Google cares about their business

In the rush to capitalize on internet efficiencies, many businesses use their websites 100% in lieu of person-to-person communication. As a small business owner, I can understand this to an extent. However, there are certain kinds of communication that are really vital to their business.

Google makes more than 90% of their revenue from advertising. I don’t know what portion of this is AdSense (ads that appear on other sites like this one), but I’m sure it amounts to many millions a year.

Given the value of that business, Google goes the extra mile to make sure that AdSense is implemented effectively, even going as far as offering a phone call with a real live human to explain how to use AdSense well.

I declined, because their documentation is already quite good. You’ll note that I’ve already made a change on the individual entry pages that better reflects best practices.

Of course, I’m also not out to squeeze every last cent from AdSense. Somehow, I doubt that the “link units” (canned searches related to the content on the page) are as effective, but they seem useful so I put them up. So far, the ads and links that I’ve seen appear pretty topical, so I’m pleased with that aspect.