I should start this off by saying, I HATE ADS! Whew…I feel better. Really I do, but, through the experience I have gained in journalism thus far, I realize that ads are necessary for a publication of any kind to survive. Damn those necessary evils, they always get the kind-hearted journalists that are just trying to survive. Ha.
Photo: Abbie Stutzer
"I sell ads here."
So, in my great quest to understand ads and those who sell ad space, I decided to look at the ever-so-famous Craigslist and Google's AdSense. They both annoyed me, but one was more annoying than the other. Are you waiting with bated breath to see which one I gave a half a thumb up? The winner is…
Google's AdSense! Yes, those crazy kids at Google get me every time. They are a great mix of corporate and homegrown lovin' all in one nice container.
So now you may be wondering, what is AdSense. Well, this is how Jefferson Graham describes AdSense in his article, "Google's AdSense a bonanza for some Web sites."
Graham wrote, "Google has a simple proposition for anyone who owns a Web site: Let it put up links to its ads, and Google's AdSense program will give you a piece of the action when someone clicks on them."
Graham continued to write that AdSense is a service by Google that has "text ads that appear next to search results." Basically, people searching click on keywords that an advertiser has bought and according to Graham, "Before AdSense, which began in March 2003, bloggers and other small Web publishers had fewer options to make money."
So, AdSense seems straightforward, as well as easy to understand and use. People are making money and are able to live a comfortable life. However for some reason, I am skeptical. I think my skepticism is from the fact that advertisers know what ads attract whom and they know which site to place the ads on for maximum profitability. I do not like the fact that advertisers apparently know what I like. I know it is no different than a television station running denture commercials during mid-morning television, but since it is on the Internet and these ads bombard me every day, I feel dirty.
Oh well, I guess I will go take a shower until the dirty ad feeling goes away.
Actually, "AdWords" is the program that shows ads next to search results. "AdSense" is the program where you rent space on your site to Google and they display ads in those spaces and give you a cut of the income those ads generate. The two are related, though, since the ads shown by AdSense come from the AdWords side. What's neat about AdSense is that it uses patented algorithms to analyze the content and select related advertisements based on that content.