Regnow has added SoftwareAdsNow which allows Regnow Affiliates to add Adsense-like text ad boxes on their sites. I haven’t had time yet to research definitively if this conflicts with Adsense Program Policies (I remember there being something about exclusitivity whent it comes to these type ads) so I’m experimenting with them where we’re currently not running Adsense on another blog:

They aren’t contextually based like Adsense, which is a bummer, but they do make it handy to build relevant category style ads anyway.

Maybe Regnow is setting up to be able to offer contextually based ads in the future. I wonder if Yahoo! text extraction could be blended creatively with something like this? (bet it could!).

Before publishing this I went to the Adsense Policies page and in particular the paragraph on Competitive Ads and Services (emphasis below is mine):

We do not permit Google ads or search boxes accessing Google search services to be published on web pages that also contain what could be considered competing ads or services. If you have elected to receive contextually-targeted Google ads, this would include all other contextually-targeted ads or links on the same page as Google ads. This would also include ads throughout the site that mimic Google ads or otherwise appear to be associated with Google on your site. Although you may sell ads directly on your site, it is your responsibility to ensure these ads do not mimic Google ads. If you have elected to receive Google search services, this would include other search services on the same site and non-Google query-targeted ads. We do allow affiliate or limited-text links.

Hmm, the bolded text is a bit vague. See the picture above. Sort of looks like it mimics Google ads to me, but they aren’t contextually based. I’d like to tweak them so that they were contextually based, but then I’m not sure if I used them on the same page as Adsense if that would be a violation of their Adsense policy. Sounds like I better drop the Google Adsense team an email and ask before attempting to use them on any page that also has the Google Adsense being shown.

Hmm … ?

• Google Adsense program draws some fire from bloggers over (common?) rules
• Google adds more free services and features
• Regnow starts taking Paypal
• The Text-Link-Ads crew works on their first CPC program ShoppingAds in private beta
• Regnow fubar
• Google Adsense offers alternate ads