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When Google Chrome was released earlier this week, I spent some time checking out how my various websites displayed in Google Chrome, which it seemed to pass with flying colors… that is until I noticed Google Chrome is somehow changing how Yahoo Publisher Network (YPN) ads are displayed. Instead of the usual format, it is underlining all the text in the entire YPN ad unit, including the title, description and URL.
First, here is how YPN on one of my websites look when viewed with IE7 & Firefox.
Pretty normal looking.
And here is how it looks when viewed with Google Chrome…
Not too attractive, and definitely not something many surfers would click on when seeing it on a page! And it made this particular ad unit style very difficult to read with the grey text and blue underlining.
And on another ad unit style, first the normal version:
And the Google Chrome version:
This one is easier to read with the underlining than the first example, but still not an ideal way to display YPN ad units and hope for any kind of decent CTR.
This was seen on an out-of-the-box non-customized Google Chrome install, it just happened that I rotate YPN on one of my sites so I noticed it right away. But for whatever reason, Google is underlining the ad unit links in blue. But when I first thought maybe it was just automatically underlining links in blue for usability, there are a couple things to consider. First, the ad units are being treated differently, even though YPN and AdSense javascripts have a lot of similarities. Second, the “Ads by Yahoo!” on the ad units are not underlined. Third, I thought perhaps it might be a coding issue on Yahoo’s end, but it seems odd that it renders properly in both IE & Firefox (and as far as I know, all other browsers too) but differently in the Google Chrome browser.
Google Chrome does have some browser options, albiet very limited when compared to IE’s options, but nothing there seemed to have anything that could possibly affect the display of YPN ads. And I checked it on two different computers, just incase my desktop was being tempermental, but the YPN ads still displayed the underlines on both computers.
It seems all ad unit sizes were affected, as I checked some other sizes as well, and they all have the underlining in them.
I also checked some Microsoft ContentAds and they are appearing normally, without the added underlining.
Now, just to be clear, I am not jumping on an anti-Google or anti-Chrome conspiracy theory bandwagon. And I realize Google Chrome is still very much in beta, and like any beta, there are going to be some bugs to fix and tweaks to make. But I would have thought that someone on the Chrome team would have surely checked to see how YPN looked when doing usability browser testing, as I am fairly certain they would have checked to see how AdSense looked. Microsoft ContentAds appear to display normally on content sites I have seen.
Want to know more about Google Chrome as a browser? Google’s Matt Cutts has been a blogging binge this week and has done a ton of Chrome related posts, including answers to common Google Chrome objections that is worth a read.
If I hear an update on a fix or if I notice the ads displaying normally, I will post an update and also tweet it on Twitter, if you follow me there.
Update: The problem appears to be Chrome’s use of the Apple Webkit engine, as the issue is apparent when viewing YPN with Safari (for the Mac). Here is what it looks like, and thank you Netmeg for the screenshot.
Have you checked how YPN ads look in Safari? It’s using the same WebKit engine, (just a newer version) so maybe it could possibly be a webkit issue
No, I am Mac-less. Can anyone check this? But I don’t remember anyone ever mentioning seeing YPN with underlines in Safari before.
You can download Safari for windows. I’m gonna try to check tho
Yep, lines in safari:
screen shot
Re any potential “rigging” of Chrome’s behavior on the part of Google for competitive purposes, one important thing to note is that Chrome is open source, meaning that anybody can inspect in full the source code of the browser. If there’s any monkey business (that comes across as mean, anti-competitive, harmful to the consumer, etc), Google would get called out on it in a big way.
That’s a big benefit to open source software - it’s harder for the software providers to put secret stuff in.
Glad to know that Apple Safari does this too, so it’s a WebKit issue rather than a Google Chrome issue.
Jen I know there is no way to stop the underline but a work around is to use the webkit CSS to make them transparent… wrap class instruction around the YPN code and assign the color as transparent or color of background… do not know if it will work as don’t have a YPN account to play with at the moment.
text-underline-color
N/A
Syntax
Constants
activeborder, activecaption, appworkspace, aqua, background, black, blue, buttonface, buttonhighlight, buttonshadow, buttontext, captiontext, fuchsia, gray, graytext, green, grey, highlight, highlighttext, inactiveborder, inactivecaption, inactivecaptiontext, infobackground, infotext, lime, maroon, match, menu, menutext, navy, olive, orange, purple, red, scrollbar, silver, teal, threeddarkshadow, threedface, threedhighlight, threedlightshadow, threedshadow, transparent, -webkit-activelink, -webkit-focus-ring-color, -webkit-link, -webkit-text, white, window, windowframe, windowtext, yellow
Availability
Unsupported.
Support Level
CSS 2.1
or should I have said a possible work around
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lol
seriously i wouldnt consider this a showstopper. So some advertising companies need to change how they advertise to prevent their adds from looking ugly. Big deal. This would be at the bottom of my “to fix” list, as there are other more major issues, such as scrolling not working for many users.
I couldnt care less how adds are displated. I ignore then anyways.
I’m going to guess, i’m one of the few people who still hasn’t installed Chrome and probably never will.
there are so many advantages and features with Chrome, such as it’s speed, for example; now if only they would take care it’s flighty cookie management…
Did anyone really think this was intentional…?
Cmon its open source. People would have noticed something by now - in the source code
I have not tried safari but l hear its faster
I think it should be fixed ……………..
google chrome too slow to show my blogs, so i uninstalled
your ads look underlined in firefox on xandros linux (eee pc).
I just found this blog though and like it!
I think they fixed this for YAHOO. I was testing out YPN on my page (fleeforum.com). I cant seem to be able reproduce these ads with Chrome.
Can anyone comfirm this?
This is exactly what happens when there is monopoly. Google has been playing the game on its terms. With the advent of adsense and adwords it has taken up the entire world of online advertising and pushing out fringe players like YPN. Chrome seems like yet another step in that direction.
I think I will be staying away from Chrome, I lack space as it is, your very right, it looks ugly.
Safari definately has the same issue. Although, safari also has a few more tools and features than chrome. I don’t know what the fix is, but it makes site building annoying.
When Google Crome was launched first I used it to edit one of the DNN websites. You won’t believe after I pressed “Save” all my text was gone. Some how I pressed back and I got my page text back again. I quickly reverted back to Firefox. I am sure Google Crome is making the necessary changes in their browser.
This happens in Firefox on YPN ads occasionally.
I notice it about 1 out of 3 times on Yahoo ads withe firefox.