Google Adsense seems to be testing new interactive ad units which consist of targeted keyword links beneath the usual Adsense links. I spotted it on a 468×60 Google Adsense unit on a website and got some screenshots…
The keyword links inside the Google Adsense unit are interactive. I was tempted to click the link (not on my site) to see what happened. I clicked on the first link “IP Lookup” and I got the ad below.
Since I got another unit with changed ads and new keyword links, I decided to click the first link again to see if the process continued forever, but then I got a usual Adsense unit without any links as below.
If you perform a mouse gesture for “back” on your mouse, you can easily browse back to the second and then the first ad unit without reloading the page! And this is not always a 3 step process, you can get the normal ad on the first click too.
It seems this Interactive adsense unit is a mix of the Link units and regular text ads unit. Clicking on these suggested links simply makes the units more targeted to the user needs and I assume the Adsense publisher earns money only when you actually click the text link ads. These links add to the clutter, but you never know when it becomes a regular features. All strange Adsense spottings become new features some day… if they work well.
More strange Adsense ads spotted previously are favicons, checkout icons, google logos, no titles, titles in italics and no ‘Ads by Google‘. Check them out.