Contextual advertising doesn’t always shake out so well

[EvilAndrew]

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 or a webpage 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

[Bryan]

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.

[Tyler]

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.

[DaleDoe]

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.]