So you logged on to your favorite site this morning (no, not Facebook) only to notice an ad where there was none before. “What’s with the ad?” you exclaimed. We’d like to take a minute to explain exactly why the new ad is there.
Then. As many of our “old school” Voki users will remember, we made the decision to stop showing those small ads within Voki scenes sometime in 2010. This decision was based 100% on the requests we received from our users. Many educators and parents didn’t want their students/ kids exposed to ads while viewing a Voki scene.
Since then, we have not shown any ads within Voki scenes, and our users have responded very positively! In fact, we have never seen as many Voki signups as we’ve seen lately. We’ve received a lot of positive feedback and “Voki love.” Yet, while we love the love, and we’re proud to offer Voki as a free and useful service, “love don’t pay the bills.”
Now. If you’ve visited http://www.voki.com recently, you may have noticed something new. Instead of just the normal SitePal “tower” ad on the right (which links to our sister site, www.sitepal.com), you’ll now see a second ad (or ads) on the left side of the page. These ads are being served by Google.
Why the ads? Our primary goal is to keep Voki as a free service for all education and non-profit individuals and groups. To do this, we need to begin to cover the costs of development, maintenance, and hosting. Hence, the ads are there to help keep Voki free for all. More importantly for many of our users, this is a way to keep the ads out of the Voki scenes.
Can I help? Sure, just keep on using Voki like you always have, and spread the word! If you see an ad that interests you, feel free to click on it (note – you can right click and select “open in new window/ tab” if you’d like to keep your Voki window intact).
A note on ad content: We have attempted to block certain types of ads from showing – anything that we believe is inappropriate for kids, really. If you come across an ad that you believe is unsuitable for youngsters, feel free to email us (feedback@voki.com) the website’s name and we’ll consider blocking the site.
The Voki Blog - Expanding Education 
Yes – I noticed the difference as well – although when you are creating a voki there has recently been an ad with a girl that looks like she is scantily dressed. Okay for the adult crowd – but third graders trying to do a project? If you are going to promote voki for education – better get rid of ads like that….
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Hi Mrs. White – We have attempted to block all ad categories that we feel would not be appropriate for school. If you see an ad you feel is not appropriate, please send us a note to feedback (at) voki.com telling us the name of the website advertised. We will review the ad and it may be removed from our list of advertisers.
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