Every now and then Google rolls out an update of its various services, but it’s been quite some time now since we have heard that the search engine giant has made an update regarding its AdSense unit. Finally on July 31st, Google announced that it has launched a brand new responsive AdSense unit in beta. The purpose of launching the new responsive AdSense was to cater sites that automatically become accustomed to different screen sizes. With this launch web designers have finally been able to see something real than just a buzzword. However, at the same time both designers and web developers will face some serious issues with the launch of responsive AdSense, as it will be pretty tough for them control how advertisements will appear on these sites.
Addressing this issue, Google said that you can “now dynamically specify the size of the ad that will be served, adapting it to fit the way your site renders a page on a particular device.” The Mountain View-based company has revealed several other details about the new AdSense in the official announcement over its blog. Below is that post:
“We know one of the biggest challenges publishers currently face is designing websites that adapt to different screen sizes, resolutions and user experiences. You’ve been asking for responsive ad units to help you deliver the best possible user experience on your pages, and we’ve listened to your feedback. Today, we’re happy to share that responsive ad units are now available as a beta feature alongside our recently released asynchronous tag.
The new responsive ad units allow you to support a wide range of devices by working with your responsive design web pages. You can now dynamically specify the size of the ad that will be served, adapting it to fit the way your site renders a page on a particular device.
As this is still a beta feature, here are a few pointers to keep in mind:
Be sure to specify fixed pixel values when setting the width and height of the ad to be served.
Make sure that the specified width and height match one of our supported ad sizes. Please note that link unit sizes aren’t supported at the moment.
The new ad code is responsive on initial page load only. Subsequent changes to the ad size, such as a screen orientation change, will not cause a new ad to be displayed. We know that this is an important feature for many of you and we’re currently working to address this.
Always set a default ad size in case some media queries aren’t supported.”
Source: TechCrunch, GoogleInsideAdSenseBlog