‘What’s Happened to Adsense?’ Goes the Silent, Unheralded Cry of Impoverished Web Publishers Everywhere
In a quainter, more peaceful age, when neighbors greeted each other, men wore top hats, and fruit grew on trees, a select group of web publishers eked out a living, or at least found a noticeable, if not hefty chunk of change in their pockets, thanks in no small part to Google Adsense.
But then came the Wall Street Wreck of September 2008, and since that time earnings from Adsense seem to have fallen faster than Bill Clinton’s pants upon the introduction of a new staff intern. Revenues in the Chortler Media Empire have declined substantially, to the stage where we ask ourselves: “What is the point of Adsense?” Is it is merely a slightly better alternative to affiliate marketing programs, or is there still something to it? In other words, is Adsense the Barack Obama of the online advertising world, ie, disappointing and lackluster but better than the alternatives?
Apparently, we are not the only ones feeling a Google-ly pinch. In fact, a quick search of the famed search engine shows that a myriad of publishers are seeing their earnings trickle down drop by meager drop.
Message boards for online publishers these days are afire with irate and frustrated webmasters lamenting the ever-diminishing size of their monthly check from Mountain View.
Here’s hoping better days are ahead for those who bring us the World Wide Web.
Google’s Grasp Becomes Increasingly More Difficult to Escape
Go on, try not using Google when you are online. It might be possible to avoid using anything connected to the ubiquitous Mountain View, California company, but the challenge grows more imposing by the day.
You could use another search engine, apparently they do still exist. You could use another email service besides Gmail, another video site besides YouTube, a photo site other than Picasa, a browser other than Chrome. There are also other VoIPs, translation services, map sites, ad networks, news aggregators, feed burners, and various and sundry other tools and applications Google has created or purchased over the years.
These days distancing oneself entirely from Google online is like never buying brand-name goods in the real world; it can be done, but you have to go far out of your way to do so.
Opera: The Best Browser for Old Machines
I am not one who likes delving into the minutiae of my browsing habits, but if I can help a fellow suffering surfer in need, then why not?
Besides, times are tough, and not all of us have the resources to upgrade our hardware and software as we once did. And sometimes we wonder why such upgrades are necessary. After all, the things we use most — email and VoIP — have been available since the 1990s.
But the makers of browsers push ahead with ever more bloated versions, further weighing down old machines. As a result, we switched Google Chrome earlier in the year after Firefox and Internet Explorer became too slow.
Chrome worked well until we encountered websites using Flash. When Chrome meets Flash, then the party is over; the Google browser crashed far too frequently for our liking.
For the past week we have been using Opera, and lo and behold, sites which had become inaccessible on other browsers, such as Business Insider and The Washington Post, could be viewed again.
Thank you Opera, thank you. You have freed up sections of the Internet to which we with old machines could no longer tread.
How Much Does Google Pay Out for Running Its Own Ads?
Many who have Internetted in the past few days might have noticed that a large chunk of online ad space, particularly on small and medium-sized sites, has been occupied by banners offering $75 in free ads on Google’s Adwords.
Adsense Revenue for This Publisher Down; Google Stock Up
It’s usually unwise to criticize the hand that feeds, particularly when that hand has billions of tentacles. That being said: What is the deal with Google Adsense? It has sunk below the online advertising Mendoza Line.
