Is this a custom Google Ad or is this guy cheating?

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-drm.htm

I was wondering if anyone knows if that Ad style he is using for his 336 ad is one of those custom legit ads that Google helps you setup, or if that piece of javascript he is injecting into the Ad is manipulating the ad against the TOS of Adsense.

Can we all build our ads like that? If so, I want to as that looks so much better then the standard Adsense unit.

 

It is an interesting technique. He has instructed AdSense to deliver the output as javascript using the instruction in the AdSense javascript:

google_ad_output = "js";

Code (markup):

I do not know if this an undocumented feature or something being revealed to developers.

He uses javascript from the imported script to grab and parse the output of the AdSense ad and rewrite it to the page. This allows him to apply his own CSS definitions to the ad's headline and text.

The ad content is written to a table with an image background. The text is written into the table rows with styles applied to TD and LI elements within each row.

To the extent Google says not to tamper with its javascript, this could be a violation of the TOS. I would be hesistant to proceed with such a project until and unless I had their permission.

I suspect Google's concern with this is that people could manipulate which ads are being displayed and even the content of the ads themselves. It is a simple step from parsing the ad content and redisplaying it to changing what it shown -- and to tracking what advertisers are being shown on your website.

 

I'm guessing that he's a premium publisher. It's the first time I see the code like that, so I highly doubt that everyone will be able to make use of it.

 

Those ads look fantastic i wish we could all use them and raise the bottom line.

 

yeah, definitely looks like a premium publisher to me. while Alexa can be weak, take a look at his stats and you will see he probably makes MORE than enough pageviews per month to hit the mark and be a premium publisher. This may not be his only site as well, which would give extra pageviews. Definitely not tags a regular publisher wants to be using if they want to stay in the program

 

That guy must be making a fortune.

 

I think he is premium , just look this:

He can set max. number of ads in Ad box.

 

Look at Sourceforge.net premium Adsense code...

Looks like random chars

 

Ads blend into the site very nice, I agree think he must be a premuim publisher.

He has over 27 000 page...

His CTR must be impressive.

 

Any change for google ads code is not allowed!

 

WiseGeek is a premium publisher, as is rapidshare.de and about.com. they are allowed to change the ads format and font to however they like.