Real-time monitoring of your AdSense account

... for all you account junkies ;-)

[devlin]

I've seen some people in another thread wishing they had a real-time ticker on their desktop displaying their AdSense account.

I've just found a site that is offering this service. It's in beta for the next 45 days (according to the site) and they're offering it for a total of $2.99.

I haven't tried it myself (I think it would distract me too much) but other people on this forum might be interested.

I can't post a URL, but if you do a search on Google for "monitor your google adsense account", you'll get a single item on the SERP.

Click on the link, and scroll down to the item that says: "monitor your google adsense account". That's the one! Sorry this is a bit convoluted, but it seems to be the only way to get to the page without URL posting.

So.. if you want to lash out $2.99 (you need a Paypal account), go for it!

It would be interesting to get feedback on the forum from anyone who installs it.

D.

[Blue_Fin]

I don't get the same search result you get. In fact, [google.com...] is the first result, with lots of others, but not the one you are referring to. I can't imagine how any third party could do this without hacking into Google.

[devlin]

Put the phrase - monitor your google adsense account- in speech marks in the search box, thus:

"monitor your google adsense account"

That gets the search result I mentioned. I guess there must be a way of using your login details.

As I said, I haven't tried it. I'm just passing on the info for other people.

D.

[sean]

How long until Google sets login frequency inversely proportional to EPC? ;-)

[cornwall]

All that appears to offer, is to give you exactly the same information that you get when you log in to your account anyway...

...in other words if Google is slow updating, you do not get your figures any quicker than if you look at your account yourself.

[Blue_Fin]

Gotcha devlin! But I ain't given my login and password to somebody I know nothing about. :)

[Mauricio]

When I was reading the site we're talking about, I've seen the word "gator" somewhere and I'm still shivering.

[ct2000]

shocking idea - will not last that long save your $$ ..

[Clark]

Sounds like a scam to me, but I didn't do the G search. Don't trust vital pieces of info to strangers.

[DavidP]

I took a look at it - the first thing that springs to mind is that "real-time" might be a little bit of a stretch given that (as numerous threads will attest) the source data is updated as a batch.

[div01]

My user info does not go to any third party "service providers".

[devlin]

I'm with you all on this one! I wouldn't trust a third party with my password, either.

Yes, "gator" didn't fill me with enthusiasm. But I looked at the other associated technology, KlipFolio, and it seems to be widely used to provide live feeds of various types.

But I'll just stay with logging into my account in the normal way, from time to time.

D.

[Blue_Fin]

I have just emailed Adsense the following:

I wanted to make you aware of a company that is selling a service whereby they claim to provide real time reporting of Adsense stats for a fee. In order to do so, they require that you provide your user name and password.

[URL of the company doing this removed per WebmasterWorld TOS]

I hope that Google will in some way block this technology as this company could divert payments to them if they have complete access to your Adsense account with your login info.

[NeverHome]

Blue_Fin, I appreciate your enthusiasm, but heck, those guys are probably just trying to be a little bit entrepreneurial. Did you download the script and test it out? Are you sure they have a backdoor to steal your password etc? I doubt it. There is no future in being a self-appointed Google vigilante - Google already knows what you are thinking, even before you thought of it! :)

[Blue_Fin]

No, I did not download the script and test it out. It says right on the site that you have to provide your user name and password. Sure, it could be encrypted, but why would anyone be foolish enough to trust them?

Google needs to be aware of this as there should be no cottage industry when it comes to something as serious as this.

[NeverHome]

Well, I wouldn't bother to download myself either. The official adsense management page is fine for my purposes. But I just think this "realtime" tracking script will be a serverside cgi or php script that suck the "latest" info from your account, and presents it in a ticker or something.

Unless the coding is hosted or encrypted it would not take a smart bunny more that 10 seconds to figure out if it was a scam, or not. On the surface however, I presume it was well intentioned and without any bad intent. But I could be wrong. And who doesn't want to create the latest google toy?

[devlin]

As far as I can work out, it uses an "RSS" (Rich Site Summary) feed, based on XML.

KlipFolio, the software that drives this AdSense feed, has feeds available from many reputable sites, including SlashDot. I feel comfortable with this technology; it's just parting with my password that makes me uneasy.

And also, there's the impact on Google. RSS feeds have to access the target site at pre-set intervals (so it's not actual "real time" stats). What would be the impact on Google's server if the AdSense community took this up in a big way?

[Sharper]

This may be a little too obvious, but you'd think a bunch of webmasters like us would be able to figure out how to make a small html page with two frames, one that contained the adsense report section and the other that did a timed refresh of the adsense stats frame....

With clever use of anchors (I notice a tr class="totals" on the adsense home page) and/or css sizing it shouldn't be all that hard to make the adsense frame be just the right size to display as small as possible and still show the results.

I don't care enough to bother (a browser window where I can just his refresh is often enough for me), but if anyone does make such a local html page, pass it on. :)