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Internet Google to Bring New Gadget Ads to Internet
Wolfgang Hansson (Blog) - September 19, 2007 6:53 PM

18 comment(s) - last by Blight AC.. on Sep 20 at 2:42 PM

Nissan Altima Gadget Ad (Source: Google)

Google gadget ads attempt to make advertising useful to viewers

One thing most internet users can agree on is that we don’t need more ads on our favorite websites and homepages. What might be interesting, however, is an ad that actually serves a function and might be useful to someone other than the company paying for the ad space.

Google it trying out a new ad format, gadget ads, that has that exact goal in mind. The new ads are interactive and allow for JavaScript and Flash to be integrated. The interesting part is that the ad delivers this additional information without taking the viewer away from the page that they are currently reading.

The ads can also be shared with other internet users and can be added to a blog or an iGoogle home page. Several examples are posted of the new ad format and some of them are quite interesting. One ad is for the Nissan Altima and allows users to put their zip code in and get traffic information for their specific area.

Google says that an ad for Six Flags delivered 94.5 million impressions to 17.1 million unique users and that the ad was interacted with about 200,000 times. The Six Flags ad has a simple video game embedded within.

Currently the new ad format has been in limited testing with a few companies. Google says that they are now ready to roll the ads out to a much larger audience of participating advertisers. The new ad format will be served via Google’s Adsense network and will be priced by the number of clicks or the number of impressions.

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HOSTS file

By therealnickdanger on 9/19/2007 7:28:32 PM , Rating: 5

Can't wait to block these!

RE: HOSTS file

By shabby on 9/19/2007 7:46:19 PM , Rating: 2

Ditto, i havent seen ads in a long time now thanks to adblock on firefox.

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RE: HOSTS file

By Polynikes on 9/19/2007 9:22:19 PM , Rating: 2

Adblock FTW.

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RE: HOSTS file

By mikeyD95125 on 9/20/2007 12:34:51 AM , Rating: 4

Adblock Plus + Filterset.g updater FTW

With that combo I have not seen any ads in memory since I installed it. It is weird going on my friends computers and seeing ads on myspace and stuff. Websites look so much cleaner without them.

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RE: HOSTS file

By Blight AC on 9/20/2007 2:22:12 PM , Rating: 2

Shh, you want to get sued?
http://www.news.com/Web+ad+blocking+may+not+be+ent...

Seems an appropriate subject for this Simpson quote.

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RE: HOSTS file

By mgambrell on 9/20/2007 2:17:28 PM , Rating: 2

Recommending http://www.admuncher.com for diehard IE users and folks that want video ads, in-game ads, and ad-supported software ads to all disappear.

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RE: HOSTS file

By Quiescent on 9/20/2007 2:25:44 PM , Rating: 3

I don't agree with blocking all ads. Ads are what keep a site going. Without them perhaps a lot of websites, that are quite useful, would not be here today. Sure it's great to get free hosting... Unless of course you have a lot of traffic. However, I don't think free hosting is enough for popular websites.

I agree that ads that have images in them suck. But I don't block ads that are text-only.

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huh?

By Gul Westfale on 9/20/2007 12:17:36 AM , Rating: 2

quote:
Google gadget ads attempt to make advertising useful to viewers

ads are not useful. they are annoying. they also take up screen space that should be used for whatever app you're using, and not be consumed by some ad that thinks it's clever or cool. ads by their very nature are lame. and they always will be. period.

RE: huh?

By psyph3r on 9/20/2007 6:32:06 AM , Rating: 2

its a free business model.I would rather see a few ads and read daily tech everyday than pay daily tech to read the news. Traffic data for free sounds great to me. google is king of the not annoying, non obtrusive ads. I don't mind it. i even click on ads of sites that i like....it's how they make money.

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RE: huh?

By gramboh on 9/20/2007 1:24:00 PM , Rating: 2

I don't use adblock in FF for this very reason. I want the sites I frequent to get ad revenue so they can continue to offer their content for 'free' to me. I understand why people block them, but most of the sites I visit use google word ads which are not intrusive. I don't visit crap like Myspace with the flashing neon ads.

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RE: huh?

By Blight AC on 9/20/2007 2:42:36 PM , Rating: 2

Yeah, which is why I use adblock, but only block advertisements that I find annoying. TomsHardware, and other tech sites have/had some bad advertisements, as PC hardware ads tend to be, that would completely distract me while I was reading the article, it was nice to be able to shut them down. Not only that, noisy ads are completely annoying altogether. If I'm playing my music, and have it turned up, then start hearing some loud music/SFX clashing with my music it's not a pleasant experience.

Also, Google Text ads and IntelliTXT ads, where you mouse over a green text and the advertisement pops up.. don't work for me, as I tend to read with my mouse pointer (much like a person reads with their finger). Every time I'd mouse near those text ads it would block the text I was trying to read.

Either way, I understand, and appreciate the advertisement funded sites, but there's no point to it if I can't just read/view the content I came to view in a relaxing way. These advertisements seem non-intrusive, and as long as that's not the case (I don't want to hear a vroom sound when the Nissan ad above loads), I'll make sure that all advertising from that company is blocked. The most effective advertising that has worked on me is Press Releases (Logitech and other companies have gotten a lot of my business just from the press releases of their products) rave news articles.. oh and ads with sexy women on em (well they get my attention but I usually don't buy.. so I guess it doesn't work fully).. it's a sickness, I know.

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RE: huh?

By TomZ on 9/20/2007 8:35:21 AM , Rating: 2

So are you ready to start paying for all the functionality you are currently getting for "free" on the Internet then? I would guess probably not. How about if DT charges you a nickle for every article you read and google charges you a dime for each search you perform. Would that be a better situation?

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More Ads?

By AlphaVirus on 9/20/2007 10:36:14 AM , Rating: 2

Why do people keep saying Mozilla Firefox adblock4tw? IE also has an adblock, did you guys forget about that?
I dont remember the last time I have had an ad. They have no purpose and are honestly the most annoying thing when browsing.
My most hated ones are the ads that follow your screen as you scroll around or the ones that talk and make noise and the ones that are just big for no reason. They take up too much space in my opinion and they should not obscure my webpage viewing just to p*ss me off.

RE: More Ads?

By Houdani on 9/20/2007 11:18:22 AM , Rating: 2

Tell me more of this IE adblocker. IE has a popup blocker, yes, but the existence of an IE adblocker has escaped me. If it's out there, I genuinely would like to hear of it.

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RE: More Ads?

By Muirgheasa on 9/20/2007 1:36:36 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
They have no purpose and are honestly the most annoying thing when browsing.

No, they do have a purpose, in that they pay for the site you're browsing. Like it or not there is a huge number of sites that depend on advertising as their only source of income.

Having said that, the ones that make noise irritate me a bit...

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