http://www.tutorialgods.com/ if you look at my listing, after the third tutorial theres an ad next to this image: http://www.tutorialgods.com/images/previews/r1.gif. its pretty well hidden. is this allowed? thanks!
I think it's probably okay because the image is twice the size of the ad, therefore not perfectly aligned. That's the way I see it anyway.
just looking at your site i would say your left sidebar and the link in the middle are both violating TOS -- they both will be looked at and trying to fool the user into thinking that image is related to the ad that is being shown. You might not get caught, but it doesn't look like they would approve that if you ask them.
I'll have to agree with john_nyc. The images next to the ads in the skyscraper ad is a violation. Even though the the image next to the single ad is larger than the ad, there is another part of googles lastes tos that says the content can not mimic the ads, and in my opinion that is the desired effect you are going for putting the single ad unit mixed in with your content.
I'll put a 1 pixel border inbetween the sky scraper and the image, will it work for google then? also, even though the ad in the listing is blended in very well, its only getting like 5% of all the clicks that im recieving, so i might just remove it in exchange for something else
I just looked at that link you gave - never paid attention to the sidebar. Just like the others (who were obviously paying attention lol) said the sidebar is definitely against the TOS - no doubt about it.
i think it's ok but reading http://adsense.blogspot.com/2006/12/ad-and-image-placement-policy.html may help you
It's definitely not allowed. It clearly violates 2 rules. 1. It looks like your content because it has the same font as the title of other listings. 2. It has an image beside it. You can get banned for this. I suggest you immediately remove them.