Testing Google Adsense Changes Recommended By….Google

I had a very interesting email exchange with a Google Adsense Account Specialist today who contacted me out of the blue. I was really chuffed that Google contacted me wanting to discuss ways to increase my Adsense earnings, particularly as I thought I wasn’t big enough to get onto their radar as I didn’t get a Google Christmas present last year ;-)

The first topic the Google Adsense Account specialist wanted to discuss with me was how I could better implement Adsense for search, but then she sent the following amazing email along with a mockup of my site where she’d added recommendations for placing Adsense units:

I hope you don’t mind, but I have attached a screen shot to this email with some suggestions on how you could possibly optimise the home page for connectedinternet.co.uk.

I have added 2 ad units, a 300×250 medium rectangle and a 468×60 banner, as I am sure you know implementing the 300×250 medium rectangle above-the-fold with text and image ads enabled can help you capture more rich media (image and video) advertising campaigns from our premium advertisers. Since more advertisers are potentially bidding to appear on your site, this can lead to additional revenue for your account over time.
Furthermore, in previous studies, the 300×250 medium rectangle has proven to be one of our best performing ad units.

I found that the banner ad unit along with the Google pack referral fits nicely just above your featured articles without being too intrusive, you can of course select any Google referral unit.

Finally I have added a link unit, adding a link unit to provide additional targeted advertising for your users. Link units are also space-efficient and can provide a monetizing solution for smaller spaces on your site.

Have a look at let me know what you think, and when you implement any of these suggestions let me know so I can track their performance here.

Sincerely,

xxxx
Google AdSense Account Strategist

I was stunned that someone from Google would go to this much trouble for a small-medium publisher, and I’m very grateful that she did. The screenshot she attached is on the next page.

Needless to say I felt obligated to try out all of the changes recommended as soon as I got home, as the tips came straight ‘from the horses month’ and you can see them live on the site now.



The takeaways for me from the email sent by Google are:

* It appears (not confirmed) that adding a visible Adsense ad above the fold could help attract more premium rich media (image and video) advertising campaigns from Google premium advertisers. This makes sense as even though Google use algorithms to display the best ads on sites with the best CTRs, advertisers still want their ads to be highly visible, so if your units, particularly on the homepage, are below the fold then you may be missing out out campaigns
* In the past I’ve been sceptical about adding sidebar ads because of Google Smart Pricing, but it appears that this isn’t as big a factor as I’ve previously believed, so adding a poorly performing unit may not have as big an effect on the performance of better units as I’d thought. I’ve asked the account rep about this one and I really hope she replies. In the meantime, I’ve added the unit as she suggested
* I’ve dabbled with link units before with no real success, but never so low on the page so I’ll be monitoring the performance of the unit which is close to the end of articles
* I’ve never tried promoting Google Pack before, so again it will be interesting to see how the badge performs

I’ll let you know in a week or two how the changes recommended by Google perform, and whether I receive any further advice from my new ‘account manager’. If they work out, maybe I’ll send her a Christmas present this year!

Skweezer, Inc. Releases AdSense Alternative

Skweezer Ads gets a major upgrade including technological innovations that are online advertising firsts.

Irvine, CA (PRWEB) May 29, 2008 -- Skweezer, Inc. today announced a major upgrade to its Skweezer Ads service, which allows customers to serve ads to a wide variety of mobile, desktop, and other Web-enabled consoles through a single ad feed.

This latest release of Skweezer Ads includes innovations that are firsts for the online advertising community. One such innovation is a patent-pending algorithm that dynamically converts conventional text-based cost-per-click (CPC) ads into mobile-friendly ads complaint with standards set by the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA). Another key innovation is Skweezer Ads' cut-and-paste code that detects a visitor's device type, retrieves appropriate mobile or desktop ads accordingly, and optionally reformats and compresses the Web content for mobile viewing.

Skweezer Ads is now available to publishers through ASP, ASP.NET, PHP, or JavaScript code. This latest version of Skweezer Ads uses "short URL" for easier inclusion into Web sites, RSS feeds, mobile applications, and SMS messages.

The Skweezer Ads back office, located at http://reports.skweezer.com, has also been updated and includes a new ad formatting wizard allows publishers to use a "What You See is What You Get" (WYSIWYG) interface to customize the way their ads look. Customers also now have the ability to create multiple ads feeds, or channels, for a single account. The signup process has also been greatly streamlined and is accessible at http://reports.skweezer.com/open/signup.aspx.

"We've finally created a viable AdSense alternative to help publishers monetize every square inch of their Web sites and RSS feeds," said Skweezer CEO Kevin Perkins. "Our ad technology truly fulfills the Web 2.0 promise: we not only help publishers instantaneously create mobile content from their desktop pages, but our patent-pending algorithm also knows the right ad to show for the right modality."

Skweezer Ads is an online advertising service that supplies both desktop and mobile ads in a single ad feed, automatically displaying the correct type of ad to each visitor. Skweezer Ads customers have the added benefit of being able to use Skweezer's mobilization technology to automatically create a mobile version of their Web site, which is dynamically created whenever a mobile visitor is detected.

Skweezer Ads is the world's first internationally-consumed mobile advertising service, having served mobile ads in over 175 countries since its release in 2004, and was voted Best Mobile Marketing Product in the 2007 Mobile Star Awards.


About Skweezer, Inc.:
Skweezer, Inc. has been a key innovator of mobile content optimization technologies since 2001, creating award-winning solutions that have accelerated mobile Web adoption and consistently raised the bar in terms of users' expectations and feature development. Skweezer Ads, launched in 2004, provides publishers and ad networks with desktop and mobile ads through a single ad feed and includes Skweezer's optimization technology that automatically mobilizes site content for mobile visitors. Skweezer's scalable, time-tested "carrier grade" content optimization and converged advertising products are relied upon by some of the largest wireless operators, search engines, ad networks, and enterprises in the world.

Skweezer company site: company.skweezer.com
Skweezer Reports & Analytics site: reports.skweezer.com
Skweezer Ads page: ads.skweezer.com

Contact: Monica Sato, +1-949-421-1559 or at msato(at)skweezer.com

Source: Skweezer Media Relations Department, 20503 Crescent Bay Drive, Lake Forest, CA 92630 U.S.A. - Telephone +1-949-421-1550 x562

Google AdSense EFT now available in Hungary and Hong Kong

Google AdSense EFT now available in Hungary and Hong Kong

Google has announced in a blog post that they are now offering payments by Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) in two more markets to the publishers using their AdSense system.

These two new markets are Hungary and Hong Kong.

Using EFT facility, the publishers can get the money from AdSense deposited directly into their bank account.

This saves them the hassle of waiting for the checks to arrive and the clearing on those checks.

With this the search engine giant is now offering the EFT facility in following markets:

Australia , Austria , Belgium , Canada , Czech Republic , Denmark , Finland , France , Germany , Hong Kong , Ireland , Israel , Italy , Japan , Mexico , Netherlands , New Zealand , Norway , Poland , Portugal , Slovakia , Spain , Sweden , Switzerland , Turkey , United States and United Kingdom.

Popularity: 1%

Google Opens AdSense To Third-Party Ads

For Google and its AdSense publishers, this means a larger advertising inventory and the potential to earn more money through the placement of those ads.

Google (NSDQ: GOOG) on Monday said it is now accepting third-party ad tags on the Google content network in North America.

"This will empower advertisers to work with approved third parties to serve and track display ads, including rich media ads, across the Google content network through AdWords, giving them more options, flexibility and control over their campaigns," wrote Google senior business product manager Rajas Moonka in a blog post.

The change comes because Google now has a process to review third-party ads to make sure they comply with the company's format and content policies.

For Google and its AdSense publishers, this means a larger advertising inventory and the potential to earn more money through the placement of those ads. For advertisers, this means that ad campaigns can be managed using a consistent software application, whether it's provided by Google or another ad serving company.

Because third-party ads could include malicious content, Google is requiring ad providers to be certified in order to serve ads on its network.

The following companies have been certified so far: 1) Advertiser ad servers: DoubleClick (DFA) and Mediaplex; 2) Rich media agencies: DoubleClick Rich Media, Eyeblaster, EyeWonder, Interpolls, PointRoll, and Unicast; 3) Research firms: Dynamic Logic, IAG Research, InsightExpress, and Factor TG.

On his blog, John Battelle, CEO of Federated Media Publishing and longtime Google observer, pointed out an omission: "What's not there?" he wrote. "Atlas. That's owned by Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT). I'm sure it was just a technical error."

A Google spokesperson said that the company had discussed certification with Atlas representatives and that Atlas could be certified at some point in the future. The spokesperson said she could not comment on possible inclusion of ads served by Yahoo.

Google to roll out 3rd party ad-serving on AdSense network in UK

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Free Service Combats Google's Latest Privacy Policy Ruling for AdSense Publishers

Announcing the Latest Google Compliance Requirement. Webmasters hosting Google AdSense on their sites are now being forced meet Google's new privacy policy requirements or face the consequences once again as Google continues to grind out yet another of their stress inducing compliance tactics.

(PRWEB) May 22, 2008 -- To solve the problem, generate a free Google compliant Privacy Policy right now, easily tailored to work on any website. (Takes less than 15 minutes)

Privacy Policy Seals
Privacy Policy Seals

You must have and abide by an appropriate privacy policy that clearly discloses that third parties may be placing and reading cookies on your user's browser, or using web beacons to collect information, in the course of ads being served on your website. Your privacy policy should also include information about user options for cookie management.
Announcing the Latest Google Compliance Requirement

Many webmasters hosting Google AdSense on their sites are forced to comply or face consequences once again as Google continues to grind out yet another of their stress inducing compliance tactics.

Warning: Do as Google Says, or Face De-activation of AdSense Revenue.

The most recent crackdown from Google is the requirement for a privacy policy on every site hosting Google AdSense.

Google has gained a reputation for forcing webmasters to scramble every time they implement another one of their "Quality Compliance Rules". This latest rule is aimed at AdSense publishers not hosting a proper Privacy Policy.

This particular rule isn't quite as stressful as some previous Google Slaps have been, but it still has the power to get an AdSense account shut off by not meeting Google's requirements.

An Easy 15 Minute Solution

There are a number of solutions to writing a Privacy Policy which range from free (for example: bonus from a software vendor like Trust Guard) to hundreds of dollars if an attorney is involved. In this case, requirements are easily met for most sites. (See the 15 minute solution through the link at the end of this notice)

Quote from Google's Ad Sense Terms and Conditions

"You must have and abide by an appropriate privacy policy that clearly discloses that third parties may be placing and reading cookies on your user's browser, or using web beacons to collect information, in the course of ads being served on your website. Your privacy policy should also include information about user options for cookie management."

All AdSense publishers were recently exposed to a mandatory notice for Privacy Policy requirements before being allowed access to their account. Once that notice was agreed to, there must be a compliant Privacy Policy posted on the site(s) in question. If these terms are not met, the site(s) in question are now outlawed in Google's eyes and will either be warned or have their AdSense account and revenue shut down. (Until compliance is proven.) The drawback here is there are no guarantees of re-activation... So why risk it?

The Quick and Dirty (FREE) 15 Minute Solution from Trust Guard

All website owners and AdSense publishers are invited to visit the page below to create a quick and easy, Google compliant, FREE Privacy Policy that can be configured to fit any website including those hosting AdSense.

This auto generated Privacy Policy takes less than 15 minutes. Not only is it a smart move to cover your legal bases, but is now mandatory for all AdSense publishers.

For any AdSense publisher or website owner who wants access to a quick way to generate a FREE legal privacy policy in the next 60 seconds, visit the link below.

Free 15 minute solution http://www.Free-Privacy-Policy.com

Helpful Tip:

Consider placing a privacy seal in a prominent location, clearly visible to visitors. Independent studies have shown that trust seals increase visitor trust and time spent on the site, as well as improve conversion rates.

Google Opens AdSense Network to Anyone Not Named “Yahoo” or “Microsoft”

It appears Google’s not taking any chances when it comes to a possible Microsoft/Yahoo deal. The combination of the two rivals would certainly add some pressure to Google’s dominance in the search space, but Google would definitely feel the heat if the two were to combine their display ad networks.

Hmmm, what to do, what to do?

"Aw heck, let’s just open up our massive Google content network to anyone that wants to use it!"

OK, so that’s not an official statement from Google, but with news that Google will accept third-party ads on its content network (AdSense), it would have been appropriate.

Ad servers, rich media ad agencies and research firms can now go through a certification process that ensures the highest level of advertiser service and user experience. In fact, advertisers and agencies now have the ability to serve ads and measure performance through these certified third parties:

* Advertiser ad servers: DoubleClick (DFA), Mediaplex
* Rich media agencies: DoubleClick Rich Media, Eyeblaster, EyeWonder, Interpolls, PointRoll, Unicast
* Research firms: Dynamic Logic, IAG Research, InsightExpress, Factor TG

Advertisers can now more easily reach a new audience and publishers benefit from a greater range of ads. It’s a win-win–unless you’re Yahoo or Microsoft.

Google Opens AdSense To Third-Party Ads

Google (NSDQ: GOOG) on Monday said it is now accepting third-party ads on the Google content network in North America.

"This will empower advertisers to work with approved third parties to serve and track display ads, including rich media ads, across the Google content network through AdWords, giving them more options, flexibility and control over their campaigns," wrote Google senior business product manager Rajas Moonka in a blog post.

The change comes because Google now has a process to review third-party ads to make sure they comply with the company's format and content policies.

For Google and its AdSense publishers, this means a larger advertising inventory and the potential to earn more money through the placement of those ads. For advertisers, this means that ad campaigns can be managed using a consistent software application, whether it's provided by Google or another ad serving company.

Because third-party ads could include malicious content, Google is requiring ad providers to be certified in order to serve ads on its network.

The following companies have been certified so far: 1) Advertiser ad servers: DoubleClick (DFA) and Mediaplex; 2) Rich media agencies: DoubleClick Rich Media, Eyeblaster, EyeWonder, Interpolls, PointRoll, and Unicast; 3) Research firms: Dynamic Logic, IAG Research, InsightExpress, and Factor TG.

On his blog, John Battelle, CEO of Federated Media Publishing and longtime Google observer, pointed out an omission: "What's not there?" he wrote. "Atlas. That's owned by Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT). I'm sure it was just a technical error."

A Google spokesperson said that the company had discussed certification with Atlas representatives and that Atlas could be certified at some point in the future. The spokesperson said she could not comment on possible inclusion of ads served by Yahoo.

Google and Scientology cosy up

Scientology cultists have a lot in common with the corporate entertainment cartels.

Both groups detest the Net because it allows people around the world to communicate with each other freely and openly in a way that’s never before been possible.

Freedom of speech is an anathema to CoS and Hollywood and the Big 4 labels because it means they can no longer control and censor information and data flows.

P2P — people to people — power is the principal force of the digital 21st century.

With that in mind, Enturbulation was launched to “assist people with information concerning the Scientology Organization & to encourage activism in spreading awareness.”

Fair enough. Anything which aims to spread the word about the evil Cult of Scientology is to be encouraged.

Here’s the subject line of an email p2pnet received yesterday >>>

Google AdSense bends and spreads cheeks for Scientology

“Most of you have noticed that we often have Church of Scientology ads running on our site,” says Enturbulation, going on >>>

We use Google AdSense, which picks ads based on the text of a given page.

Advertisers purchase keywords, and the more frequently those words are used, the more likely their ads will run. This means we have no control over what ads appear.Of course, the irony of Scientology ads appearing on Enturbulation is not lost on us.

No kidding. But it gets richer.

“This morning, we received an email from Google AdSense,” says Enturbulation, to wit >>>

Hello Admin,

While going through our records recently, we found that your AdSense account has posed a significant risk to our AdWords advertisers. Since keeping your account in our publisher network may financially damage our advertisers in the future, we’ve decided to disable your account.

Please understand that we consider this a necessary step to protect the interests of both our advertisers and our other AdSense publishers. We realize the inconvenience this may cause you, and we thank you in advance for your understanding and cooperation.

If you have any questions about your account or the actions we’ve taken, please do not reply to this email. You can find more information by visiting

https://www.google.com/adsense/suppo...57153&hl=en_US.

Sincerely,

The Google AdSense Team

Adds Enturbulation >>>

It is safe to assume that the Church of Scientology did not like paying for ads which effectively supported our site, and contacted Google about this. However, as we have no control over the ads, the situation is rather frustrating.

Imagine if Pepsi ads began appearing on Coke’s website. Would Pepsi be able to have Coke’s adsense account disabled? It is not implausible to imagine the Church of Scientology buying keywords such as “Anonymous” and “Enturbulation” (ensuring that their ads would appear on our site) with the sole purpose of disabling our account.

Right. We know how that feels. Do No Evil chopped the p2pnet AdSense account many moons ago and our various efforts to find out why met with stony corporate silence.

But no worries for the anti-CoS people.

“Financially, this is an inconvenience, but not a threat,” says Enturbulation. “We have a cash buffer, allowing us to continue for several months at our current usage. In addition, the admins and mods feel strongly enough about the success of Chanology that we will personally ensure the continued operation of Enturbulation.org.

“All we ask of you, the users, is to spread the word of this new development. Contact Google (we’ll find the proper email addresses) and let them know what you think. In the event of a hostile entity purchasing ads with the specific purpose of disabling the site’s adsense account, what options or recourse does the site have? Ask them, ask digg, ask anyone who might listen.”

YouTube videos can now stream the Google AdSense network by video.

Google has announced that it will distribute YouTube videos via the tens of thousands of websites that form its vast advertising network.

The move is an attempt to monetize its $1.65bn (�811m) acquisition of YouTube as the videos will be supported by advertisements, generating revenues that Google will share with the website owners and creators of the videos.

Ben Schacther, analyst at UBS in New York, said: "The idea that they would syndicate this content was not unexpected. It's surprising how long it has taken.

Google's AdSense network comprises tens of thousands of so-called content partners, including Channel 4 and Reuters, which sign up to receive relevant adverts to include on their websites.

By including relevant YouTube videos as well as ads, Google says its content partners will keep their audiences' attention for longer and earn extra revenue along the way.

The service will at first only select video from around 100 media companies, such as Expert Village, which produces how-to videos. These will be accompanied by small text and banner advertisements relevant to the content of the video and webpage. It is currently only available for US AdSense partners.

Google said it intends to use AdSense to syndicate other types of content besides video in the future.

Google Deals A Blow To Anti-Scientology: Anonymous’ AdSense Acc Canceled

According to the Register, Google has killed the AdSense account of Enturbulation, a site ran by Anonymous, the group that’s got their panties twisted in a knot over Scientology.

The reason is quite obvious: Enturbulation talks about Scientology a lot, and AdSense picks up the context wrong, serving a bunch of pro-Scientology ads there (which are, most probably, the only Scientology-related ads there are). Google’s explanation for the cancellation, from their letter to Enturbulation, is this: “While going through our records recently, we found that your AdSense account has posed a significant risk to our AdWords advertisers. Since keeping your account in our publisher network may financially damage our advertisers in the future, we’ve decided to disable your account.”

This is all nice and dandy, and Google AdSense does have a policy which says that partners may not advocate “against any individual, group, or organization.” The fact is, however, that this happens on a daily basis on millions of other sites. For example, it took me 30 seconds to find an anti-creationist site with a bunch of pro-creationism AdSense ads. Once again, Google implements its policies selectively - possibly under pressure - and this is probably worse than having no policy at all.

Google AdSense on Mobile

Google Inc.'s AdSense program makes sense to website publishers, especially when many of those web surfers get there by way of their mobile phones. Thus, Google announced on Tuesday the availability of AdSense for Mobile, its service for placing contextual ads with mobile Web content.

Google's AdSense for mobile complements Google's original AdSense service, which places ads on participating publishers' sites that correspond to the publishers' content. Both versions of AdSense run on Google's auction model and AdSense publishers earning money based on the number of ads clicked on by viewers.

Many telecommunication companies know a great deal about their subscribers, but they tend not to share that information without compensation, if at all. That leaves Google to either make deals with telecom partners or to deepen its own data about those using its services both on the Internet and mobile devices. With almost all of Google's revenue coming from Web advertising, Google is no doubt anxious to deliver mobile ads that phone users want to see and that advertisers want to pay for.
Google realizes that with almost half of the population of the world carrying a mobile phone, it seems like the perfect place to advertise

Google kills Anonymous AdSense account

Exclusive Google has murdered the AdSense account run by one of the web's most influential anti-Scientology sites.

Yesterday, the search giant cut off all ads served to Enturbulation, a fledgling site dedicated to promoting activism against the Church of Scientology and all its related organizations. This could have something do with the nature of the ads Google was serving. Many of the Google-driven ads funding the anti-Scientology site were paid for by the Church of Scientology.

"While going through our records recently, we found that your AdSense account has posed a significant risk to our AdWords advertisers," read Google's letter to Enturbulation, a kind of home base for the now famous Anonymous movement. "Since keeping your account in our publisher network may financially damage our advertisers in the future, we've decided to disable your account."

Of course, it's not Enturbulation's fault that Google was serving the site pro-Scientology ads. AdSense automatically chooses ads based on a site's content. And like any AdSense advertiser, the Church of Scientology has the power to ban its ads from individual domains.

Google did not respond to our requests for comment. But it should be noted that the company's new AdSense policies say that partner sites may not include "advocacy against any individual, group, or organization."

That said, Google's terms and conditions also prohibit "any action or practice that reflects poorly on Google or otherwise disparages or devalues Google’s reputation or goodwill." And this isn't always enforced. The Register, for instance, is an AdSense user, and it doesn't always champion Google's every move.

It should also be noted that the Church of Scientology wouldn't actually pay for ads posted to Enturbulation unless someone clicked on them. The question is whether the site's users would be interested in doing so. We leave that question to you.

Meanwhile, Enturbulation may lose between $400 and $500 a month in ad revenue.

Google's crackdown on Enturbulation's AdSense account follows similar actions by its YouTube subsidiary. Last month, the world's most popular video site vaporized an account run by Mark Bunker, a well-known TV journalist/anti-Scientology activist.

YouTube said it destroyed Bunker's video channel because he'd already had an account suspended for violations of site policy. But it seems this rule does not apply to the Church of Scientology. ®

Increased accuracy and profits for all!

The opportunity to improve a site's search experience should never be passed up. The opportunity to make money should be absolutely lunged at. So since the development should create both, site owners are almost guaranteed to be happy that AdSense for Search is now powered by Custom Search.

The list of benefits is, if not endless, at least kind of long. On Google's Inside AdSense blog, Sandra Tsui writes, "Now you can choose to provide just site search so users can find all the information they're looking for on your site, and you can host the search results on your own pages so that they can find that information without leaving your site."

Also, "Search terms can have different meanings in different contexts, so you can now configure your search engine with relevant keywords. Let's say you manage a site about yoga - you can enter keywords such as 'yoga,' 'exercise,' and 'meditation' so that when a user searches for 'mat,' the search results and ads will be more related to yoga mats and less to commercial floor mats."

Vertical search and ad location options are part of the package, as well. Everything's free, of course, and making it through the initial setup (visit the "AdSense Setup" tab) and future updates should be a painless process.

Tsui didn't mention anything involving percentages or dollar signs, but then, that's not really the Google way. Site owners are encouraged to just try things out and see what kind of improvements they can create for themselves.

Problem affecting AdSense publishers globally

Webmasters wonder why their earnings reports from AdSense aren't working, and so is Google.

Something's amiss with AdSense, as publishers told Google they have seen problems with the usual reports from the service. Numerous reports at the AdSense help forum cited lack of updates or wrong earnings in the information being provided from the program.

Google responded from their Inside AdSense blog about the issues. "Our engineers are currently investigating the issue and working to resolve it as quickly as possible. Please be assured that your account data has still been tracked, so this issue will not affect your earnings or payments," they said.

To help webmasters keep up with Google progress on these problems, Google opened a new tracking page. The Known Issues page tracks AdSense issues, and Google's suggested workarounds when available.

No new updates about the reporting issue have made the page as yet. Complaints on the AdSense Help forum continue to roll in, as webmasters find discrepancies in their earnings as well as seeing clicks that apparently generated no page impressions or click-throughs.

Problems appeared to hit AdSense publishers in multiple regions. Complaints rolled in from the UK, Canada, India, and the Czech Republic as well as the US. Since Google has not updated the status of the investigation for over 12 hours, the issue could be much more serious than they revealed.

Google Adsense Glitch Affects Publishers Around The World

On Tuesday morning AdSense publishers all around the world wondered why their page impressions and revenue remained static. From India to the United States and from Europe to Australia, the question was: “What is happening with the reports?”

“The static reporting is currently a problem in Cleveland Ohio at 2:41 PM EST. I usually have 50 or more clicks by this time of the day and as of almost 3PM, I have 2,” said Décor Den on the Adsense help forum (see the links below).

“Same problem in Brazil! Apparently, in the whole world, as I can see”, said Michelle Pfaff on the forum. “There seems to be a problem with the reporting which has been static for the last 4-5 hours here in the UK? “, said AnnaCoull who started the thread.

Later in the morning Google was aware of the problem. Stephanie, a Google team member, said at 11:15 AM PDT: “Hi everyone, I've escalated your reports to our engineers, and they're currently investigating the issue. I'll be sure to update this thread as soon as I have any more info -- thanks for your patience in the meantime.”

This was a smart move on Google’s part. Now everyone knew that Google was aware of the problem and was working to solve it. As of this writing we are still not sure what the problem was or is.

At least one poster said he had a different experience. “We're experiencing just the opposite. We've had over 150,000 page impressions today at dotpenn.com! That's 148,800 more than we normally have. I can get used to this kind of snafu. Manna from Google! WooHoo!,” said DotPenn.

That comment raised even more questions. “I don’t want to sound presuming, but does this mean that Google has mixed up our reports and stats?” Joe Allen responded.

Later in the day the Adsense reports started to move and were no longer static, but some complained that the page impressions and revenue were less than expected.

Even on Wednesday things may have not been brought up to normal. “Stephanie... Here in India one can see his adsense final stats after 12 Noon,” reports Adhim. “And if I see my yesterday's stats, they are abnormal. Earnings are low and very low clicks on impressions.”

Although some publisher complained, most were happy that Google stepped up and kept the users informed. On Wednesday Google said they had the problem resolved. “This issue has been resolved. Reports should be up to date and correct, with all previously missing information now showing.”

Good Morning Vietnam, Now With Adsense

Not content with using former military officers to justify their modus operandi, or funding academic research to further their agenda, the State Department is now purchasing text ads through Google’s AdSense program.

The Bureau of International Information Programs has created, at taxpayers expense, an entire website devoted to “Telling America’s Story,” or rather whitewashing the foreign policies enacted by the administration.

For those looking for objective independent analysis, you might as well tune in to the American Forces Network, at least with them you get to hear some decent tunes between speeches by Tokyo Rose.

Skyhook Introduces Geo-Targeted Ads for Mobile App Developers

Skyhook Wireless is looking to provide mobile application developers with a new source of revenue with the introduction of location-targeted advertising to its software development kit.

The new capability will allow developers of mobile applications to embed -- and earn revenue from -- ads that will be delivered based on a user's geography. The ads will be provided by Quattro Wireless.

Ted Morgan, founder and CEO of Boston-based Skyhook, said that mobile application developers frequently complain about the lack of an effective business model because "carriers make it difficult for them to charge money, and when they do allow them to, they take 50 percent." The new service is intended to help developers avoid that pitfall in favor of an ad-supported model.

"Instead of having to charge someone $3 a month for a mapping application, or $2.99 for an instant message or Facebook application, they can just offer it for free and get paid from ads," Morgan said.

Morgan compared the system to Google Adsense for mobile, but said it was better suited for handset browsers because of the nature of mobile search. "Mobile users are very different from normal Web users. They have a smaller attention span and smaller screen to work with, and they are by definition moving around," he said, making ads delivered by location more relevant than anything Adsense or Yahoo Mobile could deliver.

Skyhook's location-determining technology differs from many standard GPS services. Rather than work by satellite or cell towers, Skyhook determines a users' location based on proximity to WiFi signals. The firm has mapped such signals in over 70 percent of the U.S., with more than 40 million access points around the world, said Morgan. By determining which WiFi signal a user is connecting through, Skyhook can determine that user's location and deliver the most relevant ads.

"We think this is big for developers who are trying to make money," he said. "It's an easy way to get up and go and watch your balance go up every day on the Quattro site."

Skyhook is not the first to offer geo-targeted ads for mobile users. In February, CBS Mobile announced a deal with mobile social network Loopt that could provide ads tailored to the neighborhood or even the block of a particular user.

No final Yahoo-Google ad agreement yet: source

Google Inc and Yahoo Inc are still hammering out the intricacies of a potential advertising and search deal, and no final agreement has been reached yet, a person close to Google said on Monday.

The two sides are also sharing their plans for a potential deal with antitrust regulators, the source said.

Yahoo and Google are "vetting any potential agreement with antitrust regulators," said the source, who was not authorized to speak on the record about the confidential discussions.

Other sources previously told Reuters a deal between Yahoo and Google, in which Yahoo carries advertising from Google alongside its search results, could be announced this week.

The source close to Google did not say when a tie-up, if any, would be announced.

Google and Yahoo raised antitrust concerns, including questioning from the U.S. Department of Justice, after Yahoo announced in early April it was conducting a two-week test where 3 percent of Yahoo's U.S. searches would display ads using Google's AdSense system.

Google is the top search engine, and a tie-up with Yahoo, the No. 2, would give the two companies more than 80 percent of the search market, according to ratings company Hitwise.

The two companies have said they are cooperating fully with antitrust authorities.

The two companies are working out deal terms that would not prevent Yahoo from pursuing other partnerships, including with Microsoft Corp, if any deal is struck, the source said.

Last Saturday, Microsoft withdrew its sweetened, $47.5 billion offer for Yahoo after the two sides failed to agree on a price.

In his letter to Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer cited Yahoo's pursuit of an ad deal with Google as one reason the software titan was walking away rather than mounting a hostile effort.

On Nasdaq, Yahoo fell $4.30 to end at $24.37, Google rose $13.61 to $594.90, and Microsoft edged down 16 cents to

$29.08.

Defending America’s Foreign Policy One Adsense Unit At A Time

Not content to leave Tom Cruise alone in a self promotional Adwords Campaign, the American Government is buying Adwords units in defense of American Foreign Policy.

The ad (pictured right) reads “Peace & Security, Creating security through improved relations and cooperation” and links through to a page on America.gov with a motto of “Telling America’s Story.” The page includes stories on Syria and Nuclear Reactors, Terrorists and other Bush Administration foreign policy news.

It’s not clear whether this ad is being displayed within the United States itself, or simply to the rest of the world. Tax payer money well spent, or waste of money propaganda via Adsense units? You can be the judge.

Google Primes for Mobile Search Surge

Google's mobile image ads come at an opportune time in the development of the mobile search market.

Anyone wanting evidence that the mobile search market is heating up need look no further than Google's recent mobile brand-image search ads and integration with DoubleClick.

These ads, unveiled April 23, are tailor-made for the smaller screens of mobile devices, such as BlackBerrys, iPhones and Treos. Google has been offering mobile search text ads for a while with its AdSense for Mobile program, but these new ads are different.

They are essentially mobile display ads, using images to sell the products or services, which—as with TV compared with print—is more effective at capturing viewers' attention.

Google is providing these ads in Australia, China, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Russia, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States, as part of an effort to standardize an industry fragmented by country-specific startups.

Then, on April 30, Google announced that AdSense for Mobile content publishers who have configured their sites to display mobile image ads can now have ads served to their sites from DoubleClick Mobile.

This means more advertisers for AdSense for Mobile content publishers, more inventory for DoubleClick Mobile advertisers and, ideally, more relevant ads for mobile Web browsers.

"Combine a more effective advertising format with a more effective ad platform, and voila!—a golden opportunity to capitalize with advertisers looking for improved click-through rates," IDC analyst Caroline Dangson wrote in an April 30 note.

I Don't Hate Yahoo!

I haven't been making a lot of friends in the Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) camp these days.

Ever since Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) was shot down by Yahoo! three months ago, I have suggested that Microsoft should walk away from the deal.

I even received some hate mail this week from a Yahoo! shareholder, who feels that I should pipe down. My correspondent argues that Yahoo! investors stand to lose a lot of money if enough anti-buyout stories convince Microsoft to walk away.

Imagine that: A Yahoo! shareholder who believes more in Microsoft's exit strategy than Yahoo!'s entry strategy. As if this is some big ruse, where we're supposed to tiptoe around the obvious until Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer springs the trap. I can't let that happen.

Ballmer? Stop! Look down. You'll be walking a mile in former Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) CEO Carly Fiorina's stiletto pumps if you go through with this. If pushing through a divisive purchase at a controversial price doesn't find you drawing parallels between Compaq and Yahoo!, then go right ahead and burn through Microsoft's coffers until your company kicks you out, too.

Let's give Yahoo! some credit
I have nothing against Yahoo!. I would rather eat a bowl of honey-coated gravel than to give up Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) for search queries, but I lean on Yahoo! heavily throughout the day for things like free email, its amazing finance portal, and the photo-friendly Flickr.

So let me do something so pro-Yahoo! that even blushing Yahooligans haven't attempted it: I'll argue that Yahoo! will eventually be worth more on its own than with Microsoft.

Let's start with outsourcing its paid-search space to Google. Yahoo! appears closer to hooking up with Google after a two-week test proved successful. Despite the negative implications this sort of surrender might raise about Yahoo!'s own paid-search product, the deal will beef up Yahoo!'s margins and monetization.

Exactly how material the move will be is always open for debate, but let's go with the anecdotal evidence of YPN vs. AdSense. As Google's paid-search program for third-party publishers, AdSense has grown nicely with every passing quarter. YPN, Yahoo!'s response, is showing year-over-year declines. In other words, publishers who have tested both AdSense and YPN as paid-search monetization have almost universally concluded that Google offers the better product. It's the Oreo to Yahoo!'s Hydrox.

What about antitrust concerns? I'm not worried. You didn't see the government keep the last Hydrox factory running, did you? Companies like AOL and MySpace have turned to AdSense. Will the government really deny Yahoo! the right to make more money through a third-party platform?

Even if Yahoo! and Google have to come up with some kind of cross-promotional arrangement, Google ads on Yahoo! pages will ultimately mean more money and lower internal overhead for Yahoo!.

More than just outsourcing
Yahoo! has been a shrewd investor in Asia. Its stakes in Alibaba, Gmarket (Nasdaq: GMKT), and Yahoo! Japan were worth more than half of Yahoo!'s overall market cap before Microsoft came knocking.

Now that both Alibaba and the Chinese government have threatened to invoke ownership-transfer clauses if Microsoft acquires Yahoo!, it's clear that Yahoo!'s investments are worth more to Yahoo! than as a taxable event to someone else.

The icing on this cake is that the value of Yahoo!'s Asian investments is limited to Alibaba's IPO of its Alibaba.com B2B e-commerce site. Once investors renew their appetite for Chinese equities, Alibaba Group should be able to cash in on even more value, either by taking itself public or spinning off other appendages like Taobao, which crushed eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) in consumer-to-consumer auctions in China.

On its own, Yahoo! will also be able to realize the growth of its cooler properties like Flickr, social bookmarking site del.icio.us, and Yahoo! Answers. Once it turns over the keys to Google in paid search, it will be more focused on its growth assets, and on building its presence in display advertising.

No more Mr. Softy
There's also the concern that a Microsoft so desperate to pay a lofty premium for a rival like Yahoo! may be more desperate than it has let on. "I don't want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member," to paraphrase the old Groucho Marx line.

Microsoft's latest quarter showed sobering weakness in its flagship software lines. Yahoo! investors won't be happy if they're getting half of their buyout in the form of a taxable cash distribution, and the balance in potentially unstable Microsoft stock.

So can you blame me for being far from sold on this deal? I believe that Microsoft's money would be better served going into cloud computing or video game software. I believe that Yahoo! would be flimsy putty in Microsoft's clumsy hands. They each need something, but it's not each other.

I may have urged Microsoft to walk away from this deal, but now I'm urging Yahoo! to follow suit -- and more importantly, for Yahoo! shareholders to be patient with Yahoo!'s decision to leave money on the table today in exchange for a sturdier, more profitable tomorrow.

I don't hate Yahoo!. I just hate doomed marriages.

FeedBurner and Google Finally Start Integrating

Last Friday, a scant eleven months after Google’s acquisition of FeedBurner was confirmed, the FeedBurner blog announced that the two sites have finally begun their integration:

In the coming weeks, upon visiting www.feedburner.com, selected publishers will have the opportunity to sign in using their Google Account and experience FeedBurner, now as part of the Google.

FeedBurner says that the early changes won’t be very noticeable, though “it may look a bit Googlier around the edges.” Eventually, it “will start to look and feel more like a set of Google services.”

Most important, of course, is the culmination of the speculation we’ve all had since the acquisition rumors first started flying:

we will be completing much tighter integration into other Google services such as Google AdSense.

The integration really began six months ago when FeedBurner began integrating AdSense for bloggers’ on-site use. However, as Andy pointed out at the time, using FeedBurner instead of AdSense directly to set up ads on your blog offered little advantage.

In November, FeedBurner promised that they were “working tirelessly over here to integrate feed-related services into the Google family of products.” Apparently they’re going to have to keep working at it.

The migration will also affect some APIs: the Management API will only support current users and current Google AdSense API users; the Awareness API will require you to use your Google login in the future.

DoubleClick integrates AdMob and AdSense

Google-owned ad platform provider DoubleClick Mobile has plugged the AdSense, AdMob and Millennial media's MBrand ad networks into its system

This means that publisher's who manage the sale of their mobile display inventory using DoubleClick can choose between dealing directly with media buyers or taking automated feeds from the networks.

Omar Hamoui, AdMob's founder and CEO, said: "AdMob is always eager to extend our engineering investments in mobile advertising relevance and optimisation to new platforms.

We are excited that DoubleClick's clients will now be able to join over 4,000 existing AdMob publishers in leveraging AdMob's ad liquidity and mobile specific ad serving technologies."

Google AdSense Terms Unavailable in Plain English

Google has since some months now new terms and conditions it asks web sites to accept, if they wish to continue to display Google advertisements, however there is a problem: they are displayed in foreign languages.

Google appears to have assumed that anyone having an account in France, for example, is capable of reading long legal documents in French, rather than allowing site owners to choose to display the terms in the language they are most comfortable with, for example English.

The message upon logging in to Google AdSense accounts for English language publishers registered in France for example, starts of with a promising sentence "Please review and accept our Terms and Conditions shown below." However, the rest of the page, detailed legal jargon, is all in french. That is, until you reach the end of the page when you are now presented with 3 options, now back in English:

* Yes, I have read and accept the above Terms and Conditions.
(You represent that you are authorized to act on behalf of, and bind to this Agreement, the owner of this account.)

* Remind me the next time I log in.
(You must accept the above Terms and Conditions by May 25, 2008, or you will no longer be able to login to AdSense and make changes to your Account.)

* No, I do not accept the above Terms and Conditions.
(Note: If you choose not to accept these Terms and Conditions, you will not be able to continue using AdSense. You can resume access by logging in and accepting these Terms and Conditions by May 25, 2008.)

Google should have allowed for a 4th option:

* I would like to, but cannot, as our lawyers do not speak French and so we cannot accept these terms until they are published in English, or made available a hyperlink to a page containing the English language equivalent, hopefully before May 25, 2008.

As with all humongous multi-billion dollar web businesses, such as Google, Skype and a host of others, there is no easy way to contact the company: customer service is not something super-large Internet corporations provide, the maxim being that if you are big on the web you don't need to spend money on customer service as you grow your business, such expenses are only to be accorded to "traditional small to medium sized businesses or bricks-and-mortar companies."