I'd happily settle for just "Ads by Google" without all the tacky extra oooooooo's.

90% of the second and third tier text-ad networks don't give any indication that they are ads at all. no branding, no "advertisements" or "sponsored links"

the whole point is to trick users into clicking on those ads, without people realizing they are ads. that's the whole business model for google and for every other text ad company.

google has now finally admitted that the only thing they have left to boost clicks is to remove all traces of "ad-iness" (to paraphrase stephen colbert).

the line of evil has been crossed.

I agree. No branding is useful for imitations. It's in Google's best interest to mark them as ads. If not, click-fraud will increase.

Not a good idea ethically, great idea for increasing ad revenue.

I guess we will see more of that after Google stops booming. Seen that already while the "new economy" prospered. Afterwards it got really ugly. With Google it will be the same.

As an ethical SEO I don't use any Google ads at all.

wait, why is it fraud if somebody who's intersted in what it says clicks it without knowing it's an ad?

They still have to see the title and be interested in it... and if they're interested in what the ad says, then chances are they'll be interested in the page they're taken to.

How is that fraud? It still delivers a targeted customer to the advertiser.

If i'm browsing this blog and see a link that says SEO book... i'm only going to click it if i'm interested in an SEO book.....

I don't think this will increase fraud at all, but it will inrease targeted visitors to advertisers sites..... some just won't know it's an ad.

Ryan, it's not click fraud if someone clicks without knowing it's an ad. But it's deceptive behaviour by the content provider. It misleads the surfer into thinking the ad reflects the same values and judgements as the editorial content.

For this reason, any reputable newspaper will label any advertisement that is presented in a way that makes it easily confused with editorial content.

I'm fine with Google removing the "Ads by Google", but then the onus is on any reputable webmaster to label it as an Ad.

yeah, Roger I agree.. and I will probably mark them on my sites (but I use yahoo ads now anyway)

I was responding to the other posters who claimed click fraud would increase.

Of course it will increase: people will blend the ads with the content so much that you won't tell the content from the ads. If the ad is a video, how would you know it's actually an ad?

"You shall not: [...] edit, modify, filter or change the order of the information contained in any Ad, Link, Ad Unit, Search Result, or Referral Button, or remove, obscure or minimize any Ad, Link, Ad Unit, Search Result, or Referral Button in any way" (AdSense TOS)

Hi guys you might be interested of something Im using for my site : www.sortedclick.com they've got tools that helps me avoid click fraud and so far 6 months all cool with my adsense and also it's not going against adsense TOS