Gmail Ads Within Email Thread - Is This New?
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.
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.
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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
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.
No. That's been there for a long time.
And, because it's included with "Web Clips", it's not caught by AdBlock.
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?
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.
Posted by: wheelyweb.myopenid.com
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September 6, 2009 3:59 PM
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. (?)
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.
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!
This is new, never see this kind of ads before.
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.
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...
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
This will cause more accidental clicks as it looks like title of the message rather than adsense ads.
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!
Ya offcourse its new because i never do this and also i never seen it so for me its new, i know about others..
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.