Audience Test by Google
I've signed up for Google's AdSense, that thing where they put ads on your page and pay you if people click on them (see left, bottom of links list). Do people really click on them? I think I've clicked on maybe three in my life. I'm not expecting anything much, but if I get anything substantial I'll put it into making the hippoblog spectacular. That's the ticket. I need to make $100 before they'll write me a check. Thing is, they don't reveal what formula they use to calculate earnings. Could be days, could be years. Well, not years, since they reserve the right to cut you off after two months of weak performance. "Weak" being their definition, which is kept secret. And if I find anything out about the formulas, I'm bound by the clickwrap agreement to not reveal any of it. Another rigid AdSense rule: I'm not allowed to click on the ads (even once, apparently) or else they'll immediately cancel the account. Incentive to
not click ads, eh? I've crossed over to the Other Side, the state of Not-Shopping. I have reached enlightenment.
I've transparentized and dropped the ads way down the page because I don't like the way they look. They're so... commercial. Um, yeah. What did I expect?
Actually--and you may not believe me but who cares--what I expected was an ever-changing list of ads that revealed the hippoblog's (perceived) audience. I find we're posting material from a variety of what I think are unrelated sources, and I'm curious to see what market we belong to.
...or
supposed to belong to. The first time I loaded the page three Everquest ads came up. But I don't play Everquest. I think it's one of the dullest things you can do on a computer.
The same thing happens on Gmail with the contextual ads. Sometimes they're from so far out there I stare at them trying to figure out what spaceship they came in on. I was writing just general hi howareya's to a friend one day, and an ad for Duran Duran's comeback concert showed up. I still don't know how that got there. I googled my gmail and didn't find any mention of Duran Duran. (I was fascinated because I do like Duran Duran, unlike Everquest.) So I wonder, is there some overall personality assessment they've made of me, out of all my emails to everyone, that concluded probablistically that I'd like Duran Duran?
Or was Duran Duran just paying a lot to have their ad shown in a bunch of places?
