AdSense and Squirrel Mail

[mccoy]

Is it a violation of Googles TOS to use AdSense with Squirrel mail. Specifically if I were to embed AdSense code in the users webmail interface such that it returned relevant results based on the content of their email, kinda like Google is doing with Gmail?

Thanx.
Jeremy Kinsey

[edited by: mccoy at 8:18 am (utc) on Feb. 23, 2005]

[Rodney]

Hi Jeremy, Welcome to WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com]

You'll want to remove your URL from your sig, as it is against the WW Terms of Service.

To answer your question though, I think that what you're describing would be against the Adsense Terms of Service.

Since you don't have control over the content of the emails your users write, it would violate that rule of adsense.

There is also a "no adsense in email" rule in the Terms/Guidelines.

[google.com...]

[martingale]

I dunno if it violates the TOS, but it's basically not going to work. The Media bot isn't going to be able to fetch the users private email, and even if it did, it will only fetch once every day or week certainly not every time they read a mail--so even if it could fetch their mail, it would be out of date.

Nice idea, though, but maybe not with AdSense. Maybe you can get one of the topic-based things to work if you do the work yourself to figure out what topic their mail is on somehow, maybe keywords in subject line or some such.

[mccoy]

Thank you, it's great to be here. Registered back in November, but had not had to the time to actively participate.

Sorry about the sig. <post edited>

Anyway, I see that now in the TOS. I should have read more carefully.

I think I will look at placing something else in there then. We find that better than 70% of our users use our WebMail system vs. their own email client. I would like to find a way to capitalize on that.

Thanx.
Jeremy Kinsey

[linear]

I can think of some creative workarounds though.

Like a frame at the top of the mail interface that held a publicly-readable page with an RSS feed from your site plus an adsense ad. Double whammy--you're advertising your recent articles that way as well.