criticism of google feed ads

Interesting feedback on Google feed ads from the Syndicate conference; apparently Google's offering isn't ready for primetime:

I went to the Google table and had a chat with their representatives about AdSense for feeds, and came off feeling that this product was nowhere near ready. It doesn’t support anything but Blogger and Movable Type. Apparently, the code Google created isn’t any standard code that can just be dumped in; its code specific to the blogging platform, so don’t expect a lot of adoption for a while. Considering that (1) users of Blogger probably don’t need it (2) WordPress is hugely popular (3) most RSS feeds aren’t coming from blogging software, but from company websites that want to keep people updated and (4) no news organization uses blogging software, so they can’t use Google, this is going to be a problem.

The reps told me they reduced the size of the ads to 468 pixels in width, which is an improvement, but still not good enough. In a two or three-pane view, the portion with the blog posts can be quite small. This means the ad can be wider than the window, forcing vertical scrolling. It is very annoying, especially considering these are text ads. Since they are just text, can’t Google find a way that the text wraps? You’d think. While the Google people were knowledgeable and friendly, the product looks far too beta for widespread adoption at this point.