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AdSense Developing ‘Category Filtering’ Feature

Posted By Darren Rowse 23rd of April 2009 Adsense 0 Comments

AdSense today announced at Adspace and on their blog that they’re developing a much requested feature for publishes – category filtering.

“Category filtering will give publishers the ability to block ads that fall into specific categories such as dating, religion, and politics. Regardless of how ads are targeted, they’ll be filtered if they’re within one of the selected categories. We’ll also show the percentage of recent revenue that ads in each category generate, so publishers can predict how filtering selections will impact their revenue.”

The feature is being launched as a beta test to a small group of publishers so don’t expect to see it too soon unless you’re in the test group.

Here’s a screenshot of what the feature currently looks like (click to enlarge):

Category Filtering Beta

Looks like a useful feature – particularly for those who regularly get irrelevant ads on their blog.

About Darren Rowse
Darren Rowse is the founder and editor of ProBlogger Blog Tips and Digital Photography School. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Comments
  1. All I can say is, it’s about time. This is a much needed feature and I have been looking forward to it for some time now.

    Thanks for the tip.

  2. I think the most interesting part of that screenshot is the % of revenue. That’s a neat little tidbit of insight into what kinds of ads people are actually clicking on.

  3. the best option is to remove adsense because the quality of ad is very bad …google needs to increase their standar.. it was maybe ok 5 years ago but now they need to increase it or the competition will kill adsense….

  4. And about time – excellent news.

    Though I’d like to be able to exclude more than five of the list above. ;-)

  5. I still don’t know if this will make me want to integrate this onto my website. I’ll have to wait and see how well it works.

  6. Got it in my account. Thanks for the tip. Some ads are really really annoying (Poor design and misleading words)

  7. I look forward to using this. One of the biggest concerns I’ve had with adsense is the lack of control over the ads.

  8. A welcome change…. there are a lot of analytics you can get into with the ad servings..
    Something worthwhile could have been introduced sooner

  9. I’m with Mike – I thinik the most interesting thing about this is the percentage of revenue that comes from what type of ad. Gives insight into the people clicking. The category control aspect is nice, but I think the behavioral info is probably a lot more valuable here.

  10. Yep, blackysky is a noob. Adsense still can make a killing if you know how to do it right. You get bunch of ‘very bad’ ads because you are smartpriced. Don’t hear him/her as Adsense still have a great future. Only noob who have no clue about what they are doing will earn very less and get ‘very bad’ ads. :)

  11. Finally adsense open the book a little bit …now we can know where the money come from… next move tell the page … the exact ad… finally how much Google take from the transaction…. It is time to be more transparent….

  12. Woohoo! Bye bye magic weight loss and wrinkle cures!!!!

  13. Greetings!
    This feature will going to help in boosting the CTR.
    I had never heard about this concept, but yes it is really going to be very helpful as it help in achieving better targeted advertising.

  14. I am just amazed that Adsense took so long to implement this feature. Ad networks, such as Burst Media, have been making this information available to publishers for ages, so why did Adsense take so long to get with the program?

    Anyway, I’m really looking forward to disabling some ads that regularly appear on my sites. Way to go Adsense! Better late than never.

  15. Wooow!my dream has finally come true. I had thought of this feature long before n now it’s implementented-thanks G!

    http://Www.frogblogger.com

  16. Great news! Now with this new feature, of course, the ads will being served more specifics. Such a good way to boost up CTR.

    Well done, Google!

  17. While they are at it, I would like to be able to filter those “wrinkle cream” ads too!

  18. Adsense is over. If anyone things they can make any money with it, any real money, they are dreaming.

  19. Look interesting i will be look forward too when it comes out for everyone.

  20. @Blacksky is right, sorry blacksky is a noob – whoever you are.

    There are too many ads that lead to too many ‘ad-hubs’ or whatever they are called – these stupid people who are tricking the system.

    Adsense needs to raise the bar on entry.

    As Chris Guilllebeau or whatever his name is wrote in 279 days, you want to know that where you are sending your readers is going to be to something more than a glorified spam agency.

  21. This has been something that have needed to add for a very long time.

  22. I was extremely disappointed by their leap into interest-based advertising recently, so I’m glad to hear they’re doing something good with publishers in mind. I do wonder how the two features will get along though – if it’s deemed appropriate via interest-based ad stats, will those banned categories still display on your sites? I’m hoping that “regardless of how ads are targeted” means the end control stays with the publisher and not the visitor’s habits.

  23. I hope they make this available soon. This will be a great tool to increase the relevancy of ads which I believe will increase revenue.

    Thanks for the info.

  24. great feature for google ads for make easy our job when we want to analyse more deep

  25. Category filtering is a new concept to me and I am glad you brought it up. Thanks again for the great read. I will try this out at HostChart.

  26. Still waiting … I will try it as soon as it comes.

  27. love this. now we have the chance to analyze and getting more revenue =D

  28. It’s great to know that Google is developing this new feature and it would be fun to be a part of the “testing” group but maybe I’m not going to get to utilize that Category Filtering feature until it becomes available to all Adsense members.

    Category filtering would help a lot on my blog. While most of the ads have been well targeted, I do get a lot of film festival stuff and filmmaking ads that are suited more for filmmakers. I know that writing about film festivals and making films is probably why these ads are showing up, but I try to center my posts around independent films that movie fans are able to check out at theaters and art centers.

    It would be great to have ads that are focused on movie releases, DVD releases, TV shows and related content other than filmmaking books and marketing and stuff like that.

  29. This will be a good step. Sometimes we get so much irrelevant and that too at 2-3 palces that it hurts revenuwise also make us fools. Therefore, category filtering will help to increase the revenue by removing irrelevant ads.

    Manisha
    Delhi, India
    http://sarkari-naukri.blogspot.com

  30. It is okay for publishers like us but what about the advertisers? what do they feel about this feature. If already the ads are content based, then how this would be of good help? Just a thought….

  31. This is a tremendous innovation by Google and I will be interested to see how many people who peddle these ridiculous “get rich quick” schemes.
    However, I wonder how they will define the GRQ schemes.
    Will it be the “earn $200 per day by filling in surveys” which relate to online web business “opportunities”.
    I hope that it will include the ludicrous investment advice advertisements which quite frankly seem like scams to me from the perspective of an investment practitioner.

  32. It’s about time something like this is coming out. Filtering would block out those more “inappropriate” ads that are generated from certain keywords.

    -Mike

  33. enjoygame says: 04/24/2009 at 11:33 am

    It’s great to know that Google is developing this new feature and it would be fun to be a part of the “testing” group but maybe I’m not going http://www.air-shox.com to get to utilize that Category Filtering feature until it becomes available to all Adsense members.

    Category filtering would help a lot on my blog. While most of the ads have been well targeted, I do get a lot of film festival stuff and filmmaking ads that are suited more for filmmakers. I know that writing about film festivals and making films is probably why these ads are showing up, but I try to center my posts around independent films http://www.4uaf.com that movie fans are able to check out at theaters and art centers.

    It would be great to have ads that are focused on movie releases, DVD releases, TV shows and related content other than filmmaking books and marketing and stuff like that.

  34. Great feature long overdue. Now when will we get the ability to run ads on a pay per week basis?

  35. Many people said I was a noob … maybe you right but there is one thing I know, adsense is the worst way to make money online period

    Adsense is base on location and keyword so a US , UK or Canadian visitor can read the same content but may not view the same ad…. I saw very legit keyword associated with strange ad. At the end of the day, you associate your brand, name or website with some questionable ad.

    Don’t tell me you can control adsense cause no one can’t, if Google show an ad , there is nothing you can do unless you see the ad by yourself and then block it.

    The lack of transparency is a huge problem with Google you have no real data metrics with adsense. You do not know how much money Google take off from your website. Does Google keep 90% 80% 99%…. nobody know…

    Nevertheless, the most important reason why I said adsense is the worst way to make money online is anytime you earn $1 with adsense Google probably earn 5 times and someone somewhere (advertiser) is making up to $100 or more ….

    Being on adsense is like saying I do not want to control nothing and let somebody control my sales department.

    Yes, you can make a lot and lot of money with adsense but it is not the best way.

    Finally google help the publishers focusing only on some categories but I think the future is in Google manager where the publisher will have way more control then google adsense.

    Many huge publisher starts dropping Google adsense because of the lack of control…

    Anyway what do I know I’m a noob like they say … enjoy your time with adsense

  36. Great initiative from google.. This obviously was one of the lacunaes in their adsense program and with this they might also get publisher’s like me who have had other opinion because of ads being put up on my blog by political parties which I dont approve of.. great info..Thanks

  37. Great innovation from adsense. i had had several instances where google shows a far-off ad in the post. *sigh*

  38. Got it in my account. Thanks for the tip. Some ads are really really annoying (Poor design and misleading words)

  39. i want to exclude every politics ads .

  40. thank you, I did not know about the new feature of google show, I will check, I hope this is something that is useful

  41. I think the most interesting part of that screenshot is the % of revenue.. very good..

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