Over the last week I’ve had quite a few readers emailing me about Google AdSense ads that they are seeing with the headings of the ad in italics.
Initially the ads mainly seemed to be appearing on big websites and I thought they were something premium publishers were testing but in the last couple of days it has become clear that they’re testing them more widely and I’ve seen them on my own blogs in quite a few impressions.
here’s how they look:
(You’ll also see the first ad has the google checkout shopping cart which is also relatively new)
Every time there’s a change like this I get the same two responses from publishers.
- I think it’s great – this camp thinks that anything Google does that is a bit different to draw attention to the ads is great
- I think it’s bad – this camp wants to be able to control such variations themselves as they feel that some of the things Google does with ads can actually work against the overall design of a blog.
My feeling is that this isn’t the most intrusive thing that AdSense are currently testing. One of the other tests currently underway is the ‘G’ image that they’re testing instead of and in conjunction with the ‘Ads by Gooooooogle’ link (see below).
My personal feeling is that this goes a little far and cheapens the look of a site. They’re also testing other versions of this and while I know it probably helps their branding and might even help CTR on ads I’d prefer control over whether it appears.
In fact I’d prefer that the Ads by Gooooogle link was a referral link as it links directly to a site where people can sign up to become AdWords advertisers and AdSense publishers. Come on Google – pay us for advertising your programs!?
Thanks to everyone who has been emailing me about the italics ads – feedbuzzard being one.
