Google trials AdSense for mobile

by: admin Monday, July 16th, 2007

Rating: deep waters suit leviathans

By Annie Turner

In typically low-key style, Google has started testing AdSense for mobile websites, by inviting AdSense users to try it out. Apparently it will sites using WAP 1.0 and 2.0 and will include single and double-sized ads.

Google’s involvement is interesting indeed. In many ways it can be seen as an endorsement of this nascent market, which is being heavily criticised because hardly anyone is making a penny out of it.

On the other hand, it is hard to see how Google can replicate the PC experience on mobile – there isn’t room for that extra column/space. And even on the PC, already the Australian regulator (see blog on 13th July) is taking Google to court on the grounds that it doesn’t make the distinction between paid for and not paid for search results sufficiently clear: the whole point of AdSense is that it provides contextually appropriate ads.

These are deep waters, but there again, that’s the perfect environment for leviathans.