Google Expands Content-Based Internet Ad Services
from the about-time... dept
When Google first launched their contextual advertising offering for content sites, I was surprised that it was only being offered to extremely high content sites. It seemed like something that would be incredibly easy to automate, such that any random person could add those ads to his or her site. Apparently, they were focused on the larger sites in order to test the technology out, because it looks like they're expanding the offering to smaller sites. Of course, since the program launched, I've changed my mind somewhat on how useful contextual content ads are. I still believe that ads on search pages - when users are in "search mode" are much more likely to get clicks than on content pages, when people have already found what they're looking for. Anyway, one odd thing in their policies page for this offering is that they claim that their ads cannot be used on "personal" pages. How do they define that? Considering the fact that they own blogger and already offer their ads on blogger.com pages, I'm guessing that most blogs won't be considered "personal" pages?
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
I like the google ads.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I like the google ads.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I like the google ads.
Mike -- what has factored into your (partial) change of heart?
I'd be interested in hearing a little more on how and why your view is changing -- though I'm sure that my own insightful comments on earlier stories have, of course, played a significant part... :)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I like the google ads.
It was a variety of reasons. I had some doubts in my mind after experimenting with them, and then comments from you and Andrew Anker's comments at Ventureblog solidified the idea in my mind. I've been testing out various adwords, mostly for fun, and the clickthrough rates on the content-sites is phenomenally low. For some of the adwords, I knew that any content-based sites would be so not relevant that I turned those ads off for any non-search placements.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]