Ad format of Adsense

Could be much better

[Clark]

What do you folk think about the ad format? BOTH publishers and advertisers?

I think they are pretty good as far as results on SERPS on Google's website, but for websites not as much. Some improvements that might work:

1. Although small images might not hurt, let's go along with the text ads. But on a web page the advertiser needs to be able to brand better. I'd like to see less strictness on the title. Let them put their Domain name or brand in Bold, All CAPS, whatever they want.
2. Instead of www.domain.com drop the www. and just say Domain.Com. The www takes up too much space and often the domain gets cut off.
3. Maybe some html in the ad? Or at least much more overall flexibility.
4. Playing around with Keywords or Themes. I don't know if google's theming scheme gives them the ability to associate keywords with a web page, but if they do, maybe give the advertisers some tags to bold words, or put keywords into their title?

Anyone else have ideas for them? And is someone at Google watching this section?

[abbeyvet]

In my case anyway I prefer that the text ads are as plain as possible. Now they are fairly neutral in appearance and contollable as far as colour and so on is concerned by the site showing them.

If advertisers were given this sort of leeway, then site owners lose all control over what appears on their site and how it appears. Not good.

[europeforvisitors]

The whole point of text ads, aside from being "contextual," is to communicate a sales message quickly, succinctly, and in a consistent format. Think of them as "sponsored links," not as a type of display ad, and you'll understand why variety in fonts, HTML formatting, etc. are neither permitted nor desirable.

[ronin]

I agree, if there is too much flexibility regarding using CAPS and graphics etc. the AdSense panels will start to look a lot like spam, in which case readers will ignore them and publishers will drop them. Far better the current setup which makes them look like sober information links.