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Google Ads for RSS Feeds Goes Beta
flood6 writes "Google has launched their service to offer contextual ads via their AdSense program through RSS feeds. The program is currently in Beta but will allow webmasters who offer RSS feeds of their content to include ads in the feeds (which often appear on other websites or through aggregators); someone clicks on the ad, the owner of the feed makes a little scratch."
If they're going to start contaminating my Live Bookmarks with bloody adverts, I hope it won't be long before Adblock can cover RSS feeds as well as web pages. . .
So.. it has come to this
Googles has released their adsense-program for RSS-feeds, its available to users with more than 100 subscribers.
m l
More info straight from google: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/05/feed-me.ht
Apply form: http://services.google.com/ads_inquiry/aff
Slashdot has RSS ads... but they also place the entire article listed on the site in the RSS feed. I can understand that a little better...
However, listing in a typical RSS feed (with just titles and summeries) is dumb. It's like a porn site where you never know if you are going to click on something legit or an ad.
My point is to just read a news story Joe Sixpack will have to find his way through tons of Ads.
fuvoo: watch something
A cursory browse through the links in the article, and a couple of clicks beyond, does not explain to me how this works.
In the standard Adsense service, one puts a snippet of Javascript in one's pages, which the browser runs to fetch ads. The ads are targetted using what Google knows about the referrer URL, and the browser's IP address.
I don't believe many RSS aggregators will do anything with embedded Javascript in an RSS feed, so how does Google add ads to a feed? Does this only work on feeds hosted by Google?
While ads can be annoying, Google is at least taking steps to make it "less evil". But you do realize that Google is an advertising company, don't you? Advertising is what they are getting revenues from. They are just trying to be responsible about it.
Clever signature text goes here.
No, say it ain't so! A Google program that's in beta? I'm shocked!
Money for nothing, pix for free
Google is no longer a search engine/content delivery service. WE are now the product being sold by Google.
Sure it's no different fro how television and radio stations make money, but I think we need to face the fact that Google now exists primarily to sell ads.
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
What I meant to say was that, YES FINALLY people who host news sites can make money off of RSS, so they will have a _legitimate_ reason to put up a RSS feed. This could be what makes RSS really, really widespread. It's great to see google backing this.
Now some sites become so weighed down by ads it's painful to look at the sites to try to read an article. Lots of "Next >>" links and blocks of flashy color in the middle of an article. Aaargh! Ah, so we escalate the battle by using the RSS feeds instead. Bliss! Just the news and nothing but the news!
Escalation part deaux: They provide ads in the RSS feeds. Aaargh! We block the ads. They hire hit men to kill us -- ok, maybe we haven't reached that stage yet. But man, I sure get tired of this war of advertising. You'd think they'd catch on that those of us running screaming the other way from ads might not be the best audience for said ads. But no, they think that if they force feed their ads to us, Clockwork Orange style, we'll actually buy their hated products!
And given the consumer bent of most people, they are sadly probably right.
And for those webmasters who use advertising to survive, may the Force be with you. I understand the bargain you make, and I will still read your sites, and if you find a particularly clever and targeted ad, why I might even view it. It's a complicated issue.
Technorati works by reading RSS feeds and then letting you search the feed item descriptions and content. Will Technorati end up being a minefield of Google ads? I assume they'll start parsing them out, and maybe banning feeds that use them. Maybe. Maybe not, since their profit model is based on Google ads as well.
Google has banned some spam blogs from their seach listings, but really, what's the difference between a spam blog with an RSS feed that makes money with Google ads, and Google droping ads directly into a feed?
Someone help my simple mind grok the difference.
Why do companies on the web insist on click through ads? I can't click through on TV, Radio or Billboards and they've work fine for decades?
A short message to increase brand awareness is often all thats needed.
Scared of flying, pointy things snce 1979!
If this encourages more people to use RSS feeds, then that will be a good thing. As far as I know, google still haven't implemented a system to allow Advertisers to choose which site \ RSS feed they will be listed on. Until this happens, most users shouldn't have a problem with the Google system as there's no way for advertisers (apart from Google) to wield undue influence on the publishers.
Random point, but Google was founded as a technology company, built to design and license their technology to companies like Yahoo. Google.com WAS simply a proof of concept site, but as it grew as a destination and they changed their business model to be an ad channel.
But originally, they were a technology company selling their tech/search results to media companies that would include the advertisements. Much like a studio that puts shows out in syndication... the local stations sell the ads, NOT the studio.
Not that it matters much, but Google's primary objective WAS to have the best search results so the media companies would license it, now it is to use the search results to accumulate visitors to sell ads to.
Alex