Yesterday I made a few changes there (Asian prettygirl Janet Cho was removed from the header section & there’s a brand new AdSense block above each post), this is a nice opportunity to write one another entry about Google AdSense, I think. So in short - I would like to draw your attention to two things that could make AdSense program much better for its publishers (for advertisers too, perhaps). No grumbling, I do enjoy AdSense a lot - just want to share a few thoughts.
First one - design is how it works
Sometimes it’s really challenging to adjust the ads to sites, in most cases you are just forced to adjust the design of your site to ads. People got used to design all new sites especially for AdSense, this is sick. Recently added rounded corners helped a lot but there’s still the need of more ad formats available, some advanced styling options also might be a good improvement.
Second one - How much do you respect your work?
Maybe the second thing is less eye-popping, but I do think it’s significant as well. Not long time ago David from Mutiny Design reported that some of my postings are bringing up gay dating ads (yes, I’m serious). The biggest disadvantage of contextual advertising? Not at all - if there’s already an opportunity to block sites by URL address (competitive ad filter), why there’s no way to cut them off by using some regular formulas, keyterms, maybe a list of unwanted categories?
Let’s face it - there’s a thing called “branding”.
Ads of “easy money“, “extra cash“, even some spammers that offer email robbery “simple contacts management for your MS Outlook” - they all don’t sit well with me, especially when I do sign a site with my own name. But there’s one another thing - this one is called a business model. And this is why these two points listed above won’t be ever included within standard version of Google AdSense that you use, buddies.
Unless you become the chosen one allowed to use Premium Account 
September 9th, 2007 #
I agree about the first issue. Sometimes I help people adjusting AdSense ads to their sites and vice versa. Most of them already have proper colors and sometimes even the right placement. But in most cases ads have underline and normal links don’t. Hover effects are also used by many webmasters but aren’t supported by AdSense. So I agree that hovers and underlines should be implemented in AdSense.
You said that they probably won’t be introduced. I disagree, because it’s Google’s best interest to earn as much as it can by having better CTR…
As for the second issue, I didn’t notice any such non-relevant ads on my sites, so I can’t discuss about it, but I understand your point of view.
September 10th, 2007 #
If Google had included these stuff into standard AdSesne accounts, CTR would be few times higher. And what of it - it does mean that AdWords advertisers would be unhappy with fact that all of their stuff could be completely done even on sucky sites (including MFA) in much shorter period of time.
There is a problem - is there already a sufficient base of advertisers in AdWords? No, there isn’t - instead of that we can say there are too many publishers. So If Google had announced these improvements, the situation could be worse. Don’t you agree?
September 10th, 2007 #
[...] I’ve got one another idea for Google’s program improvement. Today when I was reading a post about advantages of good arrangement of ads (PL), I found the third thing that could be mentioned within my recent entry about Google Adsense possible improvements. [...]
December 8th, 2007 #
There are really things to consider when one is expanding. Change is a permanent thing. One can “survive” by catching up of what is appropriate for the time being