With February coming to an end, Google’s deadline for the launch of its industry effort to speed up and improve mobile web pages is nearing. According to AdAge, Accelerated Mobile Pages will launch on February 24 with BuzzFeed, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post also launching AMP ready sites.
Next month’s launch of Accelerated Mobile Pages on Google Search will support ads right out of the gate. AMP, an industry effort to speed up and improve mobile web pages, has garnered the support of many tech companies and publications. The latter will have full control over ads on AMP pages and get accompanying statistics.
The AMP Project — to speed up and improve mobile web pages — is picking up steam since its announcement six weeks ago, and now we know that it’s expected to launch in an official capacity early next year. A bevy of new media organizations and ad tech companies have announced their support and commitment to the open source project, as well.
With the debate over ads and the speed of the mobile web growing every day, many web companies like Apple and Facebook have pushed for publishers to hand over their content in the name of a better experience for users. But content creators — for the most part — don’t want to do that, and Google knows that. So today, the Mountain View company has announced the Accelerated Mobile Pages initiative, a plan it’s leading to make the mobile web faster…
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Google announced today that it is updating its AdSense user consent policy to comply with requests from European Union data protection authorities. The updated user consent policy strengthens the requirement that publishes with audiences in the EU obtain permission from readers before collecting usage data and accessing cookies. Google says the updated user consent policy follows its own approach to comply with privacy laws. The company outlines the updated user consent policy for website and app publishers with EU readers and users:
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Google notified publishers on Wednesday that AdSense Direct will be closing on February 10th, just days after the one-year anniversary of the direct ad sales service. There will no longer be support for any campaigns created with the feature, while access to the Direct Campaigns page will be removed. Outstanding account balances will be settled when the service shuts down.
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Google has today launched a new platform that aims to reinvent how content creators on the Internet make money. It’s called Contributor, and it involves readers committing to a certain monthly payment of $1-3, which will in turn give visitors an ad-free browsing experience on some sites. This could potentially be a full-blown alternative to Google’s AdSense, giving publications like this one and others a new form of monetization.
Update: It appears that Google’s DoubleClick servers are now functioning properly as ads begin to reappear across the web.
If you happen to be browsing the web and noticing fewer banner ads or slower loading times on your favorite websites, including our very own, the reason is that Google DoubleClick for Publishers appears to have been experiencing some downtime since approximately 9:00 AM Eastern. AdSense ads still appear to be loading correctly.
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Just a quick note that we’ve moved our comment system to WordPress. You can log in with your WordPress, Twitter or Facebook accounts and you will need manual approval by mods the first time you comment (so prepare to wait a few minutes/hours). Previous stories will continue to contain previous comment archives.
Why didn’t we go to Disqus or Livefyre? If it was only comments, we probably would have. But we’re building something kind of cool behind the scenes with WordPress and this is just the start.
As always, we read and appreciate your feedback and look forward to hearing your thoughts.
If you run a blog or own a site that runs Google ads, you are no doubt aware of the frustrations stemming from having to deal with Google’s support staff via email only. And if your living depends on that advertising revenue, getting someone to resolve your issue in a timely manner becomes a matter of life and death. Relax, you will soon be able to pick up the phone and yell at Google.
Fielding questions from Wall Street analysts and investors at the company’s annual shareholder meeting yesterday afternoon, Google’s senior vice president of advertising Susan Wojcicki announced the arrival of customer support for advertisers and publishers via phone:
Within the next quarter we’re moving to allow [publishers and advertisers] to contact Google by phone [for customer support].
She also underscored that Google is one of the largest display advertising providers in China, adding that the company “helps Chinese advertisers reach global markets”.