Caydel reports that Google is testing keyword filtering for Adsense publishers.

According to comments made by Joost de Valk, a beta version is already being trialed - in which publishers can filter ads based on the keywords triggering ads.

Although Adsense publishers would prefer to be able to select keywords to trigger ads, especially to focus on higher paying keywords, a negative filter could be a useful solution for many Adsense publishers.

For example, sites such as marketing blog Threadwatch, and technology forum Tech Watch, would traditionally trigger ads for Swiss watches and Rolex in Adsense - because the name in the homepage titles would trigger ads for “watches”.

While publishers could try to limit the appearance of such obviously off-topic advertising by modifying the keywords in their title and meta tags, a negative filter could be a simpler and less disruptive tool.

Overall, even if the trial is not rolled out to mainstream publishers, it shows just how far ahead Google is with their lucrative advertising program - one that as yet has no serious rivial.

Although Yahoo! does offer the YPN publishing network, this is only available to those in the US, blocking out a significant amount of internet traffic and publishers from taking part, including those in the UK.

The Google Adsense admin login is currently down.

This means that webmasters cannot currently access their Google Adsense stats.

The downtime is unscheduled, but Google Adsense is still running publisher sites.

No reason is given, other than technical difficulties:

The Google AdSense website is temporarily unavailable. Please try back later.
We apologize for any inconvenience.

Previous downtimes have continued to count valid clicks for publishers.

We can only hope the situation at present also does the same. :)

ADDED: The admin panel was back up an hour after posting this.

Google are bringing major new changes to their AdWords/AdSense program, which recently pushed Google’s Q1 earnings 6 times above last year’s.

The first changes empower AdWords advertisers to control which sites their ads are displayed on. The change - known as Site Targeting - which will allow advertisers to aim their bids at sites that convert better into clicks to their own sites.

The Site Targeted advertising will be CPM based, so rather than be paid for clicks directly, AdSense publishers will instead be paid on the basis of ads displayed.

Additionally, new ad formats are being tested out, with Google pushing on AdSense publishers to give more ground for image ads, especially new Flash ads, which will be restricted to a 50kb ceiling.

Additionally, in response to Kanoodle, Google have already been spotted experimenting with AdSense in RSS feeds.

Overall, the movements are very much a part of the company’s attempt to dig itself in as the inimitable market leader, in an a lucrative text advertising market that Yahoo! and Microsoft have stated their intention to join.

By providing key features and expanding its services now, Google is creating an even greater ground for any competitors to cover before being able to provide any kind of real competition in the same market.

Google Adsense has brought in major changes, including live tracking of channels.

AdSense is a way of publishing simple advertising, and is especially popular with webmasters as a way of covering costs or even developing a profit.

However, until now, statistics on the page impressions and revenues earned were always two days out of date.

Now such statistics can be observed in real-time.

Other changes include the ablity to delete old channels, and better selection of channels for stats tracking.

The details are published here: Improved channels functionality: better tools to help you optimize, and popular AdSense commentator Jensense makes a more detailed summary.

AdSense publishing on third-party webmaster sites forms a significant part of Google’s revenues, accounting for up to two-thirds.

Yahoo! and MSN have yet to release for public use their own advertising networks, though these are both expected over the coming year.

Google has updated it’s Terms of Use (TOU) for AdSense publishing, and additionally added a new publishing option, as well as offering new payment options for internation publishers.

The most significant changes to its TOU are as follows:

The company has also released a new ad format, in the form of a text links box of various sizes, which can cover 4-5 links per ad box.

Perhaps most importantly for international publishers, Google now offers to either send out cheques in the users own currency, or else electronic transfer direct to the users bank account. There are limitations on the number of countries covered, but it marks a major step that international publishers have been clamouring for since the beginning of the program.

Tom Foremski explains in Google to provide AdWords API to Advertisers how Google are about to announce major changes in the Google AdWords program, that will allow AdWords marketers far more control over their advertising.

According to the report, these new features should allow far greater publisher control of the delivery, timing, and pricing of ads, all using Google’s application programming interface (API).

Improved Adwords conversion tracking will also mean the ability to track conversions from Overture, emails, banner ads, as well as RSS feeds.

A gathering of 1800 AdWords managers apparently came together in San Francisco this week to learn of how to work with these changes.

The overall move is seen as a reaction to growing market share by companies such as Kanoodle, who also have tools dealing with some of these features.

If applied, the changes to AdWords advertising would move Google closer to being seen as a media publisher, rather than search application, which could irritate existing media publishing rivals such as IDG and even eBay.

Google announced the launch of Google Advertising Professionals, a program that includes training, tools and marketing resources for those who manage Google AdWords on behalf of advertisers, including search engine marketers, agencies and Webmasters.

The training has three main components: a user interface to manage AdWords customers called My Client Center; a number of self-paced training lessons called the Learning Center; and Logo, a qualification bestowed on participants who become Qualified Google Advertising Professionals after passing a proficiency exam and meeting other requirements.

This continues Google’s focus on developing it’s revenue stream via Adwords, and continues to offer a strong marketing presence.