Google Announces Mobile AdSense For Applications
Google recently announced that it will be moving into the mobile applications ad market. This announcement comes shortly after Google announced Google Product Ads. The move doesn’t surprise me, after all, Google is the advertising king.
It appears Google has been testing both text and image ads with a handful of developers, including Shazam, i.TV, Sega, and Urbanspoon. It is now opening the private beta to developers who meet the criteria.
Some of the criteria that to be eligible for the beta includes that the application is free and that it generates at least 100,000 pageviews per day. Developers must also be ready to go live with the ads (if approved) within four weeks as well as participate in the program for at least three months.
The contextual ads can be targeted by “applications, locations, categories, or keywords,” according to Google’s Mobile AdSense information page. Currently, Mobile AdSense for apps appears to only be available for the iPhone and Android platforms, however, I would assume they will be supporting even more platforms in the future (such as the Pre and BlackBerry).
Mobile ad startups such as AdMob and Greystripe should be worried. Google can easily squash these guys.