If you're running custom themes on your blogs for ADSENSE, you might want to read this
 

If you run mainstream sites in addition to adult sites, check out this latest development regarding adsense. http://www.highrevenue.com/adsense/g...er-shenanigans

Looks like they are randomly placing these elements to beat theme blenders. It is a reasonable step if taken against those breaking the rules but what if your theme/design is legit?

End result: less click throughs? Alternatively, it MIGHT result in more click throughs if the ads stand out. But that holds true only for SOME designs, not all :(

I noticed this the other day. They placed a blue bg on one of my ads...

the fact remains that the advertisers that pay for ads need to be protected and any steps that google takes are to make sure that people clicking on the ads are doing so as likely buyers of the product and not just casually "tricked" or coerced into clicking, so far they probably haven't been doing enough to bring up the quality of clicks and therefore ctr rates down :2 cents:

sucks but better than a ban with no explanation i guess.

True. But the crashing CTR (for some) is a cause for concern :Oh crap

I don't really see the problem, you're not trying to *trick* people into clicking on ads - they're meant to want to.

I really get the shits when I visit a site and have to scour the site to find what it is I want - purely because they have setup the site to trick people into clicking on sponsors links.

That's actually what G wanted you to do. Not trick, per se but completely blend the contextual links.

Being someone that has their own Adsense rep, the typical recommendations are to make it blend as much as possible without the user knowing they're ads they're clicking on.

google lets you get away with a lot, I have seen so many google ads on soft porn/non nude websites that are clearly aimed at adults. Not sure how they get away with it...

Are you positive they are real Google blocks? I've come across a few adult sites running fake Google blocks pointing to their own ads and affiliate links. Milking the familiarity and trust of the Google brand on the ad box I guess? If it was softcore and non-nude, maybe they're just slipping by somehow, but I dunno how.

I hear ya, man. Talk about Mixed signals from big G. They give you all sorts of ad font/text/color editing tools to blend their ads to your content. I am guessing--content blending is okay, navigation items is a no no.

same problem with affs.

quality of traffic on the adwords network will increase, advertisers will be able to pay more now, and so "legit" webmasters will actually make more now... :2 cents: