Along with the recent Joel Comm saga has been a slew of interesting blog posts, announcements and rumors related to our two favourites, Google Search and Google AdSense:

1. “Vertical Image” Ads, a.k.a. Image + Text = New Ad Format
   Google is having an international beta test on its new ad format, where a contextually-relevant image is placed right above a conventional vertical ad unit (both types of skyscrapers and perhaps even on the smaller vertical banners). The images act the same as conventional link units, where readers are provided a list of search results after clicking the image.
2. Referral Tracking Now Enabled for AdSense
   Finally, we publishers have a means to channel track not only ad units but also referral units. All you need to do is to get the new Javascript code from the AdSense control panel (and add channels, of course).
3. AdSense Ad Positioning: Squidoo Case Study
   Seth Godin – the man behind Squidoo – recently posted on the results of their repositioning of the AdSense ads on Squidoo pages. As expected, the change from sidebar positioning to in-content positioning increased clickthrough significantly. The interesting thing is that normal content links also increased along with it. Seth Godin suggests that the AdSense ads increase reader “confidence” and thus, clicks on content links. News via ProBlogger.
4. Google Updating PageRank
   It seems that Google is in the process of a PageRank update (basics explained in an earlier post on PageRank updates).
5. Some EU Nations Considering VAT (Value Added Tax) for AdSense Earnings
   This means that some AdSense publishers could end up paying up to 83% tax on their earnings from Google. Phew. Thank God I’m not an EU resident.

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