Have you noticed recently a black icon (something like a running boy) next to google adsense ads title - You may see it now above if lucky When you take your cursor over it - it says This site accepts Google Checkout payments I can see this even with Google analytics and adsense ads
You mean this one ? It's appear more and more frequently till some days for a lot of Google's services
Yes that's it.. Ohh, yes it looks like a running shopping cart It even shows next to google adsense and analytics ads - Do they give or take money
My guesses are : - the google team wants to get a higher CTR for its own products and services (higher CTR gives lower cpc as you know). This is logical as they have recently increased their customer acquisition cost (referral payments) since new publisher are harder to find. - the adsense team is experimenting a new ad trick to impove performance (another thread talks about another new format that has been spotted recently) - this little picture is ment to certify the quality of the ad and the adsense team will use it with other announcers as soon as they are certified (and may have to pay for the certification) Only god knows what they are preparing !!!
All it means is the site uses google checkout. So you can look at ads, and see that site uses google checkout so you'll know it'll be easy for you if you've used google checkout before.
Oh yes ! this isn't the only factor affecting what is referred to as "smart pricing" there are other threads on the DP forum about that.
However that may be, it's kind of pointless to say that Google is after a higher CTR to decrease CPC for THEIR OWN campaign. And man, a space before an exclamation mark makes my eyes bleed.
Why would this be pointeless? Sorry but I do not see any logic in what you say I am sorry for the typo MAN!