If you’re not getting these updates via RSS or some other external means, you may have noticed that I’ve put some advertisements in this space in the last week or so.  There’s a lot to the Terms of Service for Google‘s AdSense program, one glaring part of which very explicitly warns against encouraging in any way to click on the links in order to artificially create revenue.  Hell, maybe by writing this post I’m even violating some other clause; though hopefully not.

I’m sure there are other ad services out there, though this seems to be one of the largest and has rather high visibility on the Internets.  It’s also not that hard to set up.

I certainly didn’t enter into any of this for any real cash.  It is probably not one of the most common uses or excuses in the book, though I felt that my template, while clean, looked a bit empty without some random crap thrown into random corners of it.  I didn’t have enough links to make it look the proper amount of web-typical.

Anyhoo, if this is something that actually bothers anyone, please write a comment to the post and let me know.  I’m interested in how people think about advertising online, and whether it’s generally a bother.  Personally, I find that 99% of all web ads are automatically filtered out in my own head.  After years of exposure with a grand total of probably less than ten actual clicks on any sort of banner, I don’t feel as though it’s an issue.

I can certainly see that this would be a sad detractor from the essence of the Internet, but in practice I’m not so sure.  It’s part of the dialogue, just as advertisements in internet video sites are now more and more the standard.  With video, however, it is certainly more obtrusive, seeing as how the content the user wishes to consume is entirely unconsumable without wasting away 15 or 30 seconds at a time.

Again, please let me know your thoughts on all of this, including where you stand today and what you see/hope for the future.