Adwords recently launched the Ad Planner, an attempt to make contextual adverts easier to research and set up. I’ve had a play around with it and to be honest, all the old features are still there but in a different format. I think Google are going for useability – presenting their data in a different way using neat little tabs and tables. Instead of laboriously searching for sites to advertise on based on keywords, you can now search by entering a website you like and finding similar properties.

I’ve always been sceptical of the content network and Ad Planner hasn’t yet changed my mind. In the UK the websites available are very limited – Adwords is still US-dominated and the content network isn’t yet suitable for the wider UK market.

One side effect of Ad Planner I do like is the update to the campaign management screen:

A new tab for ‘Placements’ has been added (in case you’ve started using the Ad Planner!) and there are now little messages making it clear exactly where your Ads are showing. In this screenshot it tells me that my keywords trigger ads on search only, that the content network is turned off. This is a neat new feature that will help advertisers make sense of their campaigns and maybe even their figures. I’ve had clients ask why they got thousands of impressions, not realising that they were opted into the content network (by default).

So thumbs up to Adwords for being more clear about where your adverts show. I’ll wait until Ad Planner lets you target better UK sites before I trash it completely

I’m certainly not the only one interested in the rankings of Google Knols. Over at Search Engine Land there’s been a bit of research done into the Google rankings of entries that appear on the Knol home page – follow the link to see the whole article.

1/3 of the Knols rank well – this seems to indicate that they have an advantage over ordinary websites. Could Google deliberately not rank Knols? Now there’s a question!

Google Knol has just been opened to the public after being in Beta for some time. The idea is part Wikipedia, part Squidoo and part About.com, with ‘experts’ writing detailed articles on specific subjects, from their own point of view.

At the moment Knols have mainly been written by healthcare professionals – a glance at the front page selection shows the narrow range quite clearly:

Google states that Knols will appear in the search results, just like any other website. I’m reminded of Google Books, which appear for many search results regardless of whether you want a book. Presumably soon Knols will be appearing near (above?) similar Wikipedia entries.

MSN used to be the worst culprit for trying to keep you on their own network but it seems Google is going the same way. I’m all for healthy competition but when Google have such a monopoly on search they could quite easily rank their own domains before, well, real websites.

The British Shakespeare Company website has been on my favourite’s list for months as I waited for tickets to be released for the Leeds Shakespeare Festival. I went in 2006 to see A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Wayne Sleep, Mina Anwar and Sean Brosnan – it was fantastic – a beautiful setting, lovely evening and playful performance.

This year I wanted to take my boyfriend to see it so I kept checking back for tickets. It seems however there’s been a problem with Leeds City Council refusing funding. They also cite ‘health and safety’ and ’security’ concerns as further reasons why the performance can’t go ahead…because 13 successful years aren’t enough proof it’s a good idea.

I think Leeds City Council have made a weak decision – they’ve stopped a performance that hundreds of people enjoy rather than reaching into their pockets. To blame ‘health and safety’ is simply ridiculous.

You can find the Shakespeare Company’s own update here.

I recently set up an Adwords account for a client only to get the error message at keyword level – this keyword is not triggering ads because “you have reached or exceeded your budget”. The problem was, the adverts had never even shown – it was a new account!

A Google search brought a few suggestions – lower the CPC, increase the daily budget, etc etc, but nothing worked. I thought it might be the billing information so left it over the weekend to see what would happen. Monday morning came and the ads still wouldn’t show!

Luckily we have a Google Rep on hand to help – a quick email got a response within the hour. The account was ‘under review’ and would be active shortly. Sure enough the ads were running the same afternoon.

It’s great that our Google Rep got things sorted so quickly, but they didn’t seem to know the account was under review until I told them. Also, the error message in the account had nothing to do with a review! For someone new to Adwords it would be really confusing – lots of people on the message boards that I read were having the same problem, only they didn’t have the advantage of a representative at Google.

I’ve never had an account under review before – I wonder if Google have started to do this more. If that’s the case they should let advertisers know to expect delays.

My company 9xb recently launched Neighbours United, a local social networking site for the Harrogate area. The idea is you register your address and can see who lives in your street. You can send them messages or write on the message boards for all of Harrogate to see.

It’s a great idea – message boards are categorised by area and subject so you can start a conversation about the best restaurants, or the worst builders. There’s only one flaw that I can see, and that’s in the privacy settings.

Unless you go to the message boards, you can only see neighbours on your street. If none of your neighbours have joined it’s a very lonely place! I understand the need for privacy, but the point of the website is to bring a community together – more access to that community would make Neighbours United not only more interesting but more effective too.