AdSense and Adbrite on same page… allowed!

Recently, after the last Adsense Policies update, there has been a lot of mystery around the last paragraph of their TOS, which says:

Competitive Ads and Services

In order to prevent user confusion, we do not permit Google ads or search boxes to be published on websites that also contain other ads or services formatted to use the same layout and colors as the Google ads or search boxes on that site. Although you may sell ads directly on your site, it is your responsibility to ensure these ads cannot be confused with Google ads.

What does t mean, does it mean we can now use Adbrite, Clicksor and everything else that comes handy on same page? After having asked and confiremed with a few people who actually emailed Google directly and asked, I can say with full comfidence that the answer is - Yes, but there are some restrictions.

For instance, the ads must not look identical. For example, if your Adsense ads unit is black text on pink background, and the ads blend in with the design, your Adbrite ads, on thie very page, need to look different, say, green text on white background. The idea is to prevent them from looking identical.

This applies to Adbrite inline ads as well as network ads and interstitial ads. I’d personally recommend not to place the ads too close, to prevent AdSense from saying they complement each other in anyway.

Yahoo Publishers, however, are not going to benefit from this latest AdSense update, as YPN still disallows competitive networks from been displayed on same page.

Moreover, I personally emailed AdSense today (February 27th 2007), asking…

Hello,

I know you are getting thousands of such questions recently, but I just want to make sure, as everyone seems to interpret the information differently. Now that contextual ads are allowed to be placed alongside with AdSense (I know they should have a different layout) can I use also, on the same page:

Adbrite network ads
Adbrite inline ads
Adbrite interstitial ads

I’d deeply appreciate your clarification on the subject and sorry for stealing your time.

Thanks,
Liza Kliko

…And their answer was ‘Yes’, to all of the above. You can always email them yourself if you want to be 200% sure, but I hope this pours some light on the latest policies update.