Google Launches AdSense for Feeds
I noticed a new option in my AdSense account: AdSense for feeds, a program that displays contextual and placement-targeted ads in FeedBurner feeds. FeedBurner announced in May that AdSense for Feeds will be available to a small number of publishers and now it seems that everyone can use it.
FeedBurner has recently closed FAN, its advertising network. “No new applications for FAN publishers are being accepted and we expect the broad variety of options provided through AdSense (including the new AdSense for Feeds product, powered with FeedBurner feeds) will give publishers valuable new revenue-earning potential,” says a FeedBurner/Google employee.
The new AdSense for Feeds option lets you create a new ad unit that has a format automatically selected from 468×60 and 300×250. “Generally, the 300×250 size will display when there’s more content and when your feed is being viewed in a device with a larger display,” explains Google. You can choose if you want image ads, the ad frequency, the position (top or bottom of the post), the colors and a channel that tracks the ad performance.
For the moment, there’s no connection between your AdSense account and the FeedBurner account, so Google automatically adds the FeedBurner service to your AdSense account. Unfortunately, your feeds are still connected to the old FeedBurner account and you need to migrate them first. The migration process is manual: just send an email at adsense-support-aff@google.com and mention your FeedBurner username and the AdSense account email address.
From AdSense, you can easily burn a new feed by entering the address of your blog and selecting some tracking options. The feeds can be managed at the new FeedBurner site, but there’s no visible change other than the integration with Google Accounts and the new URLs for feeds: http://feedproxy.google.com/NAME.
Here’s an ad from a feed of a FeedBurner/Google employee:
I doubt that these ads are an effective way to monetize feeds, since people use feed readers to get timely updates from a lot of sites and spend less time for each item. Besides, feed readers are mostly used by tech-savvy readers that are less likely to click on ads.
At some point, I may experiment with some infrequent ads in Google Operating System’s feed and I’ll post my findings.
Resources:
AdSense for Feeds Help Center - you should read the tips
Migrating an existing FeedBurner account
The new FeedBurner homepage
Google Launches AdSense for Feeds
I noticed a new option in my AdSense account: AdSense for feeds, a program that displays contextual and placement-targeted ads in FeedBurner feeds. FeedBurner announced in May that AdSense for Feeds will be available to a small number of publishers and now it seems that everyone can use it.
FeedBurner has recently closed FAN, its advertising network. “No new applications for FAN publishers are being accepted and we expect the broad variety of options provided through AdSense (including the new AdSense for Feeds product, powered with FeedBurner feeds) will give publishers valuable new revenue-earning potential,” says a FeedBurner/Google employee.
The new AdSense for Feeds option lets you create a new ad unit that has a format automatically selected from 468×60 and 300×250. “Generally, the 300×250 size will display when there’s more content and when your feed is being viewed in a device with a larger display,” explains Google. You can choose if you want image ads, the ad frequency, the position (top or bottom of the post), the colors and a channel that tracks the ad performance.
For the moment, there’s no connection between your AdSense account and the FeedBurner account, so Google automatically adds the FeedBurner service to your AdSense account. Unfortunately, your feeds are still connected to the old FeedBurner account and you need to migrate them first. The migration process is manual: just send an email at adsense-support-aff@google.com and mention your FeedBurner username and the AdSense account email address.
From AdSense, you can easily burn a new feed by entering the address of your blog and selecting some tracking options. The feeds can be managed at the new FeedBurner site, but there’s no visible change other than the integration with Google Accounts and the new URLs for feeds: http://feedproxy.google.com/NAME.
Here’s an ad from a feed of a FeedBurner/Google employee:
I doubt that these ads are an effective way to monetize feeds, since people use feed readers to get timely updates from a lot of sites and spend less time for each item. Besides, feed readers are mostly used by tech-savvy readers that are less likely to click on ads.
At some point, I may experiment with some infrequent ads in Google Operating System’s feed and I’ll post my findings.
Resources:
AdSense for Feeds Help Center - you should read the tips
Migrating an existing FeedBurner account
The new FeedBurner homepage
Google Search Results Show Metadata for Scientific Papers
Google started to integrate in the search results information about the scientific papers included in Google Scholar. Below the snippet, Google lists the authors, the number of citations and links to related articles and other versions available online. The integration is not perfect and the search results look cluttered, but it’s yet another class of results that have richer snippets.
Here’s the top search result for buddy tree (a data structure):
… and the same result at Google Scholar:
Google also shows additional information next to videos, books, web pages that include addresses and tests displaying metadata for forums and extracting specialized information from web pages. While Yahoo tries to convince webmasters to make structured data explicitly available, Google has a more practical approach and uses what’s already available to enhance search results.
{ via Blogoscoped Forum }
Google Search Results Show Metadata for Scientific Papers
Google started to integrate in the search results information about the scientific papers included in Google Scholar. Below the snippet, Google lists the authors, the number of citations and links to related articles and other versions available online. The integration is not perfect and the search results look cluttered, but it’s yet another class of results that have richer snippets.
Here’s the top search result for buddy tree (a data structure):
… and the same result at Google Scholar:
Google also shows additional information next to videos, books, web pages that include addresses and tests displaying metadata for forums and extracting specialized information from web pages. While Yahoo tries to convince webmasters to make structured data explicitly available, Google has a more practical approach and uses what’s already available to enhance search results.
{ via Blogoscoped Forum }
Plot Feeds in Google Finance
Google Finance has a very cool new feature that lets you plot the items from a feed on a stock chart. For example, you may want to find more information about Google’s stock and see how it correlates with the latest news about Google. In addition to the articles from Google News, there’s a new tab with blog posts and another one that lets you view the posts from a feed. You can choose from the examples offered by Google, enter the URL of a feed or type some keywords related to the feed you want to find.
For Google, you may select New York Times feed offered as an example, search for [Google blog] or enter the address of this blog: googlesystem.blogspot.com. Google Finance lets you filter the posts from the selected feed using the “search within items” option. There’s even an interesting trick that lets you plot some custom events on the chart. “Google Spreadsheets can be treated as RSS feeds and plotted on a chart. Just make sure your document contains a date column and some basic formatting, and that it’s published to the web.” Here’s an example of spreadsheet plotted in Google Finance.
If you want to obtain a permalink for your custom chart, click on “Link to chart” and copy the address. Unfortunately, you can’t save a list of feeds or connect them with certain companies.
{ Thank you, Alexis K. }
Plot Feeds in Google Finance
Google Finance has a very cool new feature that lets you plot the items from a feed on a stock chart. For example, you may want to find more information about Google’s stock and see how it correlates with the latest news about Google. In addition to the articles from Google News, there’s a new tab with blog posts and another one that lets you view the posts from a feed. You can choose from the examples offered by Google, enter the URL of a feed or type some keywords related to the feed you want to find.
For Google, you may select New York Times feed offered as an example, search for [Google blog] or enter the address of this blog: googlesystem.blogspot.com. Google Finance lets you filter the posts from the selected feed using the “search within items” option. There’s even an interesting trick that lets you plot some custom events on the chart. “Google Spreadsheets can be treated as RSS feeds and plotted on a chart. Just make sure your document contains a date column and some basic formatting, and that it’s published to the web.” Here’s an example of spreadsheet plotted in Google Finance.
If you want to obtain a permalink for your custom chart, click on “Link to chart” and copy the address. Unfortunately, you can’t save a list of feeds or connect them with certain companies.
{ Thank you, Alexis K. }
Photo Albums in Google Docs
Google Docs will expand beyond documents. After adding support for storing PDFs, Google Docs will provide ways to create photo albums. It’s not very clear if you’ll be able to access the photos stored in Picasa Web Albums or create different photo albums, but GDrive is certainly here and its name is Google Docs.
The first screenshot has been created using information from Google’s code, which already includes an icon of the photo section. The other screenshots show an empty list of photo albums and a new image search feature.
I suspect Google Docs will become the place where you can upload, share and manage any kinds of files. It’s also likely that all the files that are uploaded to other Google services will be accessible in Google Docs in much the same way as the photos uploaded to Blogger blogs can be found in Picasa Web Albums.
Update: Radu noticed that if you go to docs.google.com/#photos and type the first letters from the titles of your Picasa Web Albums, Google shows the full titles as suggestions. It seems that it only works for public albums.
