

Ask YC:  Why does adsense try to find ads relevant to web page content rather than to the user? - amichail

Why not ask the user to specify what sorts of ads he/she would like to see while using a site?
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rrival
Seriously? No Effort > Effort. Relevant to context > irrelevant to context. Or
you can use adpinion.com instead of adsense.

You've been asking a lot of fundamental adsense related questions - have you
seen wolf-howl.com or digitalpoint.com's forums or seobook.com?

~~~
amichail
If a user does not specify targeting keywords, then it could revert to
content-based targeting. Giving a user control over what advertising he/she
will see might make him/her more interested in those ads.

~~~
rrival
Do you like ads? Do you click on ads? Do you pay attention to ads?

~~~
amichail
If they were more accurately targeted, I might be more interested in checking
them out.

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rrival
Why don't you click on ads? Why don't you like ads?

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amichail
I don't like ads in their current form. However, I can't say I will never like
ads in any form.

I suspect that most people don't care for ads because they are not really
relevant.

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rrival
Did you notice the huge CTR rate drop when Google changed the clickable area
from the entire ad unit to just the link?

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amichail
Do you have a reference that this is the cause?

In any case, the future of ads is seamless integration with a site so that you
have no idea it's an ad at all before you click it.

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rrival
[http://adsense.blogspot.com/2007/11/accidental-clicks-
fade-i...](http://adsense.blogspot.com/2007/11/accidental-clicks-fade-into-
background.html)

A large % of the traffic to adsense was accidental clicking, a large amount of
effort was expended on tricking users into accidently clicking on those links
by making them look like they were same-site links. Of course that became a
TOS violation.

On a CPM basis I can see some value in having a brand associated with a flash
game, or having websites sponsored by something. I think you're trying to
build a faster horse. Sites that turn margins and backgrounds into
advertising, which exist, are more likely to gain traction than another "pin
the tail on the donkey" "click here to shoot the monkey" flash/js ad.

Of course this would be far better addressed by someone from AdPinion.com as
their entire business model appears to rely on giving people the ability to
view more relevant ads.

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csmajorfive
It does target to the user based on your searches and other things (assuming
you're cookied). It just doesn't ask for explicit input from the user which is
counter to the "google way" of abstracting that kind of control away from the
user.

~~~
amichail
Do you think if you were explicitly asked for what ads you would like to see
that you would pay more attention to those ads?

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rrival
Ads I would like to see: none. If I can't have that option I'm going to cast
my vote with Adblock on FireFox and you're not going to get an option. Find a
better way to monetize pls kthx.

~~~
amichail
What would the web look like if everyone used Adblock? Not much free content I
would guess. Would you like that better?

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pchristensen
I'm pretty sure there'd be a ton of free content. How much of the content one
the internet earns its creators more than they spend on coffee?

~~~
amichail
Anything good enough to become popular. .

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redorb
best use of ads I've ever seen is on Kingston.com (Ram)

\- you select your pc model then the ram size, then click on the you see a ad
that compares the perfect ram on 3 different sites.

\- I think most comparison sites are just big ads, and that is ok as long as
there is a vaule ad.

