Comments on: Adobe AIR Advertising Platform

By: Daniel Dura

Daniel Dura — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 13:48:58 +0000

Hi Philip,

Disclaimer, this is my interpretation of their TOS. You should probably first contact Google before you do it, they may have a different answer.

In the Google AdSense Program Policies document (found here: https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=48182) it says “No AdSense code may be integrated into a software application.” The context appears to be that it cannot be included in any desktop application, only web pages.

By: Philip Cunningham

Philip Cunningham — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 11:23:37 +0000

Please could you explain how displaying AdSense against their terms of service. Do you have a reference for the clause it violates?
Just to be clear, what I am suggesting is that at the point you wish to dislay adverts, you go off to the server and generate an HTML page which is then blended with Adsense. This page is then displayed by the client using an HTMLControl. The key thing, as I understand it, is that a user with an ordinary browser should be able to go to the server and generate the same page as the client sees. Hence the ONLY difference betwen the two processes is that i)a client application is requesting the web page ii)the web page is viewed in a browser contained within your application.
Daniel, I’d appreciate your help with this as our business model for our AIR app assumed this approach was OK…

By: Christian Cantrell

Christian Cantrell — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 20:36:48 +0000

The problem with using traditional web advertising in a desktop application is that content can’t be indexed in order to target the ads. We need a platform that can accept meta data from the application so that ads will be relevant.

But I would probably just charge the $5 if I were you. I’d rather pay once than pay over and over by having to see ads.

Christian

By: Kelvin Luck

Kelvin Luck — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 18:16:15 +0000

What perfect timing! I just released a product into private beta which aims to make it really easy for AIR developers to monitize their applications by releasing them as shareware.

Check it out:

http://www.shair.it/

Feedback is very welcome :)

By: Daniel Dura

Daniel Dura — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 13:44:17 +0000

Yeah, I think it is technically possible using AdSense, the big problem there is that it is against their TOS. The MochiAds idea is interesting as well, maybe I will look into that.

By: Philip Cunningham

Philip Cunningham — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 10:41:32 +0000

How about displaying the page in HTML (using the AIR HTMLControl) and then showing Google AdSense adverts beside it?
My understanding is that so long as this page is also visible from a conventional browser then it is within Google T&Cs.

By: Lawrie

Lawrie — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 10:05:42 +0000

You could try MochiAds – the Flash Games Ad network. It’s pretty low EPCM, so you’d need a quite successful app to see much return, and it wouldn’t display ads if the user was offline or blocked the app’s internet access. Maybe not the best option – but an option none-the-less.
http://www.mochiads.com/community/forum/topic/adobe-air/19051

By: Sorin

Sorin — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 06:52:07 +0000

I have seen AdSense displaying on an Air application named: Bookmash.

By: Nate Beck

Nate Beck — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 23:39:03 +0000

It’s not just Adobe AIR. Widgets and even social networks have this same issue as well.

If someone can figure out how to monetize all of these different platforms, they will be very rich.

I do know that http://www.gripwire.com/ is trying to monetize social networks and iPhone applications. I bet AIR applications might be on their roadmap.