Famed computer science professor Ed Felten runs the Freedom to Tinker blog, where his discussions of cryptography, security, copyright and freedom and technology generally are deservedly popular. Popularity comes with a price, however. In this case, the cost is the expense of bandwidth. In order to offset some of his costs Felten decided to try Google AdSense (ADS). The system puts AdWords on the bottom of the individual entry pages for Freedom to Tinker. The ads are supposed to be "relevant to what your readers see on your pages."
Interestingly, the ads on Felten's site are almost all for copyright/patent enforcement and digital rights management - topics upon which Felten has strong opinions, most of which would not be viewed favorably by the advertisers. I'm not sure which is more ironic - Felten advertising DRM systems - or DRM companies funding Felten through advertisements.
Be sure to read the comments on Felten's site.
I thought of using Adsense myself - but it seems the ads would be all censorware companies!
Posted by Seth Finkelstein on October 27, 2003 09:57 AM | Permalink to Comment