potentialgeek - 4:46 pm on Mar 11, 2008 (gmt 0)

The problem isn't the promotion or lack thereof. Even if there's full blacklisting options, it won't help if the Content Network sites generally don't convert.

The problem is Google does next to nothing to guide publishers into placing ads on their sites in a way that advertisers can really benefit.

The heat map, as good as that sounds, obviously isn't good enough; otherwise so many advertisers would still be in the Content Network.

Banning sites that are over the top is only the start. There's a big gap between sites that adhere to the Adsense rules and sites that actually are great for advertisers.

Google has a long way to go in showing Joe Publisher how to design his pages and add ads in a way that will be win-win-win (Publisher, Advertiser, Google).

Unless, for some reason, most websites, no matter what formatting is used (ad size, colors, placement, etc.) inherently can't convert well for advertisers.

And the site-targeting, well that's a two-way deal. Google is only half way there. It still has to convince the publishers we won't get stupid ads on our sites.

p/g