Automated contextual advertising is becoming increasingly popular on the Internet. The idea is that you take the content of the page a user is looking at such as an e-mail (http://mail.google.com/mail/help/more.html#ads) or a webpage (http://adwords.google.com/) and place advertising with it that is related. Many companies use internal systems to drive up there internal advertising numbers and thus their revenues. Unfortunately, there is a downside. Since â€Ã...“automated contextual advertising has no soulâ€Ã, it often places advertisements in inappropriate situations.
This is the worst/funniest example of this I have seen to-date.
http://www.adrants.com/images/cnn_earthquake.jpg
I'm reminded of the cnn page I saw that advertised a free xbox on an article involving a family murdered over a dispute involving their xbox.
When I read this, all I think of is search algorithms.
It's the same problem that keeps us from having a perfect search engine. What does someone mean when they type something in?
It may be a little easier to get related advertising on large webpages, though. You have have more data to compare than just a 2 or 3 word phrase.
I found some amuseing contextual advertising when I found the need to prove that there really is a town called "F:censored:ing" in Austria. Look it up with Mapquest for a good laugh.
Despite the town's small size, it does get some tourism. Unfortunately, though, I hear their town store has no F:censored:ing post cards and people keep stealing the F:censored:ing road signs. :-D
Personally, I think somebody should start a university there. [Insert F:censored:ing joke here.]