Google Announces AdSense for Mobile Applications 17
by Jonathan Downer Thu, 25 Jun 2009 9:32 am EDT
If you've ever spent time browsing the web (which we assume you have, since you're reading this), you've likely seen advertising embedded on the web sites you frequent. A great many of these ads are being powered by an application called Google AdSense. What makes this application unique, is its ability to allow website developers to target ads toward their audience, which is why you tend to see tech related ads on tech related websites. In exchange for hosting the advertising, the owners of these websites are paid, which allows them to continue to host and update their site.
Until today's announcement, AdSense on cell phones has been limited to mobile web browsers, which you've probably seen if you've ever visited a mobile optimized website. With the new Mobile Applications version, app developers will now be able to embed targeted advertising within their applications. The practical side to this will be that developers can earn some extra money for the ads, with the obvious downside being more ads in your apps.
So far, AdSense for Mobile Applications is in beta only for the iPhone and Android, but there's no reason not to expect this to show up for WebOS (especially once Palm publically releases the full SDK later this summer). We'd like to hear your thoughts on this one; will this lead to a new wave of more inexpensive and free applications, or will we see a flood of worthless, ad-riddled applications? Let us know in the comments!
17 Comments
I definatly think there will be a flood of worthless ads. Accu weather already has a ad ribbon that pops out and it sucks. Imagine that in all apps. What a suprise that apple will have that feature. Because they do not respect they're customers. PLEASE PALM, dont allow this. My phone should filter out ALL that crap. I dont need apps that bad. Thank you.
"[we] will...see a flood of worthless, ad-riddled applications?"
this.
It sucks but I think its inevitable...
I find it awkward enough just to read a website on a phone. More clutter will make it even more so. I'd prefer to pay for my apps and get them clean.
I'm sorry but with the limited screen space I really don't want to see apps displaying ads and robbing me of what little screen space I do have!
I agree with pjbaltimore - I don't need apps that bad! Don't expect me to even use an app that, not even a "premium" version that is ad free! It's not worth it and I don't support developers that feel the need to resort to that.
Prefer to keep apps and sites free of ads. If it is inevitable, then I hope that we (the paying customers) reap the benefits through free applications.
I use adsense for my website (www.billhaderonline.com) and truthfully, I'm not that concerned about my ads showing up for people on their mobiles phones.
I do agree with WhoAmI; the screen space is too small to really look at advertisements anyway.
On the SDK, I wish it would come out sooner than August. Given how long the Pre took to launch, one would think that the SDK would have been close behind.
Regardless though, I love my Palm Pre. It was definitely worth the wait.
Ok, so who wants to help code Ad Block for mobile devices :)
Can I get an AMEN.
Honestly, I see this as a way to offer an ad-supported but otherwise free version of an application, which can be removed in a full and paid version.
Sure, it's ripe for silly abuse, but if developers implement it in a horrible fashion, it will backfire when users don't use their application.
For advertisements which are embedded in a website, I don't have too much problems with this.
As far as add-supported apps, which I have to install on my device, I will not use them. Even if the full (paid) version is free of ads I still would have a problem to trust the programmer that the program components of AdSense are removed. I already spend too much time manually removing this garbage from my smartphones.
And, frankly, so far I didn't found that this helps developing quality apps. Good apps sell themselves; If you have to sell an app thru the price something is already wrong.
Obviously, that is only my opinion, and the way I approach apps. But, in general, if an app comes ad supported, I don't use it. Don't even consider it.
I've created a poll on this. Hopefully it will help developers a little when it comes to making a decision on using ads in their apps.
http://forums.precentral.net/web-os-development/188754-does-adsense-make...
It cuts both ways.
Reputable sites have one or two ad banners on their mobile sites. It's not really intrusive, and when it's targeted it tends to be less annoying. Maybe that little bit of extra cash helps them offer a better site and focus on improving their mobile view. Good for them if they get to justify one more employee, and great value for the reader. Giz is a good example, IMO. (No knock on Smartphone Experts, just never tried their mobile sites.)
Junk sites interleave ads everywhere because they don't understand diminishing returns. That is, overwhelming viewers with crap drives away their clicks. Facebook apps are horrible with this. I completely ignore all but the few most tried and true FB apps for that reason. I honestly hope those crappy app devs suffer and learn their lesson.
Fortunately it's easy to spot the devs who don't understand how to use this tool tastefully. Unfortunately I think the amount of crap sites/apps tends to outweigh the good as everyone tries to get their slice. In spite the dot-com burst and Web 2.0 this seems to be a lesson the greedy nuts are slow to learn.
The already have ads in the Accuweather app. Its slightly annoying but certainly not worth crying about.
"Given how long the Pre took to launch"
I never understand this comment from the above person as well as "heard" on other posts. At the beginning of the year Palm announced they would release the Pre "1st half of '09". It was released 6/6/09 which, in my book, is 1st half of '09!Actually they could have released it next Tues (6/30) and still met their deadline claim.
I think this is great for certain uses if its done right.
Take an example like the New York Times app. Making this a paid app or requiring a subscription would turn off users who can get their news for free anywhere. To help pay for the content and the app development the NYTimes app has reserved a small amount of screen space for a banner ad. This isn't very intrusive at all.
AccuWeather has gone a bit too far. Their ads take up even less screen space (when minimized) but are incredibly intrusive because they "pop-out" or overlay over actual content. This is not acceptable.
Ad sense ads are potentially even less intrusive than either of these methods as they can be simple text ads which can be displayed "in line" with other content in the same non-intrusive way they are displayed in google search results (where you can easily ignore them and scroll past them, but they are still targeted and relevant). For a small developer like myself this would be a great solution so I don't have to set up a full back end application for handling advertisement rotation, billing, etc. There are a few apps I plan to make that are useful enough I could change for them but I don't want to. However, as much as I want to give them away free the bandwidth costs for the server side elements are not trivial, especially if the app becomes popular. The small amount of income from tiny non-obtrusive in-line text ads would probably be enough to offset the bandwidth costs so I could offer the apps for free.
This may be a necessity for open source apps that need server side resources that have to be paid for, or if Palm implements a submission fee (Apple charges $100 and RIM charges $200).
I guess I don't get that people tolerate atrociously intrusive ads on websites but say they won't tolerate mildly obtrusive AdSense ads in apps? You do know they don't HAVE to have dedicated screen real-estate, right?
both.
I will not use an application that displays ads. Developers, take heed.