Go Go Gadget Ads

Last week Google introduced a brand new ad format to their AdSense collection - the Google Gadget Ad. It differs from existing formats in that it's interactive, allowing the person viewing it to play a small game, perform a search or similar. The idea is that they'll provide better value to AdWords advertisers and benefit AdSense publishers by keeping visitors at their site for longer.

An example gadget ad.

Thankfully gadget ads are governed by the same high editorial standards as standard ad units, so there'll be no irritating smilies saying "hello" and tapping on the inside of your screen. I hate those!

If you're ready to start displaying gadget ads on your website you can increase the chances that they'll be shown by making sure you're opted in to image ads and using one of the image ad formats. Please note that the most popular sizes for gadget ads are the rectangle, leaderboard, and skyscraper formats.

Get the full story by visiting Inside AdSense.

AdSense Goes Mobile

Great news for AdWords advertisers that they are now able to deliver their ads to an even wider audience browsing the web on their mobile phones. Of course the new AdSense for mobile service will be of benefit to any AdSense publishers displaying ads on mobile-optimised sites too. The new service uses the same targeting technology that the conventional AdSense uses.

To implement AdSense for mobile ads you need to do the following:

• Sign in to your AdSense account.
• Select the 'AdSense Setup' tab and click 'AdSense for mobile'.
• Follow the onscreen instructions.

Publishers are currently allowed only one AdSense for mobile unit on each site. Also, don't forget to include the URLs where you are displaying AdSense for mobile ads in your list of allowed sites.

Get more on this story by visiting the official blog, Inside AdSense.

EFT For Mexico

Great news today for AdSense publishers in Mexico. Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) is now available giving them the option of receiving their earnings directly into the bank. Read more about the different AdSense payment options in our earlier post. Gone are the days of waiting months and months for a check which, in some cases, never quite arrives! Sign up for EFT today to get your hands on, and AdSense's hands off, your money even quicker.

More on this story at Inside AdSense.

Blogger Play

Today the Blogger team introduce a great new gizmo called Blogger Play. This new Blogger site allows readers to view, in real time, the images that are being uploaded to Blogger blog posts across the network. It's a very similar idea to the new version of YouTube embeds that have been springing up over the past couple of months. The new system uses Google's SafeSearch technology in an attempt to weed out potentially offensive images. Why not head across to Blogger Play and have a play yourself to find out what all the fuss is about.

There's more on this story at Blogger Buzz.