Adsense Publishers Screen Resolution Detection

August 28, 2005

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By: janethuggard
Logging into Adsense today, I notice this new feature.

As one of those seniors, who needs very large print, I surf the web in 800×600 screen resolution so I can read the pages with larger print. On sites where the pages were designed in 1024×768, this gives me a horizontal scroll bar at the bottom of the page. Makes it interesting for me, as I redesign my own sites, originally constructed for 800×600, into the 1024×768 screen resolution. I have to keep changing my screen resolution, so I can see the end results, as others see them, as well as how I see them. At the same time we are centering our content, so it views better in all screen res.

Anyway…

I noticed today in my Adsense account, my screen resolution was automatically detected, unknown to me, and I was served my account details based on my 800×600 screen resolution. Previously, it was very annoying to view the channel info, line by line, as it involved constant scrolling. Since I am in and out so quickly, I don’t bother to change my screen res, just to view my Adsense account. So, this is a very nice feature. Since there was no hint screen resolution was being detected, those of you already in 1024×768 or better, wouldn’t have noticed this.

Gave me some thought. If Google is beginning to do this for Adsense publishers, I see in the future, search results served based on the visitor’s resolution, and perhaps even serving only results that are optimized and suitable for the screen resolution used.

That would be an excellent user feature because it removes the problem of landing on pages where the font is way too small, or way too large, or there are scroll bars. Since Google is all about the user experience, this seems like a logical evolution to me, and most likely very close to realization.

This means if I surf into Google search with a Blackberry, I would see relevant search results based on my screen resolution, and only sites designed for that screen resolution would be served. I also see an option to ’show all results’ which would include all screen res, or perhaps the ability to select just a few that would be suitable.

Thinking more on that… what a good way to purge the engines of old, outdated pages. If you haven’t updated pages to a modern screen resolution, then you are not actively managing your business, and out you go. This puts the pressure on those sites designed in 800×600, especially those designed for 640×480, to update their pages, or fall to the bottom of the search results when Google decides that based on the ‘updated content’ criteria of the algo, your site is not relevant enough.

It could also potential land a decapitating blow to Adsense publishers, who have old screen res sites, as your search engine ranking tanks, traffic goes to a crawl, and the resulting clicks on ads disappear.

Funny thing, I discovered this change, right after coffee break where we were discussing the screen resolution and load problem with designing for Blackberry, et al.

I think this is a wake up call to all webmasters, things are changing, and you need to be on the proactive end of the change, ground level, instead of doing knee jerk, or you might very well wake up one day to a huge drop in Adsense earnings, and have no idea at all why.

According to my statistics my visitor’s screen res are as follows.

1024×768 = 55%
800×600 = 25%
1280 x 1024 = 6%
1152 x 864 = 3%
1280 x 800 = 2%
60+ other screen res = 9%

One thing, since I view my pages alot in the course of viewing my updated pages, my stats for 800×600 are off because that is the res I use. The percentage would be much higher of 1024×768 if my own stats were not included. My guess, based on the number of page views I do here in my work, I would say 1024×768 is closer to 65%

Clearly, most sites designed in 1024×768 would be suitable for the majority of users, likely as high as 79% of the screen resolutions. The sites that would get excluded alot in search results would be those old screen res designed sites. As well, you wouldn’t be served a page designed for blackberry, if you were on a 800×600 machine. A very good thing I see this as the answer to the problem the web has: a wide range of screen resolution used, all viewings sites designed for one screen resolution. Yes, I know some webmasters have resolved this with screen resolution detection, but they are a huge minority of the web.

The questions are:

Is your site designed for the masses, or the few?

How do you think that fact will impact your traffic, long term, and your Adsense commissions?

Is the design all about what you want, of what the visitor needs?

I see a thread in the future:

The ulimate Google ‘penalty’… failure to present content in a ‘popular’ format.

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Posted in General, Google Adsense