Absolutely! But unless you find proof that Susan saw the Applied Semantics program before it was launched (which might make her a spy, but nothing's impossible) that *still* doesn't back up your accusation.

You think we're further apart on this issue than we are, or that is some sort of political issue. Quite the opposite, I caught Google lying or spinning in the past and always point to it when I find proof. And that's the issue here -- finding proof/ backing up a statement with facts. Again, you claim that Wojcicki in USA Today says she invented AdSense, and you claim that Google's tool was a copycat (again based on that article as reference), and I am repeatedly saying: you didn't show any proof that either of that is the case. (Unless of course you consider whatever the USA Today author wrote as proof, but keep in mind the author's reporting missed the launch date of AdWords by 2 years.)

I think *there may well be proof out there* that Google did copy the competition, or that Susan claims she invented AdSense (I don't have any information for this in either direction). It would now be interesting if you research this and *find* that proof if there is any.

Philipp Lenssen

Owen Thomas

That said- who gives a shit?
I'm pretty sure that "people interested in X might want to see ads about X" was discovered in the '50s...

scosol

It's obvious, Philipp, that you're resistant to any reading of the facts that doesn't cast Google in the most favorable light possible. And it's equally obvious why.

Owen Thomas

Owen, but why do you omit two pieces of information which do not support your original point? They already had been pointed out in the comments to you:

- An article at Traffick.com says that Google already had their contextual page ads system launched to some select publishers in the fourth quarter of 2002. (As no company can develop something the same day they launch it, it is then obvious that their product also had been in development at least earlier than the fourth quarter that year.)
Source: [www.traffick.com]

- Susan in no sinqle quote at USA Today makes a reference to the word "AdSense". (There is only a single quote which contains the word in brackets, which obviously means that Susan used a different word or phrase.)
Source: [www.usatoday.com]

Philipp Lenssen

Owen Thomas

Philipp Lenssen

"AdSense is an extension of a program Google had successfully launched in 2002, called AdWords. AdWords offers advertisers sponsored search ads, those little text ads that appear near search results. Advertisers have to pay only if the ads get clicked.

Wojcicki's suggestion: Why not offer these same ads all over the Web, on blogs and websites? Entice Web "publishers" to participate by giving them a portion of the ad revenue. In other words, every time someone clicks on an ad on your site, you get a check."

As you can see, it does not say Susan invented AdSense. What she did do is take the idea from AdWords and adapt it for Google.

Valleywag is one of the most embarrassing examples of irresponsible sensational journalism in the new era of citizen journalism. Too bad that here in Silicon Valley, the heart of some of the most creative ideas in the world, we have a site that thinks the only way to get readers is to exaggerate and lie. The site is full of nasty, irresponsible cracks at almost everyone they write about, not just this story about Susan Wojcicki. The Valleywag writer of this story needs to move to a new job where he can write fiction.

denisewilson2

dbinto

In Jessica Livingston's book, on page 162, he says:

"Buchheit:....
AdSense, the content-targeted ads, was actually something that, if I recall, I did on a Friday.

It was an idea that we had talked about for a long time but there was this belief that somehow it wouldn't work. But it seemed like an interesting problem, so one evening I implemented this content targeting system, just as a sort of a side project, not because I was supposed to. And it turned out to work.

Livingston: This is Google AdSense now?

Buchheit: It's the same concept. What I wrote was just a throwaway prototype, but it got people thinking because it proved that it was possible, and that it wasn't too hard because I was able to do it in less than a day. After that, other people took over and did all the hard work of making it into a real product."

So, think what you want but I'd consider Paul the true father of AdSense. Ideas are f'ing useless, execution is the key.

Figaro

Google was very pleased with their product and the concept behind it (work at judging relevancy as accurately as possible, with some criticism of category-based and other poor implementations of contextual being the impetus for developing a better system). Susan Wojcicki clearly describes the product and its intentions, and the fact that it was in beta in late 2002 prior to launch is also made clear. *In this same article* I included comments from a co-founder of AS who argued that Google's system was well-intentioned but that it did not really do what it purported to do.

Many of us as advertisers/clients had misgivings about how AdSense was implemented on many fronts, not just on the technology front, as Danny hints. It was an evolution that most close to the situation remember.

What's important for the present discussion is that Google acquired AS very shortly after officially launching their content targeting product.

Notwithstanding the fact that Google's stated goals for its own product were only realized at least 2-3 years after its release (through the product development efforts they are fully capable of, plus a belated recognition that a tighter publisher network was needed to be fair to paying advertisers), they certainly did build it prior to the AS acquisition, so Wojcicki hasn't lied about a thing.

agoodman

"AdSense is an extension of a program Google had successfully launched in 2002, called AdWords." he says.

Compare to Google's press release:

"Google Launches Self-Service Advertising Program
Google's AdWords Program Offers Every Business a Fully Automated, Comprehensive and Quick Way to Start an Online Advertising Campaign

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - October 23, 2000 - Google Inc., developer of the award-winning Google search engine, today announced the immediate
availability of AdWords(TM) ...."

Philipp Lenssen

Owen, there is no such claim from Susan in the article. In fact, none of her quotes even mention the word "AdSense" (and if she did, we would need to analyze if the quote indeed claims the invention). The only quote that has the word in it indicates editing by the author of USA Today, as the quote reads "(AdSense)". What she invented, according to her own quotes, was a contextual ads system at Google -- which wasn't called AdSense at the time.

Philipp Lenssen

Owen Thomas

------------------------------------...">------------------------------------......">------------------------------------...">------------------------------------.........">------------------------------------...">------------------------------------......">------------------------------------...">------------------------------------............

Google Builds World's Largest Advertising and Search Monetization Program
Company introduces automated content-targeted ads; Advertising customer base surpasses 100,000

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - March 4, 2003 - Google today announced its online advertising program -- comprising more than 100,000 advertisers worldwide -- is the largest and fastest growing in the industry. The company today also announced a new content-targeted advertising service that extends advertiser reach and makes web pages more useful by replacing untargeted ads with relevant sponsored links.

------------------------------------...">------------------------------------......">------------------------------------...">------------------------------------.........">------------------------------------...">------------------------------------......">------------------------------------...">------------------------------------............

Google Acquires Applied Semantics
New Technologies and Engineering Team Complement Google's Content Targeted Advertising Programs

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (April 23, 2003) -- Google, developer of the largest performance-based search advertising program, today announced that it acquired Applied Semantics, a Santa Monica, Calif.-based producer of software applications for the online advertising, domain name and enterprise information management markets. Applied Semantics' products and engineering team will strengthen Google's search and advertising programs, including its fast-growing content-targeted advertising offering. (...)

"Applied Semantics is a proven innovator in semantic text processing and online advertising," said Sergey Brin, Google's co-founder and president of Technology. "This acquisition will enable Google to create new technologies that make online advertising more useful to users, publishers, and advertisers alike."

Applied Semantics' products are based on its patented CIRCA technology, which understands, organizes, and extracts knowledge from websites and information repositories in a way that mimics human thought and enables more effective information retrieval. A key application of the CIRCA technology is Applied Semantics' AdSense product that enables web publishers to understand the key themes on web pages to deliver highly relevant and targeted advertisements.

------------------------------------...">------------------------------------......">------------------------------------...">------------------------------------.........">------------------------------------...">------------------------------------......">------------------------------------...">------------------------------------............

Google Expands Advertising Monetization Program for Websites
Google AdSense Enables Sites to Maximize Revenue Potential While Enhancing User Experience

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- June 18, 2003 -- Google,
developer of the award-winning Google search engine, today announced
a new self-service option for Google AdSense, a program that enables
website publishers to serve ads precisely targeted to the specific content
of their individual web pages. With Google AdSense, publishers serve
text-based Google AdWords ads on their site and Google pays them for
clicks on these ads -- users benefit from more relevant ads and publishers
can maximize the revenue potential of their websites. The self-service
option augments the existing content targeting services for publishers
announced by Google in March 2003, now making this service available
to a broader universe of high-quality websites.

------------------------------------...">------------------------------------......">------------------------------------...">------------------------------------.........">------------------------------------...">------------------------------------......">------------------------------------...">------------------------------------............

Philipp Lenssen

We lacked technology to make it really contextual (otherwise it was just category-based and thus, pretty lame).

I recall us thinking that

- Goto.com could duplicate what we were doing (as they had more clients) and

- even in 2000, we feared Google had the technology to make it really contextual based on the page. Oddly, in 2000, Google was not exactcly a big threat though the buzz was growing.

Alas, Ad Sense became Google's billion dollar baby through a series of events, and more power to them, but it was not by invention, it was by acquisition, timing, etc.

More here:
[www.watchmojo.com]

ashkan

Applied Semantics launched AdSense (its name) in October 2002.

Google launched the catchy named "Google Content-Targeted Advertising" in March 2003.

Google acquired Applied Semantics a month later, in April 2003.

At some point after that, Google thought AdSense was a neat name to use to describe ads it puts anywhere (AdSense For Content, AdSense For Search, AdSense For Domains...). So the name AdSense came from AS, and some of the technology was incorporated, but Google's own contextual program was already in place and pumping out ads before the purchase happened.

dannysullivan

Let's be clear. Google rolled out AdSense in October 2002. It bought Applied Semantics (which was doing something similar, though mainly on parked domains, in April 2003).

So, Google might have gotten the idea of contextual ads from Applied Semantics or others -- but it most certainly did not get the technology that started AdSense from it.

As for Susan, she definitely drove AdSense when it started. I know, because I remember being on a panel with her when search marketers that suddenly got opted-in to this new program were less than thrilled and demanding a way out. It was kind of a wake-up call, though Google still dragged its feet on giving them greater control over the years. But to my knowledge, it really was her baby on making it happen at Google -- and before Applied Semantics came over.

By the way, another reason to get AS other than for technical reasons was that it was one of the biggest revenue generators for Overture. In one purchase, Google got more revenue for itself and denied Overture one of the leading alternative contextual ad technologies out there.

dannysullivan

Whatever she claims, she probably believes it. A person who believes a falsehood is certainly confused. Which is funny in itself. But it doesn't make her a liar.

A liar has to deliberately mislead. She probably really thinks she thought of it.

And maybe she did. Your evidence is mighty weak. Smaller companies usually get acquired because the larger company wants to do what the small company already does.

newyorker

Google released "Google Content-Targeted Advertising" well before the Applied Semantics purchase, and this is the technology behind today's AdSense.

Applied Semantic's competing product had the *name* "AdSense"; when Google acquired them they slapped the AdSense name on Google's technology; AS's technology was adopted only in minor ways (mostly confined to generating keywords for domain-parked pages).

Anyway, Susan W was the big PM in charge of AdSense the entire time.

Sure, the "real" inventors of today's AdSense were Google engineers; but to brand Susan a "liar" over this USA Today article is beyond the pale.

wasagoogler

pseudonym

ChiefCynic

PurpleStarfish

Given the circumstances, it seems rather juvenile to accuse people of being liars. Are you just trying to get attention? Do you get a bonus based on traffic or something?

techsupport

/Ira

Machefsky

valleychick