gregbo - 4:55 am on Jul 25, 2005 (gmt 0)

In many of the posts I read here at WW about AdSense, I find one (somewhat) frightening trend: an evolution of how content is written solely based on AdSense earnings. Webmasters seem to be tweaking their pages to the point that the content on the page itself is no longer important. The focus has shifted to generating more AdSense clicks.

Interesting thought. It's basically the same principle as SEO changing the dynamics of linking. It used to be a way to point the user to related information; some now use it to boost ranking. (Arguably, not everyone.)

If ads get too out of hand, people will ignore them, and the advertisers will go somewhere else. Just as popup blockers came into existence to keep annoying ads off of screens, tools will be developed to keep other types of annoying ads off of screens.

This could make an interesting media study. I wonder if anyone like Lawrence Lessig has explored this.