Amazon goes beta with new Contextual Links

Let's face it. Ad publishing was all the rage for some time and provided an easy way to earn lots of money for those fortunate enough to have the insight to get in on the craze early. Maybe it is just me but it seems that it did not take long for those ugly little square ads to become quite annoying. Perhaps this is not a function of the ads themselves but rather every site that I visited and could not find the information I was looking for through all of those ads. Even now as web designers and bloggers have streamlined their ad publishing, I hardly ever (if ever) click on an ad or banner any more. But I have found myself drawn to contextual ads and the items they advertise. The definition of "contextual ads" as posted on Webopedia...

"Advertising on a Web site that is targeted to the specific individual who is visiting the Web site. A contextual ad system scans the text of a Web site for keywords and returns ads to the Web page based on what the user is viewing, either through ads placed on the page or pop-up ads."

Now Amazon.com has entered the market of contextual links. What sets this apart from other programs? Amazon already offers an endless variety of products at some pretty great prices but using the other types of links and programs would probably provide readers with tons of books on writing blog, designing sites, etc. Pretty boring if you ask me. Contexual links offer more variety and more links without being obtrustive. Even though the program is less than a month old for Amazon, contextual links provided by other sites like Google and Kontera have been used very successfully by many bloggers and web designers.

I will be installing the code for the contextual links sometime today on this blog. Check them out and let me know what you think please! Happy surfing!