Dude, just tell us what Adsense Support said to you. You said: What kind of "botish" reply did they send back? We've seen 1000s of these Adsense Support replies, so we can probably help you out more. Just copy/paste their email reply. P.S. Any and all answers you get from forums are not difinitive; only Adsense can tell you for sure if it's okay or not, regarding all questions, and even then Adsense Support has a way of reversing themselves, etc.
Wouldn't it be funny if this guy got banned for the images because he took the word of some guy name "Greg" on the Internet. LMAO.
I am still curious to see what the final answer might be on that one. Maybe I should drop google a note. I will let you know what they say. FFMG
i asked if the plugin was allowed and got some bot reply . Hello xxx, Thank you for your email. As you know, some implementations of images near Google ads are not permitted by our programme policies, so we ask that you exercise some caution when choosing or placing the images. Please do not place misleading images near Google ads or use images that appear to be directly associated with the advertisers and their offerings. These images may prompt unintentional user clicks, thereby artificially inflating advertiser costs. By placing images near the ads you may be drawing undue attention to ads. This may violate our programme policies, so we are unable to approve the placement of all images next to Google ads. Please note that we constantly monitor all of the web pages displaying Google ads or an AdSense for search box. If you decide to place images directly next to the ads, please maintain a visible border around the ad units to reduce the possibility of confusing users. If we find that one of your web pages violates our policies, we will notify you and ask you to remove the Google code from that page. While Google encourages third party software development, it is our policy not to endorse any specific product at this time. We're therefore not able to comment specifically on the software you've noted. However, we recommend that you read through the AdSense Terms and Conditions ( https://www.google.com/adsense/terms ) to ensure that your software is not in violation of any of our policies. You may also wish to review Google's Software Principles, found here: http://www.google.com/corporate/software_principles.html . I hope that this clarifies the issue for you. For additional questions, we suggest you visit our AdSense Support site at http://www.google.com/adsense_help . If you're unable to find an answer to your question on our site, please feel free to reply to this email. Sincerely, xxx The Google AdSense Team
Here's the deal with all these image next to ad techniques, and I can't stress it enough: Even when they okay it, they can pull the rug under you ANYTIME. So use it at your own risk.
For what it is worth, this is the reply I got from Google. Hello xxxxx, Thanks for your email. I have reviewed [link to example css/adsense] and it is complying with our program polices. Please note that in general you're welcome to place images near the Google ads on your site. However, some implementations are not permitted by our program policies, so we ask that you exercise some caution when choosing or placing the images. To be specific, we ask that publishers not place misleading images near Google ads or use images that appear to be directly associated with the advertisers and their offerings. Such images may draw undue attention to the ads and prompt unintentional user clicks, thereby artificially inflating advertiser costs. As you may know, drawing undue attention to ads is in violation of our program policies, so we're unable to approve the placement of all images next to Google ads. If you choose to experiment with placing images directly next to the ads, I'd strongly encourage you to maintain a visible border around the ad units to reduce the possibility of confusing users. We thank you for your continued cooperation to remain in compliance with our program polices. xxxxxx The Google AdSense Team Code (markup): The link, (and names), has been removed, but the image i gave them was very similar to the one given by the OP I have not yet added those ads to my blog host site, (http://www.journalhome.com), purely because I don’t think it will help, (but I might). FFMG
Read that email carefully: What is very clear is that if the images are see BY ADSENSE to be drawing attention to the ads, that is a violation of the TOS and grounds for suspension of your account. When I look at this plugin, my conclusion is that very clearly there is no purpose at all to the images EXCEPT to draw attention to the AdSense ads. If I were Google, I'd definitely see that as a violation. If you want to risk it, have fun. I absolutely would not apply a plugin or mod like this.
I think I am also not going to use that plugin. But what I am going to try is to see what it does on one of my small, consistent site. If I see a ‘sizeable’ increase then I will look into it more. But I will probably remove the images in the end. FFMG