Now You CAN'T Google with Other Ads, Now You CAN!

If you're reading this, it may appear a bit confusing. But that's how it is when you're dealing with Google.

Only last week, Jennifer Slegg of JenSense.com posted the revelation that web publishers have to adhere to Google's updated policies...

As I had mentioned in my previous post, the key issue concerning the placements of ads became a sore point among a lot of publishers as noted in their comments in various blogs.

That was bad news.

Now Jennifer has come back to us, posting on her blog, that this time "It's official! You can now run AdSense on the same page as other contextual ad programs."

In other words, third-party contextual ads may now be displayed on the same site or page as Google ads but with one condition..."as long as they don't have the same look and feel as our ads."

She had a nice chat with Brian Axe, senior product manager on the Google AdSense Team on the issue. And thus, this new revelation.

I'm not sure what to call this new revelation. Is it an about-turn, a turnaround or a flip-flop? But never mind.

That is good news.

But there are still certain kinks to be ironed out. Like Yahoo Publisher Network (YPN)...they stated in their TOC that other contextual ads (that means Google AdSense) are not permitted on the same page as YPN ads. Hopefully, this will be history, too.

Now you have to sit down and figure out how to differentiate all these competitive ads in design, colour, font, positioning and format in order to comply with the new program policies.

Guess it boils down to using good judgement and plain old common sense.

Of related interest:
Privacy Policy for Adsense Publishers