Testing Gmail's Advertisements

posted on june 14, 2004, tag: software

As Mathew mentioned on his site, today he and I were playing around with Gmail, seeing how accurate the AdSense ads were and how easily you could change them by writing specific things in your messages. What follows is a transcript of a few messages with notes about how the advertisements faired.

to: mathew
from: garrett

i like video games. i am currently playing full spectrum warrior,
ninja gaiden, and tom clancy's rainbox six 3 on xbox. i'm also still
playing halo from time to time on my mac. i am thinking about getting
xbox live, too. halo 2 looks great.

i can't wait for resident evil 4 on the gamecube either!!

games!!

g

A few ads, one specific to Xbox, the others just about "video games."

to: garrett
from: mathew

you want to talk about games? i really like gamecube, mario, donkey
konga, and gamespot. i love to buy joysticks, controllers, game boy
advance and other great nintendo products. i'm a nintendo whore, i
guess.

go nes!

Lots of ads. Not only ads, but "related pages" as well. Nintendo seems to be a hot Google keyword.

to: mathew
from: garrett

i'm considering drinking urine, but i don't know where to find more
information about the benefits of DRINKING URINE. do you know about
DRINKING URINE? please do tell me more about DRINKING URINE.

garrett

ps—DRINKING URINE.

I got only one ad for this message. And it wasn't about drinking urine. It was a pointless, non-related ad. Perhaps Google ignores words like urine?

to: garrett
from: mathew

i was thinking of drinking urine myself.

today tho, since the humidex is so high here and i work for a
beachwear company, i was thinking of looking for hot young girls.
that's right, hot young girls. they're our target market here at hot
girls swimwear. usually, we're looking to get young 16 year olds to be
the next hot young girls, but we'll take older, 18 year olds too.

so, if you see any pix of hot young girls on the web today, please let me know!

thanks,
-m

Did you know the Girl Scouts of American are targeting teen girls? Well, that's what the ads from this message told me. They also let me know there's a site to find out about celebrity virgins.

to: mathew
from: garrett

i don't know anything about HOT YOUNG GIRLS DOING ANYTHING FOR CASH.

i've been wondering, though, about something you said earlier. you
said you needed to buy electronics and home appliances at the best
prices on the net. do you know where i can do that? i need appliances
and electronics and i need good prices, possibly even a deal. yes, i
do believe it's deal time. DEAL TIME.

g

Sadly, the only site I expected to come up for this message, dealtime dot com did not appear. Maybe they don't pay for AdSense? Either way, I did get a link for Kid Boards, which is a place I can apparently talk to other pre-teens about puberty. Joy!

to: garrett
from: mathew

oh! i do know the best place to get a deal on consumer electronics,
home appliances and even travel tickets.

the site is called,
travel-electronics-appliances-hot-girls-cash-diploma-taxes dot com. be
sure to check it out! they've got all the information you need on
travel, electronics, appliances, hot girls, cash, diplomas, and taxes
on the web.

you'll love it,
-m

This message was just a mix of the previous ads. I think it's less about the content of the message and more about the fact that Gmail threads messages like a conversation, and by this point there is a lot of text for it to use to generate ads.

Gmail seems pretty accurate about the ads it displays, but it doesn't really matter anyway. The good news is, the ads are complete unobtrusive. It surprised me, but they all hang in the far right of the screen and, unless you look for them, you won't even notice them (I haven't seem Gmail on a resolution less than 1280x854, so it might be a bit more noticeable at 1024x768).