How does Google Adsense work?

April 22, 2003 9:56 AM

Maybe this has already been discussed, but I noticed on my "Gypsy" post today that the ads in the discussion were all "Gypsy" and Broadway related. How does that work?
posted by adrober to MetaFilter-Related at 9:56 AM (6 comments total)

See this previous discussion.
posted by jamespake at 11:13 AM on April 22, 2003

i dunno the details but google's context selections can be amusing. see the invoice related ads in this thread. and the confluence of Baker Botts, 9/11, and Saudi Arabia brings up Enron, Corporate Alumni, and No Blood For Oil. The sounds of chinese pigs post attracts the California Pot Bellied Pigs Association and, remarkably enough, 25 Sound Effect Libraries as well as some default weblogging oriented ads. I'm guessing that if google cannot determine a context from the page, it defaults to weblogs and weblog hosting ads, and though i haven't observed it that closely yet, it may actually be updating itself as more text is added via comments and context becomes clearer. personally, i think this is the funnest new "feature" ever added to mefi.
posted by quonsar at 11:39 AM on April 22, 2003

well, funnest new feature since miguel...
posted by quonsar at 11:43 AM on April 22, 2003

I agree. There was a gay-themed thread a few weeks back and the ads for gay cruises on the sidebar cracked me up.
posted by Cyrano at 12:24 PM on April 22, 2003

Miguel is a feature? I thought he was a bug.

I have noticed some funny associations between the ads and the content on the threads, as well and wondered how they got that from that. Or is that just Google's sneaky way of making us look at the ads?
posted by dg at 3:18 PM on April 22, 2003

is that just Google's sneaky way of making us look at the ads?

May be the advertisers sneaky way. Dunno if anyone @ google checks the keywords they submit.
posted by walrus at 4:11 AM on April 23, 2003