Comments on: Google Displays Dual Language Ad Units – Glitch or Test?

By: Dave Starr

Dave Starr — Sun, 23 Jul 2006 04:41:41 +0000

Not sure if it’s a glitch but it’s certainly been consistent on my wife’s cooking blog. The blog is physically hosted in the US and my wife (Who is Filipino) sometimes writes about Chinese-style cooking, but much more frequently about American and European favorites and reviews of US-based restaurants or products. The blog is 100% English except for cooking terms which are more likely to be French than Chinese.

We’ve now blocked at least half a dozen “Chinese Cookbook” ads, all in Chinese characters except the headlines. I’ve never asked Google yet for an explanation, but it’s mystifying. Don’t really care that the ads appear but the Chinese characters cause a lot of search traffic from Asia centered on the blog photos … in other words, non-productive bandwidth.

By: Duncan

Duncan — Sat, 22 Jul 2006 03:32:38 +0000

It’s a glitch, I’ve seen it on my own sites before, usually though English and Japanese or Chinese, I think the glitch is due to the direction your traffic is routed, WA traffic goes often goes to the states via Singapore and Japan.

By: Thomas

Thomas — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 20:35:14 +0000

I’m located in the United Kingdom, but run a German weblog and there are mainly English ads appearing on my weblog. However, if I use a proxy located in Germany, most ads appear in German. Guess Google is just not sure if I’m a Englishman or German :)

By: volkan ozcelik

volkan ozcelik — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 18:50:46 +0000

I don’t think it’s a feature. It’s rather a bug.

I first contacted google technical support (adsense-tech and adsense-support) and then local support (adsense-tr)

What they say is (translated from Turkish)

“google uses geotargeting and ads are displayed according to the users’ (adsense clients’) IP addresses and their country.

‘adwords advertisers’ decide in which country their ads will be displayed even so.”

What I understand is an English content ad may be displayed on a Turkish portal, if the advertiser choses proper keywords and explicitly decides his ad to be displayed there.

You can find a screenshot of dual ads at

http://www.volkanozcelik.com/resources/adsense/dual_language.gif

By: James Thoenes

James Thoenes — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 17:35:12 +0000

I recently added a script that converts my sites to additional languages.
Adsense in the other languages on these pages has been hit or miss. I think it may have to do with a lack of advertisers in those languages.
I have seen the half English, half other language as blocks.
I think the geo-targeting theory Jee has is also a very good possibility.

By: Pedro Timoteo

Pedro Timoteo — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 15:59:51 +0000

I think it can depend on the visitor’s location. I’m Portuguese, and I tend to see many AdSense ads in Portuguese, even in US sites. AdSense detects where the user is, and changes ads appropriately.

By: Jee

Jee — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 15:48:46 +0000

I am an Asian blogger and quite often that non-English ads appear on my blog.

It might be geo-targetting or some keywords that are used..

By: Alan

Alan — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 12:21:58 +0000

I seen them on one of my sites yesterday (one English ad, one german) and seeing as the site is all English language I was a tad surprised.

Maybe the trickle of German readers I get would appreciate them but I doubt the majority of my UK and US traffic would have any intention of clicking it.

Let’s hope it’s not a compulsary inclusion from Google.

By: e

Fri, 21 Jul 2006 12:21:29 +0000

This is nothing new. I have seen this from time to time for the last year or two. Happens alot on engadget.

By: lee

lee — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 12:18:21 +0000

Interesting…, it’s the first time I see this, maybe the site has some things relate to other language. I would love to hear more about this

By: Kevin - Workplace Life

Kevin - Workplace Life — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 11:47:20 +0000

Can’t say I would be a huge fan of this, I think the ads should be tailored to whatever language your site is in. Since my site is all in english (as is most of my reader base), I can’t see my readers clicking on an ad in chinese. I would think the dual language deal would lower my CTR.

Thoughts?