BrandNewDay - 7:34 pm on May 24, 2008 (gmt 0)

Would you be offended if your local government website started serving ads alongside the information about the city or county?

I wouldn't be offended, but I also wouldn't be very happy about it.

Making money with Adsense is a business. People are making a living with it. It requires us to invest time and money in hosting, webdesign, content, etcetera. One makes these investments in order to get the best possible ads and as many clicks as possible in return.

And then some government comes along. They have limitless resources to buy expensive domain names, hire the best designers and writers. If we still don't visit their sites they throw in ton of money to buy traffic. The result is they will get the best ads on their sites. Paid for with tax payers money. If governments start running Adsense on their websites, they obstruct fair competition and the free market.

[edited by: BrandNewDay at 7:36 pm (utc) on May 24, 2008]