What is adchoices Label on Adsense and Other Ads

If you have noticed the Google adsense ads on your site or other sites lately and have been wondering about this new label that says “Adchoices” instead of regular “i” icon or text “Ads by Google”, then let me assure you that your blog or site has not been hacked by anyone. Then what is this new label, you might wonder? It is not even a new advertising company who has started pushing ads to your site and blog without your permission. This is just the result of adopting an industry wide standard in displaying notification to the users and is being used by other players in the industry as well. You will soon notice this on not only on google adwords or adsense ads but on other advertising partners’ ads as well like yahoo, eBay etc. If you click on Adchoices icon, then you are simply taken to  the help and support section (for example, Adsense support in case of google adsense ads) wherein in one get more information and choices about the ads as well information on how one can register and subscribe to these products (e.g. adsense and adwords). So, this works exactly similar to earlier icon “i” or “Ads by Google”, clicking on which also used to take you to the same help and support sections.

FYI, this “Self Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising” (as they call it) is an initiative by AboutAds.info.

 

Google’s confirmation about Adchoices label on adsense ads

Hence, there is nothing to worry if you have also started seeing this new icon of Adchoices. Google had already made this official about rolling out of Adchoices on their official adsense blog some time back in March 2011. That notification by Google says;

“We’ll soon start to change our in-ads notice icon to a new icon that expands to an “AdChoices” label. These notifications were developed by the online advertising industry’s Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising to more proactively give users notice and choice about the ads they see. With the change from our “i” icon and “Ads by Google” label to these new notifications, we hope to show our support for this cross-industry initiative, and to increase our users’ understanding about ad choices through adoption of an icon they’ll see on ads across the web.”

Google has also tested and confirmed that this new label will not have any kind of adverse affects on the performance. It will only work to enhance the user’s experience who is viewing the ads and will help them understand the ads better. This new label is expected to become an industry standard with more and more online advertising players in the industry adopting this soon.

 

No connection between adchoices label and adchoiceinc.com

Also, this to notify everyone not to confuse this new label Ad choices with the company Adchoiceinc.com. Many bloggers, site owners and other users as an effort to find more info about this new label might be landing on Adchoiceinc.com’s site if searching through search engines like Google. However, this company has got nothing to do with this label. So, please don’t be confused and be assured. Adchoiceinc is just another advertising company providing services to smaller business and they have themselves put a disclaimer on their site wherein they have refused about any connection with this new Ad choices label. The notice on their site says;

“Recently, some online ad networks including Yahoo! and eBay have begun to use the terms “Adchoice” or “Ad Choices” in reference to their ad targeting programs and have started labeling certain ads on their websites with these terms. AdChoice Incorporated is not affiliated with these networks and is not involved in any way in the placement or targeting of these ads. If you are a consumer concerned about these ads, or a publisher interested in learning more about these ads, please contact the website displaying the ads directly.”

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