Ah, Google…You Just Don’t Know Me Anymore
Saturday, July 15th, 2006In the beginning, Google’s AdSense seemed to know me well. I’m a writer, a speaker, an educator, and now a blogger, and my ads reflected all of that.
But things have changed. I wrote humorously about needing a TF hat (I’m using the acronym of TF to try to throw the Google crawlers off the scent). You see, after that post, I started seeing ads that I’d have to research to understand.
The AdSense confusion deepened after a few mentions of the name of that warm, brown liquid that lots of adults drink first thing in the morning (again, I’m trying to be obscure).
I expected my Google ads to return to normal after a couple of new posts, but my mistaken identity continues. Here’s a picture of my most recent ads:
You see, now Google thinks…uh…hmmm… Fine, I’ll say it! Google thinks I’m an insomniac metallurgist!
I realize that I just wrecked my plan to stop Google from seeing me that way, but I couldn’t resist. It’s too funny! I mean, if I were to create a hot online persona, it’d be a little hotter than that!
Although I guess smelting is pretty hot! (Hey, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em!)
July 15th, 2006 at 11:36 pm
Eventually it levels out. I had one post on beliefs that was surrounded by ads for grass seed for weeks just because I used mowing the lawn for an example, and another where I was surrounded by plumbing ads when I talked about a lady confusing a shadow with a water leak. Eventually, as I got more articles posted, those type of ads went away. It’s interesting to see how a machine thinks, though.
July 16th, 2006 at 12:34 am
Hi Rick!
Thanks for sharing your similar experience and for reassuring me that Google’s confusion is temporary. I agree that it’s interesting to have a window into how Google thinks — it’s definitely astounding! So I guess the lesson from all of this is to just keep blogging.
Blog on!
Cuileann
July 16th, 2006 at 10:40 am
I`m still getting 4th of July ads from posting about fireworks displays back then.
My stuff tends to be fairly religious and sometimes brings ads that I pretty much appose. It corked me at first. But I figure that folks are smart enough to do their own thinking and don’t need me to think for them. My role is to bring ideas to them, not make choices for them.
Of course past post titles like A Jesus Follower Encounters a Pro-Abortion Feminist or Christians Mixing with Pornographers probably don’t much help Google get me appropriate ads.
July 16th, 2006 at 2:45 pm
Hi Chris!
Yeah, I’m sure that those titles would really get Google’s wheels spinning.
You bring up a great point to put this ad thing in perspective — folks are smart enough to think for themselves! I totally agree.
As well, I’m happy that Google Ads are announced as ads. Even though blogs are fairly new, people know from years of watching TV that ads often don’t match the message of the program.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Cuileann
July 17th, 2006 at 1:07 pm
I hooked up my Dad’s blog, KayakBytes, with a cool Flickr Wordpress plugin this weekend. One of the ablum titles was “Paddling” as in paddling kayaks. Google took the cue and served up some ads about sexual assault.
I”m quite certain that google occasionally serves up ads for the benifits of people who accidently find a page while searching for something else.
July 17th, 2006 at 4:37 pm
Hi Anton!
Wow…that’s an extreme disconnect between ads and content! I would’ve thought that Google would look at context for the meaning of a word — considering that, I can see your point about Google perhaps placing ads that might apply to folks who had been looking for something else. Interesting — if Google does that, its ad assignment ability may deserve more credit, not less.
By the way, thanks for including the link to your dad’s site. It’s impressive! I noticed, too, that he hasn’t been scared away from AdSense. His front page was showing ads about photos when I went there (celebrity photos and the Target photo center).
Thanks for discussing such a dramatic ad example!
Cuileann
July 17th, 2006 at 8:48 pm
As for Dad being scared of Adsense, he’s letting me run the technical side of the show. I’m using the same adsense account for all the blogs I host and write for and use the channel system they offer to track which makes the most.
In total I make about $50 per month. The ads on KayakBytes account for about 10% of that. I just turn the money around into Adwords to drive more traffic.
July 18th, 2006 at 8:36 pm
Hi Anton!
Thanks for the window into what you do with AdSense, and your income from it.
I only learned of AdWords existing a couple of days ago, so it’s neat to know of someone who uses it. And the channel system looks interesting, too. There’s so much to learn (but it’s fun to check into all this stuff)!
Thanks for a behind-the-scenes look at your blogging!
Cuileann
July 24th, 2006 at 10:50 am
Gmail has been kind of strange for me lately - in an e-mail about a network administration tool, I was also served an ad for a feminine urology product. I’ll spare you the details; let’s just say it was not appropriate on several levels.
Insominac metallurgists are hot, though.
July 24th, 2006 at 10:06 pm
Hi David!
Whoa — what an extreme mismatching of ad and content! I hope you’ve recovered from witnessing that one!
Well, I’ve certainly learned from folks’ comments that I don’t have much to complain about with my ads.
I now see that there are worse things than being mistaken for an insomniac metallurgist (especially if that’s a hot persona after all!)
Thanks for sharing!
Cuileann