bing is coming, evil google be very afraid ha ha ha LOL

I've seen Adsense Ads promoting Adsense. I don't think that sounds right about the program...

"advertise your business here on the Adsense program"
- reads (subtitled): -
"this is working so ''good'' we had empty space so we decided to put our own auto referent ad".

but I'm paranoid so what should I know :)

Other advertising mediums advertise themselves too. I've seen empty billboards saying "put your ad here"
and a sign on the wall of a crowded, busy bar saying "people like you read these ads"

A new PSA perhaps? ;-)

Just heard a radio commercial promoting AdSense targeting content sites in the health/fitness vertical.

I'm glad you're seeing and enjoying these ads. When our marketing teams look to promote our own products and services, we find that advertising on Google.com and on Google's Content Network is a great way to achieve our goals. :)

I'd just like to point out that these are not PSAs. These are ads that Google pays for. They compete in the auction just like every other ad, and publishers are credited for valid clicks and impressions.

And Chrispcritters, I'm excited that you heard one of our new radio ads. The fact that a current publisher heard one is a pretty good sign that we're reaching the right audiences.

Quick question for the group: do you get confused between ads for Google's Content Network and for AdSense? The Content Network ads are meant for prospective advertisers, while the AdSense ads are meant for prospective publishers. Do you think people who see these ads understand the difference? Is there anything you'd like to see us do differently?

ASA

Is there anything you'd like to see us do differently?

With respect, screen your new applicant publishers a little more closely.

ASA, I'm not wearing my AdSense Publisher hat here. I'm speaking as a frustrated "Google Searcher". As each month goes by it becomes more and more difficult to get meaningful search results.

Far too many sites are simply pseudo search directories or blogs or MFA which simply echo my search phrases and contain zero content in answer but are loaded with AdSense everywhere.

I could give you an exhaustive list but this is not the place.

AdSense is unwittingly undermining the value of the internet and Google search.

AdSense is unwittingly undermining the value of the internet and Google search.

One could just as easily say that AdSense is contributing to the Internet by making Web publishing a worthwhile endeavor for mom-and-pop Web publishers who lack the traffic, the expertise, or the resources to monetize their content in other ways.

Sure, there are junk keyword- and SEO-driven sites built around AdSense, but before AdSense came along, the MFA crowd were spewing thin affiliate pages onto the Web and into the search engines. Thin affiliate sites, scraper sites, click arbitrage...the tools may change, but human behavior doesn't.

AdSense has been around what? Six years now. Nowhere near the rubbish throughout that period of time as there has been emerging in the last 12+ months.

Web publishing a worthwhile endeavor for mom-and-pop Web publishers who lack the traffic, the expertise, or the resources to monetize their content in other ways

I have no problem with people, big or small, who provide valuable content and answers.

Yep junk sites existed since day one. Except I rarely, if ever, saw one when searching.

Today they're like a plague of fleas on a dog. My recent searching covers everything from recipes, gardening, repair of mowers, ubuntu and so on.

Only recipes and to a lesser extent gardening seem immune so far.

[added] I used to be a rare day I went past the first six listings in Google. Now I look at page two, page three.

Yes but, now it's easier to sift through results than in the past because of tabbed browsers. I simply right-click the ones that look interesting and open them all in a new tab. By the time I've done a few, the first ones are loaded. It's easy to close them too. People adapt. Spammers and MFAs won't stop me from using Google.

As for AdSense advertising on their own network, it makes sense. I also don't have any objection to having them appear on my site, although it would be really off-topic. But they're probably more appropriate than some others I've seen, like the podiatrist advertising their bunion removal service.

So just out of curiosity - and I'm not going to do this - but how would a Publisher prevent these ads from showing up on their site? Put google.com in the Competitive Ad Filter? Seems like that would be a crazy thing to do. Anyone willing to give it a shot?

I guess Google has been promoting self since long.

I was wondering what was quality score of this ad if it was in competition (on Search nw) :)

AdSense has been around what? Six years now. Nowhere near the rubbish throughout that period of time as there has been emerging in the last 12+ months.

So what's changed in the last 12+ months? (If anything, AdSense should be less of a contributing factor these days, since separate bidding for the search and content networks, placement targeting, site-exclusion filters, smart pricing, etc. make junk sites less profitable than they were back in 2003 when advertisers paid full retail for every click.)

Getting back to the original topic of this thread, "Your ad here" ads are commonplace in print and broadcast media. If Google is paying for such ads on the AdSense network, I'll be happy to take Google's money.

They {google) have a lot to worry about. Yahoo and Bing have just joined forces. (10 year deal).

Lame_Wolf - the best of the best never worry, they plan and execute which is how any company reaches the top. Yahoo and Bing have a long journey ahead if their aim is to dominate, trust me.

JS_Harris - true, and they have an even longer journey if they are going to compete with google images. Bing images makes me want to throw up after a few minutes. So nauseating.