Best of 2006
December 28th, 2006 | Published in Google Adsense
As 2006 winds down, we'd like to take a moment to reflect on some of the great things that happened this year in AdSense and on the Inside AdSense blog. We had to narrow down a long list to get these 10 highlights, not listed in any particular order. So relax and reminisce with us about the year just ending.
Inside AdSense goes international
The Inside AdSense blog expanded to 4 more languages this year -– a German version in March, then Dutch and Spanish in July, and most recently, Portuguese in September. Now more publishers around the world can stay up to date with AdSense news and get to know some of our team.
Click-to-play video ads
In June, we introduced this new ad type which can help engage visitors and increase potential revenue for publishers. Click-to-play video ads are now available for 4 ad formats, one of which is the new 200x200 Small Square.
Meeting our publishers
Whether it was at San Jose SES, WebmasterWorld PubCon 2006, or another venue, our team was happy to meet publishers like you in person and hear your feedback about AdSense. We look forward to seeing you again and meeting new publishers in 2007.
AdSense Help Forums
The launch of our English Help Forum in March brought publishers together in an online community to discuss all things AdSense. In just 9 months, membership to the English forum has already crossed the 10,000 mark. Publishers are also participating in the Chinese, French, German, Japanese, and Portuguese Help Forums, which were also launched this year too.
Ivan the optimiser
In April, our readers met Ivan of the UK Optimisation team. Ivan's profile was the post more of you visited than any other this year, so we've given him the '2006 Reader's Choice Award.' When we informed Ivan of the good news, he said, "I'd like to immediately put an end to any rumours that I paid for traffic to my post to ensure I'd win."
Referrals
2006 saw a number of exciting developments for our referral program, such as the introduction of referral text links in response to publisher feedback. Later, we added Google Pack and Picasa to the list of referral products and expanded the program by making referrals available in a number of additional languages.
Optimization Month
August was action-packed with information from our AdSense optimization specialists. With topics ranging from running A/B tests to selecting ad placements to using webmaster tools, we hope you were able to learn useful tips for improving the performance of your ads (or 'Augtomizing').
AdSense for content availability
Just a few weeks ago, we added Croatian, Czech, Slovak, and Traditional Chinese to our list of AdSense for content supported languages. We hope that publishers with sites in these languages will start seeing revenue increases by taking advantage of our ad inventory.
AdSense for search on your own page
As Product Manager Shirin Oskooi explained in our September video post, we introduced the ability to display AdSense for search results in an IFRAME. Publishers can now embed their search results within their pages and customize the layout of the results page to match their sites.
Landing Page Quality
Our AdWords Team made an improvement by using the quality of a landing page as a factor in determining the price of an ad. For AdSense publishers, this has translated into less ads that lead to low-quality sites, and a better user experience.
We hope this year-end nostalgia has brought you some fond memories. Here's to a prosperous and happy New Year!
Inside AdSense goes international
The Inside AdSense blog expanded to 4 more languages this year -– a German version in March, then Dutch and Spanish in July, and most recently, Portuguese in September. Now more publishers around the world can stay up to date with AdSense news and get to know some of our team.
Click-to-play video ads
In June, we introduced this new ad type which can help engage visitors and increase potential revenue for publishers. Click-to-play video ads are now available for 4 ad formats, one of which is the new 200x200 Small Square.
Meeting our publishers
Whether it was at San Jose SES, WebmasterWorld PubCon 2006, or another venue, our team was happy to meet publishers like you in person and hear your feedback about AdSense. We look forward to seeing you again and meeting new publishers in 2007.
AdSense Help Forums
The launch of our English Help Forum in March brought publishers together in an online community to discuss all things AdSense. In just 9 months, membership to the English forum has already crossed the 10,000 mark. Publishers are also participating in the Chinese, French, German, Japanese, and Portuguese Help Forums, which were also launched this year too.
Ivan the optimiser
In April, our readers met Ivan of the UK Optimisation team. Ivan's profile was the post more of you visited than any other this year, so we've given him the '2006 Reader's Choice Award.' When we informed Ivan of the good news, he said, "I'd like to immediately put an end to any rumours that I paid for traffic to my post to ensure I'd win."
Referrals
2006 saw a number of exciting developments for our referral program, such as the introduction of referral text links in response to publisher feedback. Later, we added Google Pack and Picasa to the list of referral products and expanded the program by making referrals available in a number of additional languages.
Optimization Month
August was action-packed with information from our AdSense optimization specialists. With topics ranging from running A/B tests to selecting ad placements to using webmaster tools, we hope you were able to learn useful tips for improving the performance of your ads (or 'Augtomizing').
AdSense for content availability
Just a few weeks ago, we added Croatian, Czech, Slovak, and Traditional Chinese to our list of AdSense for content supported languages. We hope that publishers with sites in these languages will start seeing revenue increases by taking advantage of our ad inventory.
AdSense for search on your own page
As Product Manager Shirin Oskooi explained in our September video post, we introduced the ability to display AdSense for search results in an IFRAME. Publishers can now embed their search results within their pages and customize the layout of the results page to match their sites.
Landing Page Quality
Our AdWords Team made an improvement by using the quality of a landing page as a factor in determining the price of an ad. For AdSense publishers, this has translated into less ads that lead to low-quality sites, and a better user experience.
We hope this year-end nostalgia has brought you some fond memories. Here's to a prosperous and happy New Year!