Google this week rolled out a test program to serve ads into RSS feeds, the search giant confirmed Tuesday. The program debuted on Longhornblogs.com, a blog devoted to information about an upcoming
version of Microsoft Windows.
Robert McLaws, one of the authors at Longhornblogs.com, posted on the blog early Tuesday morning that the sites' RSS feeds were now including ads served via
AdSense. Although McLaws said on his blog that he couldn't release many details, he stated that if Google decides to launch this product, AdSense publishers could expect to see a wider-reaching public
beta within the next few weeks. On the other hand, McLaws wrote, the ads in the test feeds could be temporarily removed, or may be discontinued altogether. He did not respond to requests for comment
from OnlineMediaDaily.
In November, Yahoo! announced it was looking into serving RSS ads, and in February, the popular blog BoingBoing.net announced it was experimentally hosting
ads in its RSS feeds through a partnership with Feedburner, an RSS and Atom syndication technology company, and Overture. Also in February, Kanoodle and Moreover announced a joint effort to create
publisher tools for serving ads into RSS feeds.