Images Alongside Google Adsense Legal Again?

December 23, 2006 · Filed Under Contextual Advertising · 4 Comments 

Here is a comment by Bradfitz found in Darren Rowse post on Images Alongside Google Adsense. Read every word carefully.

Darren, thanks for the heads-up on this. I am very curious though, I noticed on your other sites (laptops, pda’s, cel phones, etc) You have not yet removed the images that line up with your leader-board Adsense ads.

I was always a bit surprised you used this tactic yourself, but even more so given the fact the there were no borders between your images and the ads, which the Adsense TOS required (suggested?) there to be before this new policy was released.

So give us the skinny… are you boycotting this new rule? Waiting for them to give you a warning? Waiting for your graphic designer to get to it? Is the horizontal leader-board/image association a loophole to the rule and this only applies to vertical blocks? Or do you secretly own Google now? :)

Cheers and thanks again for posting this.

Below is a screenshot of Darren Rowse’s music phone blog. I thought placing images alongside Google Adsense is illegal, not to mention made worst with no border between the ads and the image. I wonder, How did Darren manage to insert 4 Ad unit when Google Adsense says only 3 Ad units are allowed. Don’t believe me? Visit his Livingroom blog and count the number of Ad Unit.

legal to place images alongside google adsense

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Images Alongside Google Adsense

November 15, 2006 · Filed Under Contextual Advertising · Comment 

I’ve been toying around with the idea of using Adsense Beautifier for quite sometime now, the whole thing looks so risky. I’ve seen a few well known bloggers using it for their blog, a very good example would be, Copyblogger (check out the ads after the article). I got a reply from the Google Adsense team about the plugin and this is what they have to say:

To be specific, we ask that publishers not place misleading images near Google ads or use images that appear to be directly associated with the advertisers and their offerings. The use of such images may confuse users or draw undue attention to the ads and result in unintentional clicks.

I guess copyblogger got it right, the images beside the ads at each post are irrelevant and it comes with a dotted border, but then Darren Rowse, a very well know blogger in the blogging world applied the same technique - images beside/above google ads, unlike Copyblogger, the ads in Darren’s blogs are relevant to the ads Google Adsense is displaying, with no border between the ads and images, this has been going on for almost a year or perhaps more.

It doesn’t affect me if they got a higher CTR but I’m just wondering if Darren Rowse can do it, why not others? Why not me? Why not the many other bloggers? Some examples of Darren’s blogs with images alongside adsense:

PDAs
Music Phone Review
Printers
Laptops

I hope Darren is not mad, I have much respect for him. His main blog - Problogger is a must read for all problogger wannabe. The content is great and his step by step guide on how to maximize earnings legally without breaking adsense TOS are beyond words.

I still couldn’t find the answer in Google Adsense official forum and don’t think I am able to find it anywhere else. What can I say, it is better to be safe than sorry and slow and steady win the race.

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