Adsense...new features !!!

Yep, I noticed the "related links" feature they've added.

I do NOT like this feature one bit..

Reason ? Well, in your AdSense settings you can say which domains/sites you don't want shown (ie. your competitors), yet now they've added a link which could effectively take your users to your competitors, without you doing anything to stop it.. Grr.

At least it opens the links up in a new window so the user can still get back to your site.

My problem with it is that I have a Lycos search bar that pays when the user searches. The Google links are likely to stop that search bar being used. I don't get huge revenue from Lycos, but it is handy.

could we add google to the list of dissallowed sites?
On another note, is anyone having trouble logging in at the moment?

Login seems to be working fine.

I agree, I don't like the way this is going. Would be OK if there was an option to turn the 'related searches' off.

Anyone emailed them about it? They seem to be sensible with their responses.

Don't know if its a freak day, or a result of thesesrelated links, but my click through rate has gone from a steady 3.3% to 10%. If it's because of the AdSense changes then I'll live with it!

Yeah but if it is because of the new related links then that's not good news - you've just had an extra 6.7% of traffic click away from your site and earn no revenue at all...

kbudden,

My revenue for AdSense has gone up in line with the increased clicks. I didn't mean that the "related link" clicks were counting towards the clickthrough; rather, that the related links feature was encouraging more user to click on the ads themselves.

Anyhow, have to wait and see if the new level of clickthrough is maintained or if it is just spurious.

just uploaded a new page and saw this

"This blank space brought to you by Google"

pure class... the worlds biggest search engine (and most inflexible and worst user interface as voted by me .. ) showing how to win traffic...

ANOTHER gripe is this.. If a user clicks on "Related Searches" then clicks on a paid advert on Google, we don't see a penny.. although Google will see the full £££

I suspect this feature is a nice way of bleeding some traffic from us without having to give anything back in return.

I don't believe the feature helps our users (if they wanted to do a search, they would go directly to Google and do one),

I don't believe the feature helps webmasters (they lose traffic for no gain, to potential competitors).

Even though it earns us £thousands, we're considering removing it for the long-term benefits.

Just noticed, as well as the search terms thingy, you can change colours too!

Maybe im slow, but when it first started up some folk thought google nicely put the right colours on the ad to fit with the site, but that was co-incidence. Now you can, when you login at top where theres "today's stats" etc, theres ad colours.

Unfortunatelly I don't think you can set the related search terms colour to the background but havnt really had a play with it yet.

Indeed Google did make a stab at guessing what colour scheme to use for AdSense (and it's guesses were pretty accurate too).

All you guys using it...

Check out the subtle extras..

...also take a look at the banners...they are now adding extra text that takes the users to GOOGLE !!!

Wonder if you get any revenue generated by the paid links on the subsequent linked search !!!!

Not sure I like the way this is going !