I think that this is fair game, and I'm guessing that I won't be set upon by Google, since the subject matter of this post is addressed in an interesting article already in the public domain by Robert X. Cringely of I, Cringely.

Google's AdSense works using a context-matching algorithm .. and, as Cringely notes in his article, Google's offering often tend towards an "almighty algorithm" mentality.

Google is secretive. This started as a deliberate marketing mystique, but endures today more as a really annoying company habit. Google folks don't understand why the rest of us have a problem with this, but then Google folks aren't like you and me. The result of this secrecy and Google's "almighty algorithm" mentality is that the company makes changes -- and mistakes -- without informing its customers or even doing all that much to correct the problems. It's all just beta code, after all. But the business part is real, as is the money that some people have lost because of Google's poor communication skills combined, frankly, with poor follow-through.

Qumana enables you, the publisher, to have closer control over what advertising is used by choosing the keywords you think relate best to the blog post in front of you and using those keywords to pull and place adverts .. and if you don't like the advert that is offered, you can delete it and try for another, or use another keyword.  Your brain is effectively the algorithm ... while selecting and placing adverts is not quite as automated as Google AdSense, it is only a type-keyword-and-one-click operation.

As the inventory of advertising offered by Q-Ads improves, so too will your ability to develop an advertising strategy based on the content of your blog posts.  Tris Hussey of the Qumana team coined a term for this .. we call it a post-centric advertising strategy.

If you ever have a desire to "own your content", or don't necessarily want to share every ounce of your publishing output with Google, you might want to give Q-Ads a try.

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