Nick Fox (Google's AdWords Product Manager) broached the topic of a keywordless ad system in late 2009, and there is word that some larger advertisers have been

Nick Fox (Google's AdWords Product Manager) broached the topic of a keywordless ad system in late 2009, and there is word that some larger advertisers have been invited to private alphas. I think Google is acutely aware that a keyword based system is only scalable to a certain point. AdWords is already so complicated that it's really difficult for beginning and occasional users to get a lot out of it (as was the case with this author.) That being said, AdWords is where the volume and intent is; and it will always come out ahead of contextual/demographic ads like Facebook when used properly.