The link is no longer present.

The link is no longer present.

AS just wanted to know how much further they could lower 'acquisition' costs before you'd bolt.

Lame_wolf - it was as soon as I clicked the survey link.
I no longer see the link either.
Doesn't seem like it was up for very long (3 days from first mention in this thread?)

loner - that's what the pessimist in me was thinking too when I read about the income dependence bit.

There's no cause to be anything but pessimistic. After 2 years of steadily diminishing income from AS, I'm thinking there'll be no upswing, no recovery--for publishers. Yet, you can bet they will be tripping on their shoelaces running to shareholders to give them sacks of money. I didn't bother clicking the link, but without reading it, it probably could have been adequately capsulized with only one question:

What is the littlest, tinyest, least, smallest amount of money you will require to keep AS online?

Now, I'd love to be wrong about this, but win-win-win is not the nature of corporations.

Wow loner

I think they should run the survey at a later date.

I am struggling for financial equilibrium at the moment the last thing I want to do is take a survey. (unless I got a $50 Adwords credit, that might motivate me)

I think they should run the survey at a later date.

Funny you should say that. The link disappeared for a few days and I forgot all about it. The "take our survey" link returned, so I figured i would take a look - and got the same message saying that the "survey is not open at this time." Oh well...

They should probably hire someone to fix that.

Old thread, but when I logged in awhile ago I got the "red" take the survey.

And all this time I thought I was being snubbed.

So tell Google they're the smallest part of your revenue.

That's what I did.

Unfortunately, it's true.

The link first appeared yesterday for me. I didn't have time to take the survey, though, and this morning it was gone when I logged in. I have one other advertiser that's smaller than Google, but I barely promote them at all. AdSense gets limited impressions on my site, because it's just never performed as well as I thought it should.

I must be the flavour of the month. Another survey!

Genuine email:

"Hi Valued AdSense Publisher!

If you've received payments from Google AdSense in the past, the Google AdSense payments team wants to hear from you!"

Nine innocuous questions.

Answered "extremely satisfied" to all.

[added] One of the few encoded emails I ever receive.