Smashing_Young_Man - 6:35 am on Apr 8, 2006 (gmt 0)

It can certainly turn a quality site into a bad one if the webmaster gets too greedy. Some site owners who are new to Adsense apparently grow to care more about getting clicks than maintaining quality, and proceed to stick ads in every available nook and cranny of every page; often leaving those ads in places that generate a lot of accidental clicks (bumping right up against navigation links, below drop-down menus, etc).

I run Adsense on a couple of my sites; they've been making me okay money, but I've been phasing them out because I'm sick of seeing them, both on my sites and on others. Almost every last website on the web—from the crappiest to the best—runs Adsense. I really wish Google were more discerning in who they accept into the program.