Google AdSense: Dawn of the Web’s Bloopers
Google’s claim to AdSense fame is that its two line text ads are “so well-matched, that your readers will actually find them useful.”
How useful will Anil Dash’s readers really find his blog’s plug for the “New Mac OS X Leopard” available now with free shipping direct from the Apple Store though? After all, the “Ads by Google” Apple OS ad may be color-coordinated to match Dash’s purple blog theme, but the product pitch certainly does not reflect the message his blog is sending today, i.e., “THE WORST THING ABOUT APPLE”
Dash on Apple:
Although I’ve been accused sometimes of reflexive contrariness, the truth is I’m just pretty consistent in my assessments of technology, with little regard for the perceptions of the companies or people who provide those technologies.
The best case in point I can use to illustrate this is an example of the worst thing about Apple. There is simply nothing less attractive than a person who is both flawed and smug, and apparently one of the few plausible justifications for treating corporations as legal persons is the fact that this holds true for companies as well. And Apple is a smug company.
The new version 10.5 of Mac OS X rather famously features a display when you’re browsing machines that appear to be running Microsoft Windows. The image deliberately uses an aged-looking monitor and a crashed computer as the illustration of your other computers. The disdain here isn’t for the unfortunate unwashed who have to suffer through Windows because they’re so clueless — it’s a snide shot at the other computers you own, or of your family’s other machines around the house, or of the computers of the peers you work with. In short, the derision is likely aimed at people who care a hell of a lot more about you and your boundless Mac-enhanced creativity than, say, the OS X team does.
Unfortunate Google AdSense advertising adjancencies are not only the Web’s bloopers, they underscore that contextual advertiisng is NOT a “solved problem,” not even for number one Google.
AdTech takes New York City by storm next week, perhaps there are some ad network disruptors in store ready to deliver that ever elusive Google “killer.”
MORE ADSENSE BLOOPERS: Nick Carr Comes To His Senses: Goodbye Google AdSense!
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