Jenstar - 6:57 am on Apr 14, 2004 (gmt 0)

I have been hearing from publisher's all evening with "Have you checked your stats?" and "are you seeing super-high earnings?" So far, I have heard from six publishers who have had record earnings today. These are publishers earning double and triple digits a day, some newer publishers and some publishers around since the beginning, and each in completely different keyword areas (ie. if one publisher's site was about watermelons, another's was on hockey sticks and a third on hedgehogs. Completely different areas).

But each has made more today (Tues April 13, 2004) than any other day in their AdSense earnings history. If one or two publishers had reported this, it could be coincidence. But six publishers in such different keyword areas, impressions and CTRs have all reported the highest daily earning total ever - and noticeable in a period when so many publishers have had record-low earnings (including at least a couple of those 6 publishers) in the first 12 days of April.

Could the AdSense team have received enough less-than-glowing feedback to make a change or a rollback to the "new and improved" AdSense that publishers have been experiencing since the beginning of the month? Was this April 1st - April 12th period the "New Coke" phase of AdSense?

There has been plenty of negative feedback to these new chages, with publishers threatening to leave and try competitors. But if publishers start recording record high earnings, will the first 12 days of April be shortly forgotten and AdSense will once again claim the golden image of being the best-thing-going for content site owners and hobby sites?

Timing is crucial, especially with Quigo's Ad Sonar poised to launch, supposedly this week. However, even that remains to be seen, since Ad Sonar has repeatedly pushed back their launch date. But for Google AdSense, having a competitor launch at a time when so many publishers are unhappy would be bad for AdSense and a dream come true for that competitor. And Ad Sonar could finally come through and launch this week, even if they wouldn't have otherwise, simply to capitalize on that publisher unhappiness.

Is this all just a mere coincidence? Or has there been a significant change in AdSense? There could have been an EPC split that is more favorable to publishers than it has been recently. Or the AdSense team could have tweaked their algo slightly so that publishers are getting better targeted ads than what was seen during the first 12 days of April, resulting in a higher CTR.

Are others seeing record or near-record earnings for Tuesday April 13, 2004? (Do make sure your stats have updated - some have reported much-delayed stats today, which often happens when there has been a change). Or noticed a significant change with better targeted ad or higher than normal CTR or EPC? Or anything else that could be attributed to a change?

Please, no gripes :) Keep it constructive and on-topic with what has changed with AdSense as of April 13th, why, and what it all means ;)