Adsense , ADSENSE

AdSense is an advertisement application run by Google. Website owners can enroll in this program to enable text, image, and more recently, video advertisements on their websites. These advertisements are administered by Google and generate revenue on either a per-click or per-impression basis. Google is also currently beta-testing a cost-per-action based service.

[edit] Overview

Google uses its Internet search technology to serve advertisements based on website content, the user's geographical location, and other factors. Those wanting to advertise with Google's targeted advertisement system may enroll through AdWords. AdSense has become a popular method of placing advertising on a website because the advertisements are less intrusive than most banners, and the content of the advertisements is often relevant to the website.

Currently, AdSense uses JavaScript code to incorporate the advertisements into a participating website. If the advertisements are included on a website that has not yet been crawled by the Mediabot, AdSense will temporarily display advertisements for charitable causes, also known as public service announcements (PSAs). (The Mediabot is different from the Googlebot, which maintains Google's search index.)

Many websites use AdSense to monetize their content. AdSense has been particularly important for delivering advertising revenue to small websites that do not have the resources for developing advertising sales programs and salespeople. To fill a website with advertisements that are relevant to the topics discussed, webmasters implement a brief script on the websites' pages. Websites that are content-rich have been very successful with this advertising program, as noted in a number of publisher case studies on the AdSense website.

Some webmasters invest significant effort into maximizing their own AdSense income. They do this in three ways:^{[citation needed]}

The source of all AdSense income is the AdWords program, which in turn has a complex pricing model based on a Vickrey second price auction. AdSense commands an advertiser to submit a sealed bid (i.e., a bid not observable by competitors). Additionally, for any given click received, advertisers only pay one bid increment above the second-highest bid.

[edit] History

The underlying technology behind AdSense was derived originally from WordNet, Simpli (a company started by the founder of Wordnet, George A. Miller), and a number of professors and graduate students from Brown University, including James A. Anderson, Jeff Stibel, and Steve Reiss.^[1] A variation of this technology utilizing WordNet was developed by Oingo, a small search engine company based in Santa Monica founded in 1998 by Gilad Elbaz and Adam Weissman.^[2]^[3] Oingo changed its name to Applied Semantics in 2001,^[4] which was later acquired by Google in April 2003 for US$102 million.^[5]

[edit] AdSense for Feeds

In May 2005, Google announced a limited-participation beta version of AdSense for Feeds, a version of AdSense that runs on RSS and Atom feeds that have more than 100 active subscribers. According to the Official Google Blog, "advertisers have their ads placed in the most appropriate feed articles; publishers are paid for their original content; readers see relevant advertising—and in the long run, more quality feeds to choose from."^[6]

AdSense for Feeds works by inserting images into a feed. When the image is displayed by a RSS reader or Web browser, Google writes the advertising content into the image that it returns. The advertisement content is chosen based on the content of the feed surrounding the image. When the user clicks the image, he or she is redirected to the advertiser's website in the same way as regular AdSense advertisements.

AdSense for Feeds has remained in its beta state until August 15, 2008, when it became available to all AdSense users.

[edit] AdSense for search

A companion to the regular AdSense program, AdSense for search, allows website owners to place Google search boxes on their websites. When a user searches the Internet or the website with the search box, Google shares any advertising revenue it makes from those searches with the website owner. However the publisher is paid only if the advertisements on the page are clicked: AdSense does not pay publishers for mere searches.

[edit] AdSense for mobile content

AdSense for mobile content allows publishers to generate earnings from their mobile websites using targeted Google advertisements. Just like AdSense for content, Google matches advertisements to the content of a website — in this case, a mobile website.

[edit] XHTML compatibility

As of September 2007, the HTML code for the AdSense search box does not validate as XHTML, and does not follow modern principles of website design because of its use of

1: using a table structure for unintended purposes is strongly recommended against by the W3C^{[citation needed]}, but nevertheless does not cause a document to fail validation — there is currently no algorithmic method of determining whether a table is used "correctly" (for displaying tabular data or for displaying elements, that get proportionally wider or narrower when browser window resizes in width without active client side scripting).
2: the font tag is deprecated but does not fail validation in any XHTML standard.

Additionally, the AdSense advertisement units use the JavaScript method document.write(), which does not work correctly when rendered with the application/xhtml+xml MIME type. The units also use the iframe HTML tag, which is not validated correctly with the XHTML 1.0 Strict or XHTML 1.0 Transitional DOCTYPEs.

The terms of the AdSense program forbid its affiliates from modifying the code, thus preventing these participants from having valid XHTML websites.

However, a workaround has been found by creating a separate HTML webpage containing only the AdSense advertisement units, and then importing this page into an XHTML webpage with an object tag.^[7] This workaround appears to be accepted by Google.^[8]

[edit] How AdSense works

[edit] Abuse

Some webmasters create websites tailored to lure searchers from Google and other engines onto their AdSense website to make money from clicks. These "zombie" websites often contain nothing but a large amount of interconnected, automated content (e.g., a directory with content from the Open Directory Project, or scraper websites relying on RSS feeds for content). Possibly the most popular form of such "AdSense farms" are splogs (spam blogs), which are centered around known high-paying keywords. Many of these websites use content from other websites, such as Wikipedia, to attract visitors. These and related approaches are considered to be search engine spam and can be reported to Google.

A Made for AdSense (MFA) website or webpage has little or no content, but is filled with advertisements so that users have no choice but to click on advertisements. Such pages were tolerated in the past, but due to complaints, Google now disables such accounts.

There have also been reports of Trojan horses engineered to produce counterfeit Google advertisements that are formatted to look like legitimate ones. The Trojan downloads itself onto an unsuspecting computer through a webpage and then replaces the original advertisements with its own set of malicious advertisements.^[13]

[edit] Criticism

Due to concerns about click fraud, 'Google AdSense' has been criticized by some search engine optimization firms as a large source of what Google calls "invalid clicks", in which one company clicks on a rival's search engine advertisements to drive up the other company's costs.^[14] Some publishers that have been blocked by Google complain that little justification or transparency was provided. Webmasters who publish AdSense can receive a life-long ban without justification.^{[citation needed]} Google claims they cannot "disclose any specific details" on fraudulent clicks since it may reveal the nature of their proprietary click-fraud monitoring system.^[15]

To help prevent click fraud, AdSense publishers can choose from a number of click-tracking programs^{[citation needed]}. These programs display detailed information about the visitors who click on the AdSense advertisements. Publishers can use this to determine whether or not they have been a victim of click fraud. There are a number of commercial tracking scripts available for purchase.

The payment terms for webmasters have also been criticized.^[16] Google withholds payment until an account reaches US$100,^[17] but many small content providers^{[citation needed]} require a long time—years in many cases—to build up this much AdSense revenue. These pending payments are recorded on Google's balance sheet as "accrued revenue share".^[18] At the close of its 2006 fiscal year, the sum of all these small debts amounted to a little over US$370 million, money that Google is able to invest but effectively belongs to webmasters. However, Google will pay all earned revenue greater than US$10 when an AdSense account is closed.

Google recently came under fire when the official Google AdSense Blog showcased the French video website Imineo.com. This website violated Google's AdSense Program Policies by displaying AdSense alongside sexually explicit material.^[19] Typically, websites displaying AdSense have been banned from showing such content.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] See also

[edit] Competitors

[edit] References

^ Om Malik (1999-04-10). "How Google is that?", Forbes.
^ Paula J. Hane (1999-12-20). "Beyond Keyword Searching", Info Today.
^ Sherman Fridman (2000-05-25). "NetZero Acquires Simpli.com's Marketing Technology", Newsbytes PM.
^ "Google Buys Applied Semantics", Incisive Interactive Marketing LLC (2003-04-24).
^ "Google Acquires Applied Semantics", Press release (2003-04-23).
^ Shuman Ghosemajumder (2005-05-17). "Official Google Blog: Feed me". Retrieved on 2007-12-29.
^ Stu Nicholls. "Adding AdSense to application/xhtml+xml pages". Retrieved on 2008-02-02.
^ Roger Johansson (2004-09-01). "Content negotiation, AdSense, and comments". Retrieved on 2008-02-02.
^ "Google AdSense Help Center: What are CPM ads?" (2007-12-29).
^ "Google AdWords: All About Site-Targeted Ads" (2007-12-29).
^ "Google AdSense Help Center: What is the referrals feature?" (2007-12-29).
^ "Google yanks AdSense referral program, offers shoddy surrogate". blog.anta.net. 2008-07-01. ISSN 1797-1993, http://blog.anta.net/2008/07/01/google-yanks-adsense-referral-program-offers-shoddy-surrogate/. Retrieved on 1 July 2008.
^ Benaifer Jah (2005-12-27). "Trojan Horse program that targets Google AdSense ads", TechShout.
^ Charles C. Mann (January 2006). "How click fraud could swallow the internet", Wired.
^ Benjamin Cohen (2006-07-04). "The nonsense about AdSense", The Times.
^ Lem Bingley (2007-02-01). "Google keeps on coining it in", IT Week.
^ "When do I get paid?". Google AdSense Help Center.
^ "Google Announces Fourth Quarter And Fiscal Year 2006 Results". Google Investor Relations (2007-01-31).
^ "Google AdSense Program Policies" (2007-12-29).

AdSense

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