AdWords Down for Four Hours

AdWords is Google's flagship advertising product and main source of revenue and as such it must be treated with respect and care. Respect from our part because it is what made Google the giant it is today, care on their side, because nobody wants to let the golden egg laying hen get old and die. Instead they have set a rigorous health-maintenance program for it with periodical check-ups.

Blake, "Inside AdWords" crew blogged that "On Saturday, November 10th, the AdWords system will be unavailable from approximately 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. PST due to our regularly scheduled maintenance. While you won't be able to sign in to your accounts during this time, your campaigns will continue to run as usual. We'll continue to update you via the blog as we always have, but you may want to take note of our intended dates and times to help you plan for any scheduled downtimes further down the road."

AdWords offers pay-per-click (PPC) advertising and site-targeted advertising for both text and banner ads. The AdWords program includes local, national and international distribution. Google's text advertisements are short, consisting of one title line and two content text lines. Image ads can be one of several different Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) standard sizes.

The AdWords product was launched in 2000. At first advertisers would pay a monthly amount and Google would set up and manage their campaign. To accommodate small businesses and those who wanted to manage their own campaigns, Google soon introduced the AdWords self-service portal. As of 2005, Google provides a campaign management service called Jumpstart to assist advertisers in setting up their campaigns. In 2005, Google launched the Google Advertising Profesional (GAP) Program to certify individuals and companies who have completed AdWords training and passed an exam, according to Wikipedia.