I know that this rates pretty much rock bottom on the scale of importance, but I happened to notice that the text that used to say “Sponsored Links” now says “Advertisements”. Is that an effort to separate the SDMB from the contents of those links?
Not an earth-shattering change, no, but I do think it an apter term. “Sponsored Links” always sounded vaguely approving, as if SDMB were somehow aligning itself with those advertising. “Advertisements” is a neutral term.
The Google Terms of Service gives the SDMB two (or three options) when it comes to labeling the ads. “Sponsored Links”, “Advertisements”, and possibly no label. The TOS is vague on the no label option. It was not my intent to imply that the Google advertisers were sponsoring the SDMB and therefore that the SDMB was making any type of positive statement about their ads. I can see how Sponsored Links does have that implication. The example code I used while making the Google ads modification used the Sponsored Links label. I didn’t really give it much thought. When it was pointed out to me the confusing nature of the ad label I changed it to the other option we had while still abiding by Google’s TOS.
Jerry