Websense blocks adsense

googlesyndication.com in the list of blocked domains

[linear]

Websense is a web filtering utility which is fairly common in corporate environments, including my employer. Among its feaures is automagic updating of the blacklist, with manual override capability for the system admins.

Today, I saw nothing but emptiness in the iframes where google ads should be on my site. Right-clicking revealed the source of the page to be the url to the block notice output by Websense.

Interestingly, the block seems to extend only to the ad page, the javascript (/pagead/show_ads.js) is not blocked (at least locally).

This has significant implications. Websense is somewhat widely used. If your readership is weighted towards individuals behind corporate firewalls, your ad reach could be significantly lessened by this listing. Overrides happen on a local basis only, although things do get de-listed from time to time as well. Policy settings by local admins can override the effect as well (so if you're behind a Websense you may still see AS ads), but the "advertising" category is likely to remain blocked in most cases.

Keep an eye on your impressions, folks. If you see a marked downturn that does not correlate to a downturn in page views, this could be a cause. As near as I can pinpoint it, this took effect today (2 July 2004). Ads came through loud and clear yesterday.

[willybfriendly]

Interestingly, the block seems to extend only to the ad page, the javascript (/pagead/show_ads.js) is not blocked (at least locally).

This explains a phenomenon I have been seeing for at least 6 months. My employer's WAN just doesn't show adsense on local machines - but, the adsense code shows when the source is viewed. And yes, websense is the filter software

Interesting...

So, NIS blocks adsense and so does websense. There are a lot of people out there that are not seeing the ads.

WBF