Changing colors

OK to change colors manually?

[HMishkoff]

I know that Google has a tool that lets you play with color sets, but as it looks to me that you can use that tool to assign any color to any element...

If I want play with different color sets and get quick results, is there any reason why I cannot simply change the color codes in the JavaScript directly? I know that Google says that you're not supposed to modify the JavaScript, but I'd be achieving the exact same results as if I had used their color tool, only it'll be much quicker.

Is this risky? Will Google be upset? Is there any way for Google to know?

[Rodney]

No, you cannot modify the code directly without violating the terms of service.

[kurtpdx]

There's no way for google to know.

[caspita]

I always change the color manually, just because going click by click matching what you want is s**id. :-)

[Rodney]

I always change the color manually, just because going click by click matching what you want is...

I *think* you can change the color manually within the Google Adsense Color Selection Tool that they provide in their control panel when you login. As long as the code that you retreive is copied and pasted directly from the control panel to your site (ie. Google generated code without your edit).

I *think* the problem comes in if AFTER you have copied and pasted the code to your site, you then edit the code AFTER that (like using a text editor or HTML editor to modify the color codes).

From the Google Adsense Polices page [google.com]:

Any AdSense ad code or search box code must be pasted directly into Web pages without modification. AdSense participants are not allowed to alter any portion of the ad code or change the layout, behaviour, or delivery of ads for any reason.

[edited by: Rodney at 6:21 pm (utc) on May 27, 2005]

[PatrickDeese]

You can change the colors manually - the color picker tool is for your convenience, the "color safe" chart is there for the people who wouldn't know what color #ffffff represented to save their life.

It may *technically* be a violation - but all the color picker does it change the color tags - do you think they keep a log for the color each account generates, and then compare it to your pages?

There's no way you could get kicked out for that. I might as well turn off adsense - I do it all the time, I don't have time to use the picker when I am tweaking colors on my sites.

[EricGiguere]

Use server-side scripting. I've done it to assign channels to different pages without having to change the actual header that I include in each page. Works fine as long as the final script that makes its way down to the browser is exactly what you'd get from using the management console.

Eric

[Rodney]

There's no way you could get kicked out for that.

Are you 100% positive about that?

I guess it's up to each individual to decide if it's worth the risk (however slight).

What if you made an error while manually editing the code that caused the adsense to display incorrectly? It is possible Google could be alerted of that and know that if the only way for that to occur is if the code was manually edited. I don't know how severe they would think this is, but it's possible.

What about if you try to manually put in a color combination that wouldn't be allowed by the online Color Picker (ie. not enough contrast)?

Would this alert google? Would it cause a review of your site to see if something shady is going on?

I don't know the answers to those...but for me, it only takes a few seconds to use the color picker and change the hex codes using their online tool.

[PatrickDeese]

> that wouldn't be allowed by the online Color Picker

hello. you can type in any hex value you want with the in the fields using the picker.

there's no difference.

[Rodney]

hello. you can type in any hex value you want with the in the fields using the picker.

I just double checked this, and you are indeed correct.

there's no difference.

I'm still not 100% sure about that (as I mentioned, you can still make errors if you try to edit it manually).

[500ml]

I don't think there's any way Google can actually know if you've manually changed the hex of one of the colors. There might not be any need to be paranoid about something like this and if you really need to know - ask Google!