Ah...ok...to see this you have to force it into Google.com!

Heavily blended MFA if ever there was one!

How the hell dare they ban anyone after seeing this?

It's plainly obvious, just like the MFAers in my widget sector, that Google are not only encouraging this they are going out of their way to create it.

Would I be allowed to do this...ROFL:-)

Yes HuskyPup - too many days at the pub finally caught up with me trying to drink away the AdSense blues. Figured it was time I dealt with the ever expanding waistline before it got any worse so off to Google for answers and what should come up? - the "King of MFAs"
Honestly I can't recall seeing a more deceptive premium MFA site in the nearly seven years I've been using AdSense than that one. Geesh.

> Would I be allowed to do this...ROFL:-)

It does make you wonder. To become a premium publisher you used to have at least 20 million page views/mo. I imagine the AdSense money from that site is considerable. Oh well... back to reality. :-(

Well you talking about wisegeek i guess, I really feel cheated, when they show ads like that, Google TOS is all bull#*$!, They change rules according to their needs. I think at some point this company will recieve a blownup by all the other publishers. Its compeltely injustice done to us.
Shame Shame Shame Google.

> Well you talking about wisegeek i guess

Bingo. Turns out it's a Demand Media property (ok, NOW I see what people have been talking about!). It's run by Denis Grosz.

Denis Grosz runs a growing network of consumer-based websites including wiseGEEK and CalorieGallery.

I just read his post "Achieving Statistical Significance with AdSense A/B-Testing" - pretty interesting stuff.
[grosz.com...]

ehow is up there on that search too and their site has the special adsense unit blended in perfectly above the fold without those ugly < > arrows. Best part is I see Groupon ads at #1 on a completely non groupon friendly page that has no advice on how to lose a beer belly, it's a cat page.

Hypocrisy in all it's glory, on every level. Working as intended no doubt.

@Play_Bach

too many days at the pub finally caught up with me trying to drink away the AdSense blues

LOL... Been there.

Maybe there's some things to be learned here? Obviously we're talking about very big AdSense numbers with the Demand Media sites and from reading Mr. Grosz blog, it's clearly no accident they have fine tuned their layouts and design strategy to getting every ad click they can get.

2 Thorough optimizers may want chart the maximum variations for each of the values that AdSense provides (pageviews, CTR, CPC, RPM, Revenue). The results are very surprising, but it would likely be unwise to lose focus on the metric that you are trying to maximize (most likely revenue).

design strategy to getting every ad click they can get

Yep, I suppose if I were in their situation I would do the same, they really do not sell anything other than ads whereas 90+% of my income is from real world products.

I wonder what proportion here are solely publishers trying to squeeze their maximum income from AdSense and then those, like me, who use AdSense as a shop window for customers of my customers of my customers?

I'll explain that...I'm a producer who sells to wholesalers who sells to retailers who sells to Joe Public or for big project work we deal direct with the architect/contractor/specifier.

> Yep, I suppose if I were in their situation I would do the same

It's an interesting hypothetical. If we're to look at the tools the non-premium publishers have vs the premium publishers it's a challenge to compete. Also, I much prefer Google's own ads as they appear on their site (with the url below as opposed to the side, the larger leaderboards in the middle, no <> arrows, etc.) Why non-premium publishers can't have those formats too has never made much sense to me, but that's the way it's been since day one.

regarding premium adsense: i know of three different publishers in google's premium program and they say that they are consistently urged to increase the aggressiveness of their implementations. of course, publishers can say "no" to the recommendations but that probably takes a lot of restraint since google's recommendations are likely to increase profits.

Turns out it's a Demand Media property

i don's see any mention on demand's website that they have any involvement with the sites you are mentioning.

> i don's see any mention on demand's website that they have any involvement with the sites you are mentioning.


You're right elsewhen, I stand corrected.

Denis Grosz' Conjecture Corp. owns the website with the biggest percentage drop in visibility, according to Sistrix. The website, WiseGeek.com, has had a 25 percent drop in traffic, he said.

"I'm confident that Google has the best interests of Web users in mind, but in my view, the impact on us was the result of a well-intentioned but imperfect solution to an unimaginably complicated problem," Grosz said in an e-mail. "We have heard Google's message very clearly — they want to raise the standard of quality on the web and we applaud them for that. We have always worked on improving the quality of our content, but we are now ramping up those efforts even more."

[eagletribune.com...]