MobUser

Recently Google announced that they are releasing Google AdSense for feeds. I find this to be a very exciting development … but not for the reasons that you might think. Google AdSense for feeds are officially intended to enable content developers (e.g. Bloggers) to more fully syndicate their content without losing ad revenues. Much like AdSense for content, AdSense for feeds embeds relevant advertising directly into the RSS content.

What makes me excited is this notion that Google is providing a very basic solution that could be used to insert advertising into ANY XML feed. Yes, RSS is the most pervasive XML schema used but there are so many custom XML feeds and web service that have been developed that would directly benefit from the work Google is doing.

Take as an example flight search. Companies like Flytecomm expose XML service that enable the query of flight status information. Each query returns a list of flights between two points, their estimated arrival and departure times, and a host of other useful bits of information. This kind of information is extremely valuable to many advertisers. With Google AdSense for feeds, an XML response to a flight status query could contain advertising for such things as rental car offers, hotels, and more.

Like I said … very exciting. I can’t wait to try this stuff out.