Green Llama

Google updated their Adsense Terms of Service, again. ( Thanks to Ray at Freshblogger for the tip. ) I won’t go into all the changes here, because most of them are exceedingly boring. However, I will highlight two that irk me.

• No pictures next to Adsense blocks

Plain and simple, that means no Adsense Beautifier. I’ve used this plugin for months to increase CTR, and ultimately, earnings. Now I’ve had to go through the trouble of turning it off on every one of my blogs. What a pain.

• No competitive ads that look like or resemble Adsense at all

This one’s a real doozy. Google has always barred showing another contextual ad on the same page as an Adsense ad. That’s fine, they’re marking their territory. With the new policy, you can’t show anything that looks like an Adsense block, anywhere on the same site that you use Adsense. That means YPN, potentially Adbrite, and many others, depending on interpretation.

Google’s gone too far, and I think a lot of people are going to express their dissatisfaction at these changes. I like to have the say in how I advertise on my sites. I understand the need for rules, but these are simply too restrictive, and don’t serve anyone other than Google. Google knows that it currently has the best offering on the market, and is using it’s TOS to try to destroy any competition. As we all know, competition benefits people like us, as we end up with a better product. Lack of competition leads to stagnation of development, and slower improvements.

I’ve been slowly working on weaning myself off Adsense and onto other programs, but the process is painful. The fact is, Adsense is the best contextual ad service right now, and no one else is really close. It’s hard for other companies to step up now, since publishers will have to drop Adsense altogether to even try another solution. I’m not yet willing to risk my income source like that - are you?