europeforvisitors - 8:21 pm on Jul 4, 2006 (gmt 0)

It's my opinion that adsense has been a huge factor in encourage people to generate junk sites.

No one's disputing that. But junk sites existed before AdSense came along, and they'd exist if AdSense disappeared tomorrow. What's more, I'd contend that--at least in the big-money sectors that I watch--there's less junk in Google's SERPs today, even with AdSense and "made-for-AdSense" sites, than there was before AdSense was launched.

The real reason for the "spam arms race" isn't AdSense; it's the strip-mining mentality that motivates so many corporations and Web entrepreneurs.