Amazon is using Adsense

I don't use Amazon very often so I don't know if this is a new thing, but I just noticed their 'sponsored links' which appear among searches on their site. I clicked the 'What's this?' button next to the ads and got this...

Now is it just me, or are they encouraging us to click the links?

I'll assume that Amazon is a premium adsense publisher, but encouraging clicks can't possibly be a premium perk, can it?

 

They've probably cleared the text with google first. And its a safe bet they asked google to remove any advert selling books/CD's/DVD's etc from the ads.

 

Nope; I searched for Springsteen and received sponsored links to buy a book and a CD

 

Probably an amazon affiliate

So you search amazon to click on adsense to pay google & amazon to be re-directed back to amazon through an affiliate id who gets paid when you finally make your purchase from .. em amazon, cool

 

heheh you're not totally joking.. the book page I landed on, of course, was an Amazon affiliate... but they did also have a B&N link.

 

I saw a sale originating from a link on Amazon probably about 6-8 months back. Stunned I was so checked it out and indeed it was AdSense. Also interesting how the referring link was in fact Amazon and nog adsyndication.google or whatever.

 

Interesting. Here is the link you get from one specific ad so it looks like they are redirecting now:

http://www.google.com/url?q=http://...jaG4tNsgBAZUCQy84Cg&num=1/103-5841938-6265437

And the ad code is written out in standard HTML-- they're obviously not calling 3rd party external javascript with each pageload

 

They have both sponsored vendors and Adsense. They have been running Adsense for at least a year I believe. I think they have been using it for a default for some of their space.

 

They are using Adsense on their Yellow Pages (beta) pages on the right side. They use a redirect for it.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.htm...3-8751854-0166263?_encoding=UTF8&node=3999141

 

You'll notice the same (at least I do) for most premium publishers.

 

Am I missing something? I've gone thru a dozen or so pages on Amazon and have yet to come across anything even remotely looking like an ad...

 

It is a bit odd... it won't trigger if you search for "Bruce" but it will if you search for "Bruce Springsteen".. they show up as "sponsored results" in the middle of the column of product search results.

 

Oh I just know.