big big google ad

March 3, 2004 2:34 PM

These Google Ads are getting bigger and bigger, at least in some threads. They look like big vertical banners with BIG HEADLINES. WTF? Is this the face of all Google ads to come?
posted by jessamyn (retired) to MetaFilter-Related at 2:34 PM (20 comments total)

eep. It looks like the first thread is the one that gets the full side-bar ad. I wonder if Google is pricing for position now.
posted by eddydamascene at 3:41 PM on March 3, 2004

No word since this about the loss of custom colors, also. This is disappointing.
posted by eddydamascene at 3:52 PM on March 3, 2004

Ok, the big ad disappeared from the Jay-Z thread, but it didn't move up to the next newest one.
posted by eddydamascene at 4:02 PM on March 3, 2004

I see it in this thread also, though it seems to come and go. Looks like one big ad [2-4 normal Google ads tall] where the headline is the largest font on my whole screen except "MetaFilter."

[this is bad]
posted by jessamyn at 4:03 PM on March 3, 2004

The non-custom colors and HUGE fonts seems to defeat the whole purpose of "text" ads. I haven't been blocking ads on MeFi yet, but this may cause me to do so if it continues.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 4:31 PM on March 3, 2004

Yeah, I just noticed that today and I'm pretty shocked by it. They sent me updated code recently and said they were trying some new stuff but damn is it ugly.

I've got a meeting with Google later this week and I'm reviewing the collaboration completely in light of these changes. Things will change soon, I promise.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 4:56 PM on March 3, 2004

I remember once seeing the ads super tall - a lot of whitespace in each ad block - but I have never seen the font size go huge. And they all look fine to me now.
posted by rhapsodie at 4:56 PM on March 3, 2004

I've got a meeting with Google ... collaboration

Wha-wha-wha?
posted by gleuschk at 5:15 PM on March 3, 2004

I've got a meeting with Google later this week

Can you pass on my suggestions for the #1 search result for "hot young stud"?
posted by yerfatma at 5:28 PM on March 3, 2004

What rhapsodie said. The ads on the top story at the moment are surrounded by lots of whitespace (only two ads in the entire bar), but the font is about the same size as the rest of the page text (using opera 7.23).
posted by fvw at 5:49 PM on March 3, 2004

Wha-wha-wha?

If I recall correctly: when he put them in, Matt asked them to do some special tweaky-tweakage for him in terms of look and feel so they'd blend a bit better on the site, and they complied.

But perhaps I dreamed that.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 8:37 PM on March 3, 2004

But perhaps I dreamed that.
If you did, we have been sharing dreams, which would be a tad disturbing to say the least.

I assume that MeFi is on a special ad package different to the normal adsense one, because you can easily specify the colours etc for adsense ads yourself.
posted by dg at 8:56 PM on March 3, 2004

yeah, that's what they did. But the new code doesn't reference my older custom stuff, which I'm going to talk to them about.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 8:59 PM on March 3, 2004

Google ads? What google ads?
posted by eyeballkid at 9:33 AM on March 4, 2004

Thanks for that pointer, eyeballkid. I've got nothing against the google ads, but I've been searching for a way to block Flash ads without removing the plug-in altogether, and it looks like this is it (and more).
posted by Dean King at 12:32 PM on March 4, 2004

Better yet: privoxy. Mine is a default installation and I very rarerly see any advertising. It replaces banners with transparent images, blocks malicious javascript, stops unrequested popups, allows for better (site by site) control of cookies, can deanimates gifs by site, can use upstream proxies and so on. I use it with both Firefox and (when I have to use ActiveX controls) IE.
posted by snarfodox at 8:11 PM on March 4, 2004

I've been using privoxy for a while now, and I love it. So far I have it set to permit Google's text ads because I want to support that kind of useful, non-intrusive, non-annoying advertising. It would be a real shame if Google goes over to the dark side along with all the flash abusers, popups, popunders, interstitials and the rest.
posted by Zonker at 5:31 AM on March 5, 2004

Yeah, I just noticed that today and I'm pretty shocked by it. They sent me updated code recently and said they were trying some new stuff but damn is it ugly.

So is it going to address the fact that I was just prompted to download a font so that they could display a Japanese "text-ad"? wtf? MeFi is all I have open and I am logged in.
posted by Ufez Jones at 10:07 AM on March 7, 2004

I didn't realize MeFi had a special arrangement with Google to get custom colors. I set up Google ads on one of my sites at the beginning of February, and the control panel lets you pick a pre-rolled color scheme or make your own custom color scheme when you're setting it up.
posted by RylandDotNet at 10:11 AM on March 8, 2004

Ufez: It could well be that google just gave you an ad with japanese characters, and your browser decided you might need the new font. I doubt the textads are intentionally trying to be that intrusive.

Does it happen when loading this page too? ?
posted by fvw at 12:22 AM on March 12, 2004