New ad format suddenly showing up on our site

First I've seen it, anyone else?

[MikeNoLastName]

On a std four ad-wide horizontal banner on our home page, I'm seeing one normal ad at the left nothing in the middle and on the far right ad position a black line of text saying "change to ads about" with three alternate topics below which are clickable. and then the usual "Ads by Google" at the bottom. Anyone else seen this before? Does this mean G isn't sure what type of ads to put on the page or there aren't enough ads to cover the primary topic (doubtful in our case)?
Is it permitted for us to click the topics to perhaps help guide Adsense for future visitors.

********* Added shortly later ****
Wow! This must be a new feature! I went ahead and clicked on one of the topics and it then leads you on a futher refinement process. Like if you click on 'widgets' it next lists blue widgets, black widgets, red widgets and sometimes an empty box. If you then click on one of them it pops up approriate ads and another refinement. This is cool.

[Hubbard]

Are you just trying to get people to click on their own ads?

[celgins]

LOL. I don't think he is. I saw the same ad format a few days ago and saw a post three days ago where someone else mentioned it.

Still haven't figured out exactly what it is though.

[OptiRex]

Yep, it's been about for a few weeks in leaderboard and skyscraper format.

It looks quite good on my site when shown however it is very random and rare I have to say.

[MikeNoLastName]

I've only seen it on that one ad and it was different the next time I went to the page. The ad unit it showed on was the lowest producing one on the busy page so that may have something to do with where it comes up. It let me keep selecting new related topics for ever (of course I didn't click on any of the ads, so I don't know what it would have done if I had). It's kind of like an adlinks related topics menu (except it doesn't go to the google page when you click a topic, it just displays the ads in the rest of the banner) and can get pretty far off the topic of the page if you try. Every time you select one of the three topics, it comes back (really quickly by the way) with 3 ads related to the one you chose and then 3 new related, 2-3 word topics. My category selections didn't seem to make a difference on the basic ad selection the next time I came back to the page though. I was hoping it would help trend the topic. I wonder how clicks on the categories affect ad impressions? Does it add a new impression each time a visitor clicks on a new topic on the same ad unit?

[mzanzig]

Have seen it as well in a leaderboard. But this was the only ad on the page, though in a very prominent place.

I don't mind the new format, but I wonder when do we get paid - when the original ad (i.e. the one on our site) is clicked, or when the refined ads are clicked? Also, can we block these ads if we feel this is not a hot feature?

Does anyone have any insights here?

[icedowl]

I've seen it in a large rectangle. It really stuck out like a sore thumb.

[MikeNoLastName]

"but I wonder when do we get paid - when the original ad (i.e. the one on our site) is clicked, or when the refined ads are clicked?"

I have an email in to adsense support for clarification about it, but I'm GUESSING for now that it is similar to the adlinks setup in that you only get paid if someone clicks on an ACTUAL AD which takes them to another advertiser site, and NOT if they just click on the category links. I also asked if it only comes up if you've previously selected adlinks on the same page (like we have on that page) or some such. In which case NOT using adlinks on the page would turn it off.

[ann]

Maybe this is a fore runner of PPA ads?

[MikeNoLastName]

Finally got a reply back from GAdsense today. Despite a list of detailed questions I sent, all they would say is that its' one of several new features they're testing on a very limited number of publishers.

They also said that that clicking on the categories in these ads is fine, similar to link units.

That's all.

[Hubbard]

I saw it. It's like Link Units built into a large square ad. I dare not click it for my own good.

[Chapman]

I've just had this format show up on my site. As I have instances where leaderboards are paired with link units... the duplicity may be a little much. If it was more prevalent... I'd lose the link units in deference to the leaderboard/adlink combo.