Jeff Woelker : Chicago SEO, SEM, and Online Marketing Consultant

It appears that Google is experimenting with yellow backgrounds for their adwords placements. This really should come as no suprise as they must continually change the way in which these ads are presented, otherwise they become obsolete. As cognitive research has shown, once users become accustomed to placement, size, color, shapes, motion, etc. they merely gloss over them. The internet ad industry has essentially brought this on themselves by standardizing ad experience for distribution efficiencies. In essence, they have created the best user interface possible: one that is thoughtless and extremely transparent, but it is to their detriment. If a media distributor can figure out a way to propagate multiple versions of ads, which are non-standardly placed, sized, and interacted with this advertising may have a future, but as users grow accustomed to the standard sky scraper and header banner advertising format click through rates will continue to diminish.

Other thoughts?