Ads that mimic adsense

am i too paranoid?

[ownerrim]

If a webmaster places adsense on some pages and quigo on others, this is fine and ok with the adsense TOS, by all accounts.

So, it seems to make sense that if a webmaster removed adsense from some pages and replaced the adsense blocks with image ads of his own (that look identical to adsense and lead to non-adwords advertisers)...that this would be ok as well.

After all, what's the difference between a quigo ad that looks identical to adsense, or a webmaster's own image that looks identical to adsense?

Just the same, paranoia being king, I thought I would post this to make absolutely sure this would not be in violation of Adsense TOS.

[Rodney]

I thought I would post this to make absolutely sure this would not be in violation of Adsense TOS

To be absolutely sure, you shouldn't post here, you should email Google :)

All we can give are opinions. In my opinion and understanding, it wouldn't be against the TOS.

[ownerrim]

I agree. But I'm also glad to hear someone else doesn't think it's against TOS either.

[yosemite]

I'd confirm that it was okay with Google (by emailing Google) before I'd proceed to put the ads on the site. (Of course, I'm paranoid, but that's why Google has email, you know? It's good to ask these sorts of questions.)

[ownerrim]

Again, I agree that it's best to contact google. But I still have to wonder what the problem would be with doing it. After all, if you put quigo ads on some of a site's pages, and adsense on other pages of the same site, and the quigo and adsense blocks are identical to each other (same background, same text, same borders), in such a case you are not in violation of adsense TOS---since google's only stated concern is that you should not run both company's ads on the same pages.

The only difference in what I am considering is this: instead of running quigo, I am thinking of running my own ads, which, like quigo, will look identical to adsense.

I'm concerned enough to ask the question, but I don't see how google could have a problem with this. Quigo or my own image ads----what's the difference?

[ownerrim]

Here's the adsense policy on this:

Competitive Ads and Services
We do not permit Google ads or search boxes accessing Google search services to be published on WEB PAGES that also contain what could be considered competing ads or services. This would include ads that mimic Google ads or otherwise appear to be associated with Google on your site. If you have elected to receive content-based Google ads, this would also include all other content-targeted ads. If you have elected to receive Google search services, this would include other search services on the same site and non-Google query-targeted ads. We do allow affiliate or limited-text links.

[Broadway]

I guess I'm daft. Was this an affirmative or negative reply in regards to what you wanted to do?

[ownerrim]

it wasn't a reply. It's an excerpt from the adsense policies page. from the way i read it, they don't want you to mimic an adsense ad on the same page that adsense appears on. in other words, run adsense on a page or run the other, just not both. that's how i read it.