Comments for Gmail Ads Within Email Thread - Is This New?

Gmail Ads Within Email Thread - Is This New?

2009-09-06T22:04:17Z

Today I spotted a contextual advert within an email thread in Gmail. Usually these 'sponsored links' are displayed in a separate pane on the right-hand side of Gmail - i.e. outside of the actual email content. But this places the ad squarely within the content of the email thread. It's possible this has been around for a while, but if so I only just noticed it. I took a couple of screenshots - let us know in the comments whether you've seen this before.

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Screenshot showing full ad - this displayed above the message I'd just sent and below the previous message in the thread.

Close-up screenshot showing a bit more detail of ad placement.

Note: When I re-entered the email thread, the ad above no longer displayed inside the thread. So I've not been able to re-create this scenario.

Comment from Keydayadmilky on 2010-12-08

2010-12-09T01:31:05Z

O plano exato que usei para perder peso e ficar com um corpo malhado, foi usar o mesmo truque dos atores de Hollywood.

Como disse, me levou um tempo para descobrir a maneira correta de usar os dois suplementos musculares Xtreme NO e HGH Energize, então vou lhes dizer exatamente como é que os usei. Não fiz nem dietas especiais nem exercícios loucos. A chave é usar os dois produtos juntos porque os dois fazem coisas diferentes. O resultado e um corpo sarado e musculos bem definido. Veija a minha histora no www.jornal-musculacao-brasil.com

Para:
Xtreme NO

Acesse o site:
http://www.jornal-musculacao-brasil.com/

Comment from cildCalay on 2010-11-29

2010-11-30T04:40:22Z

My inquiries are: How much money can an agency legally cost you to allow coverage holder out of his auto insurance?
Just how much does your company cost when an individual wants to terminate and how much pressure can you use to maintain them?
What are some ideas or something like that we can say if our customer has several months left on his present automobile plan? Surely, many of us are not going to hold back until his renewal comes due every time.

Comment from Badruddeen Naseem on 2010-06-16

2010-06-16T07:23:42Z

And it is is worse.

Today i found an advertising link inline (inside) my message.

Here is the graphical view of the same.

http://twitpic.com/1x76l6

Thank You

Comment from plugrotary on 2009-12-04

2009-12-05T06:58:27Z

A very brief and well put together article for those not so savvy with web dev. Good read. Even for an experienced web dev'r like myself.

Comment from disque dur interne on 2009-09-14

2009-09-14T11:10:42Z

Ya offcourse its new because i never do this and also i never seen it so for me its new, i know about others..

Comment from paul on 2009-09-09

2009-09-09T14:03:19Z

this is new and irritating! i have web clips disabled, these are different, they are ads between messages in a thread. this makes gmail considerably suckier!

Comment from Tinh on 2009-09-08

2009-09-08T08:17:54Z

This will cause more accidental clicks as it looks like title of the message rather than adsense ads.

Comment from Elling on 2009-09-07

2009-09-08T02:04:01Z

I had the same thing happen to me just now, so I searched and found this post. I have web clips disabled.

I took a screen capture of it:

http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/411/sponsoredlink.jpg

Comment from ColtonCat on 2009-09-07

2009-09-07T17:35:31Z

Always been there, however should not be in a thread, that said, your clips don't look like it is in the thread but I cannot tell for sure.

By the way: moderate your comments and remove people like ChromeSpot - who are just comment spamming by posting his sitelink to get some of your Google Juice...

Comment from Damien Mulley on 2009-09-07

2009-09-07T14:25:12Z

I got it too and it's between emails in a thread. These are not Web Clips at the top. In fact as the thread started growing, the ad goes down the page with it, tagging itself between the two most recent mails. Clever.

Comment from Faizal on 2009-09-06

2009-09-07T02:53:18Z

This is new, never see this kind of ads before.

Comment from siobhan bulfin on 2009-09-06

2009-09-07T01:12:30Z

I hope this doesn't mean gmail is taking the route yahoo took; see ad tken from sent email this morning:

Hungry? Try some spicy marinated chicken fillets for dinner tonight, courtesy of Yahoo!Xtra Food.

grrrr... especially when I'm a vegetarian!

Comment from Richard MacManus on 2009-09-06

2009-09-06T23:34:49Z

Ah yes it was probably web clips. However, note that this was placed at the bottom of the email thread, not the top. This help page states that web clips (including sponsored links) should only display at the top of the page:

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=18219

"Web Clips show you news headlines, blog posts, RSS and Atom feeds, and relevant sponsored links, right at the top of your inbox."

Unfortunately I didn't take a screenshot showing messages above.

Comment from Bob Calder on 2009-09-06

2009-09-06T23:01:01Z

I saw one yesterday and now they're gone. Wondered WTF? The ad was for something obnoxious.

Maybe it's sooooooooo contextual that you have to use a particular word so some people's spammy vocabulary gets them ads. (?)

Comment from wheelyweb.myopenid.com on 2009-09-06

2009-09-06T22:59:11Z

Looks like WebClips to me, they've been around for 18 months at least. YOu can turn them off in "Settings". Try that and see if they return.

Comment from Russ Goerend on 2009-09-06

2009-09-06T22:53:38Z

I tried to recreate this, but I can't seem to find any conversations that have these ads. I have Web Clips turned off, though, so possibly that's the reason I don't see them?

Comment from John Frazer on 2009-09-06

2009-09-06T22:51:08Z

No. That's been there for a long time.

And, because it's included with "Web Clips", it's not caught by AdBlock.

Comment from Yoon Minn on 2009-09-06

2009-09-06T22:49:56Z

Please include more of the page in the screenshot if you can. Because if it's only on the top of the threads, it's always been there.

However if it is in the middle of the page, as your words imply, quoting:

"But this places the ad squarely within the content of the email thread."

I've not seen it before.

Comment from allen on 2009-09-06

2009-09-06T22:30:40Z

i don't use gmail all that much but i've always seen the ads you note above - i just checked now and the ads are there - and there is a little right/left arrow where you can scroll to more ads and other links...

maybe i am missing it