Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Is there content matching based on those words?
Is this to counter those who've been putting "stop words" in graphic form?
JAG
The state name does not appear except in a graphic file anywhere on the site
What about the name of that graphic file? Is it something like "wisconsin.jpg"? If that's the case, you can get ads for Wisconsin.
As for decreasing ad quality, I posted a separate topic on this, but clearly things took a SHARP turn for the worse today.
I also noticed that I started trying more search engines for my personal searches than Google lately. Teoma's results appeared to be the old Google results.
Edited to answer question above:
No the file is named logo.gif. The state name appears nowhere on the site including file names or directory structure except in the logo image. It would appear in an email from the site but not in a confirmation page. There's no http way to see that state name.
FYI: if you want to submit an URL to Altavista, you must enter a code that appears in a .gif file.
They use this technique especially to prevent abuse of their servives by robots, because robots can't "read" that code.
So, IMO, it has nothing to do with images.
[edited by: tombola at 3:35 pm (utc) on Feb. 4, 2004]
I noticed something similar with search results a while ago about images. I can't remember the specifics but my site showed up for a word only in the logo (and nowhere else). This is driving me nuts now that its happening in Adsense.
Edited to reply to binary comment:
My text is not scrambled or made hard to read like Altavista's is. My suggestion is that Google is scanning the image (likely in an automated manner) to read the text in it. Again, I think this might be in response to those who image stop words.
Server is located across the country from the business. I don't know a lot about geotargetting, but it would be hard for me to think it's working here.
The server has nothing to do with targeting. If you are in Wisconsin and the server is in Timbuktu, you will see Wisconsin ads if there are regional geotargeted ads available.
Regional geotargeting takes into account where the actual site visitor is from - thus those in Wisconsin could see Wisconsin ads, while those in California will see California targeted ads.
Are you located in the same state or region that your page is about?
The only geography I fit into in this case is the generic one since I'm not in Sicily or anywhere near Arizona.
Something is definitely wrong.
JAG
JAG
A gif file is a binary file.
Text that appears on that gif cannot be read by a robot, because there is no text to scan, only pixels.
In theory, yes, but fairly recently there have been several new robots developed that CAN read the pixels of an image file and convert it into text, much like OCR. Spammers are using these bots to sign up for an unlimited number of free email accounts, etc. and most image verification schemes can't stop them.
I think it's entirely possible that Google is using this technology too. So it MAY have to do with images.
[webmasterworld.com...]
Slightly different subject: Wasn't there a big parade in December for the coming of AdSenseAdvisor? He's been just as helpful as the rest of the AdSense staff. Thank heavens for Jenstar and fellow posters here to try to clear the muddy waters a little!
What is the name of the image file?
Is it like statename.gif?
Is it like somethingrelatedtothestate.gif?
Hmmm, that was three questions... Ok here is another one:
Are the ads related to some activity+state name and the page has information about this activity?
A good example would be a page about skiing and ads about Colorado resorts.
A not so good example would be an ad for cruises in South America in the same article...
Is it like statename.gif? - No.
Is it like somethingrelatedtothestate.gif? - No.
Are the ads related to some activity+state name and the page has information about this activity? - No.
I've looked long and hard at why this has been happening and nothing sticks out.
JAG
The site is unrelated to anything geographic. It deals with homegoods. None of these are named with the state name. The ads are for things like real estate agents in the state or attorneys. The statename features prominently in the ads.
I'm open to suggestions, but I really think the only way Google knows about the state is because it OCR'ed the image.
I really think the only way Google knows about the state is because it OCR'ed the image.
Check your log files: the Mediapartners bot visits only pages that contain Adsense code, NOT images.
I can confirm that the Mediapartners bot does not take images into account when targeting a page - it considers only text, and any words contained as images will not affect the targeting. Also, remember that AdWords advertisers can target an ad about "Wisconsin widgets" to keyword "widget" - if your site is about widgets, even if it has nothing to do with Wisconsin, the ad can still show up. I would imagine it's rare, as most advertisers make use of either regional targeting, or more precise keyword selection, but it's a possibility. I don't know if it applies to this issue - let me talk to the tech team and see what I can find out :)
Joe from Joe's Shack of Tuxedos of Biloxi Miss. wants to rent tuxes {I am not using widgets, but as far as I know these are made up}
Joe targets:
Tuxedo Rental
Formal Dance
Prom
Bowtie
If your page has the word Bowtie, you might end up getting Joe's ad, which could very well be phrased as "Biloxi Tuxedos for rent".
I think that only so much can be acomplished with targeting, the fact that some advertisers target the wrong words {myself included}, and the fact that some of them use ads, which would work better on a regional basis on a broad basis has a lot to do with the type of ads that are shown.
I get that there could be "broad matching" for related fields. I would expect matching to occur for homegood type categories -- whatever those broad fields may be.
The ads I saw were Maryland Realtor, Maryland CPA, you get the idea. How did these get matched? The only explanation I can think of is that it matched the image text, not broad matching for a word that appears nowhere on the site. Could it be pulling the whois record? Maybe.
I've seen the reply about mediabot not pulling the image. I haven't checked my log to verify because it would be hard to do on the shared server. If the image wasn't pulled, I really have no idea how Maryland ended up as a possible context for advertisements.
In any event this phenomenon appears to have ended.
I really don't see google doing character recognition just yet, although the google catalogues does seem to have this feature - but that is on a limited set of images, I don't see them doing it to every image on the web.
How does Adsense look to incoming links? Does it use Google info?
If so, it may just be a matter of time until the site is respidered and different ads start matching.
I'm now thinking it was an off page link. Although the problem has stopped now.
