5 ms·

All Adsense are now anti-SOPA

53 points by cloudwalking 15y ago

I've noticed that all of the Adsense I'm seeing are anti-SOPA, rather than ad content. For example, see TechCrunch: http://techcrunch.com/

cloudwalking 15y ago
Here is a screenshot: http://reedmorse.com/tmp/sopa-adwords.png http://reedmorse.com/tmp/sopa-adwords.png
- aw3c2 15y ago
  I have no idea what I am supposed to be looking at. What in that screenshot is the important bit?
  - sli 15y ago
    Right side, under "Got a tip? Tell us."
    - sp332 15y ago
      Also at the top, next to the TC logo. (Did you miss that one? :)
  - ytadesse 15y ago
    What's also intriguing about aw3c2's message is how his/her question clearly demonstrates how our brains have trained themselves to ignore banner ads. I read TC every day and it took me a little bit before I realized that the huge banner ad at the top and the one on the right were a) there and b) anti-SOPA.
    - aw3c2 15y ago
      Cheers! I am actually a non-javascript plus adblocking person. That website is really LOUD and obnoxious with so much contrast and huge text, I have no idea what is content, what is not, what is important, what is RANDOM BIG WORDS.
- fpp 15y ago
  Try cleaning your browser cache and Flash local storage - most likely you've been browsing a lot of anti-sopa content (not completely unrelated ;) - http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/geoip.png http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/geoip.png ) The best anti-sopa ad I've seen this morning (12h ago) when following a link to Forbes and there was an overlay ad covering the whole browser window in dark gray (marked as Advertisement in the title but no further text, only gray) - either Forbes did this themselves or somebody is spending some money to get the message around to Average Joe.
  - MarkTraceur 15y ago
    > Forbes > Average Joe ???
cloudwalking 15y ago
Not actually sure if this is true. I'm trying to find more websites that use Adwords, but I don't actually know who uses which ad platform...
TeMPOraL 15y ago
And suddenly I can't recall any site that actually uses AdWords from the top of my head, so that I could check if it's true :(. Any links to verify?
- doobie 15y ago
  I'm pretty sure Google search results included ads at one point in time. It's been so long since AdBlock Plus came out I don't know if they still do.
chintan100 15y ago
I dont see the same ads on TechCrunch in India. My guess is Google is running an Adwords campaign in US to make people sign the petition. I have seen them run campaigns for chrome, gmail etc. before. Edit: I do see the ads on www.Wired.com though.
- dholowiski 15y ago
  Same here - I'm in Canada. No anti-sopa ads on techrunch but they are on wired.
sbisker 15y ago
Click on any article on TechCrunch, and you'll see that they're not showing the anti-SOPA ads against actual content pages. I'm guessing that they're only doing this at the top level pages of these sites; possibly paying the sites for the space themselves.
joelrunyon 15y ago
Title should be changed to Adsense since it's only properties on the Google Display network. Also, a very possible explanation could be that they're only showing those ads by targeting pages that show SOPA content. The display network is HUGE and it would be a big ticket purchase for Google to buy-out the entire network themselves (they still have to pay the sites). Are there any examples of this showing up on non-tech, non-sopa related sites? If so, please include them. If not, you're probably just seeing Google buy targeted ads around a subject (SOPA) and paying for them on their own network. Not unheard of, as they've done similar things with Chrome, etc
handzhiev 15y ago
Not true, visit any random site, preferably non-tech. Most Adsense ads are normal.
dangrossman 15y ago
They bought some ad space on tech blogs, that's all. I don't see SOPA-related ads from Google on any other sites.
tbod 15y ago
Could this be 'remarketing' http://www.google.com/ads/innovations/remarketing.html http://www.google.com/ads/innovations/remarketing.html?
- creativeone 15y ago
  This is probably the right answer.

53 points by cloudwalking 15y ago

I've noticed that all of the Adsense I'm seeing are anti-SOPA, rather than ad content. For example, see TechCrunch: http://techcrunch.com/

cloudwalking 15y ago

Here is a screenshot: http://reedmorse.com/tmp/sopa-adwords.png http://reedmorse.com/tmp/sopa-adwords.png

aw3c2 15y ago
I have no idea what I am supposed to be looking at. What in that screenshot is the important bit?
- sli 15y ago
  Right side, under "Got a tip? Tell us."
  - sp332 15y ago
    Also at the top, next to the TC logo. (Did you miss that one? :)
- ytadesse 15y ago
  What's also intriguing about aw3c2's message is how his/her question clearly demonstrates how our brains have trained themselves to ignore banner ads. I read TC every day and it took me a little bit before I realized that the huge banner ad at the top and the one on the right were a) there and b) anti-SOPA.
  - aw3c2 15y ago
    Cheers! I am actually a non-javascript plus adblocking person. That website is really LOUD and obnoxious with so much contrast and huge text, I have no idea what is content, what is not, what is important, what is RANDOM BIG WORDS.
fpp 15y ago
Try cleaning your browser cache and Flash local storage - most likely you've been browsing a lot of anti-sopa content (not completely unrelated ;) - http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/geoip.png http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/geoip.png ) The best anti-sopa ad I've seen this morning (12h ago) when following a link to Forbes and there was an overlay ad covering the whole browser window in dark gray (marked as Advertisement in the title but no further text, only gray) - either Forbes did this themselves or somebody is spending some money to get the message around to Average Joe.
- MarkTraceur 15y ago
  > Forbes > Average Joe ???

cloudwalking 15y ago

Not actually sure if this is true. I'm trying to find more websites that use Adwords, but I don't actually know who uses which ad platform...

TeMPOraL 15y ago

And suddenly I can't recall any site that actually uses AdWords from the top of my head, so that I could check if it's true :(. Any links to verify?

doobie 15y ago
I'm pretty sure Google search results included ads at one point in time. It's been so long since AdBlock Plus came out I don't know if they still do.

chintan100 15y ago

I dont see the same ads on TechCrunch in India. My guess is Google is running an Adwords campaign in US to make people sign the petition. I have seen them run campaigns for chrome, gmail etc. before. Edit: I do see the ads on www.Wired.com though.

dholowiski 15y ago
Same here - I'm in Canada. No anti-sopa ads on techrunch but they are on wired.

sbisker 15y ago

Click on any article on TechCrunch, and you'll see that they're not showing the anti-SOPA ads against actual content pages. I'm guessing that they're only doing this at the top level pages of these sites; possibly paying the sites for the space themselves.

joelrunyon 15y ago

Title should be changed to Adsense since it's only properties on the Google Display network. Also, a very possible explanation could be that they're only showing those ads by targeting pages that show SOPA content. The display network is HUGE and it would be a big ticket purchase for Google to buy-out the entire network themselves (they still have to pay the sites). Are there any examples of this showing up on non-tech, non-sopa related sites? If so, please include them. If not, you're probably just seeing Google buy targeted ads around a subject (SOPA) and paying for them on their own network. Not unheard of, as they've done similar things with Chrome, etc

handzhiev 15y ago

Not true, visit any random site, preferably non-tech. Most Adsense ads are normal.

dangrossman 15y ago

They bought some ad space on tech blogs, that's all. I don't see SOPA-related ads from Google on any other sites.

tbod 15y ago

Could this be 'remarketing' http://www.google.com/ads/innovations/remarketing.html http://www.google.com/ads/innovations/remarketing.html?

creativeone 15y ago
This is probably the right answer.