We have released Publisher Directory Keyword API, designed to provide an open platform for advertising networks and agencies looking to help monetize publishers who run advertising such as Google AdSense.

It is the first time we have opened up the millions of publishers and millions of keywords in a programming interface format which map the Google AdSense Publisher ecosystem around the world. We are not releasing it to the development community at large but working with specific clients.

As detailed below, whilst Google charges $0.25 per 1,000 requests – SearchForecast plans to provide a more open API with fewer restrictions and more features for community building.

Yesterday, a client pointed out to me what looks to be some serious shortcomings in the placement targeting tool on Google’s Content Network.

Upon further investigation of the “mangaement placement tool” used to find AdSense websites within  Google Adwords, I found that the keyword “expat” returned websites running in the Content Network  that didn’t even exist. The most curious of these was the URL “8793.anonymous.google” (which doesn’t even exist as a website yet Google say it has 10,000 – 100,000 impressions per month).. Click on the image below!

One of the benefits of our AdSense Directory is the open view of each keyword so you can view a summary of expat websites http://www.searchforecast.com/keyword-tags-publisher-directory/tags/expats. Google doesn’t provide that level of detail, limiting the decision making process when selecting websites within the Content Network.

With over 400,000 AdSense publishers in the  AdSense Directory, SearchForecast is providing more visibility into the AdSense ecosystem. Each publisher listed in the directory is connected by relevant keywords that each AdSense Publisher has actually written into their website, not keywords associated with it. For example, at http://www.searchforecast.com/google_adsense_publisher_directory/Expatriates.com, we show the other keywords which were written by the publisher indicating their intent when scribing their website.

The SearchForecast AdSense Directory has visitors from all over the world. In Europe, the Netherlands, Germany and France show the largest number of visitors to the AdSense Directory which is not surprising given the market share dominance of Google, particularly in Germany.

What is interesting is that  our crawler picks up AdSense Publishers in all countries – not only in English speaking AdSense websites. So if you are looking for AdSense publishers in Dusseldorf,   you can search for publishers in German keyword. An example for an adveriser looking to target German travel websites would be  flughafen,  flugplan, abflug, departure, ankunft.

One of the biggest analytical questions in the online advertising sector that remains largely a puzzle is how many AdSense websites there are and how much do they earn?

Today, we’re pleased to announced that our AdSense crawler has collected and databased over 418,000 AdSense Publishers which can be viewed on the AdSense Publisher Directory. We are continuing the crawl and update our Directory every day with new AdSense Publishers.

In some ways, we feel like we’re using the Abacus, the first calculating mechanism known to us.  It was invented sometime between 1,000 BC and 500 BC by the Babylonians and it was reintroduced by Pope Sylvester II. Let’s hope it doesn’t take us a 2,000 years to crack the code on Google’s $7Billion AdSense publishing network.

Over 17,000 visitors from 155 countries viewed the SearchForecast AdSense Directory in March 2010. These visitors came from 3,859 cities! Each AdSense Publisher page includes resources to help publishers from around the world connect and learn how to increase revenues from their website.

The AdSense Community is about 7 years old and contributes over $7 Billion of  Google revenue each year.

In March 2010, over 800 visitors from Spain and 700 from Brazil visited our AdSense Directory.  The Latino/Hispanic AdSense Publishers represent a powerful force in global online publishing and offer amazingly untapped potential for adnetworks and advertisers.

With over 350,000 AdSense Publishers listed in the AdSense Directory, our mission is to help connect those publishers in one country to others – helping them increase their knowledge and network in a particular field or area of interest.

Together we can build a better world, understand more cultures, religions and make friends with our online neighbors as we share a common interest and passion – even though we may not live in the same country.

Our mission at SearchForecast is to help the online publishing community connect.

The AdSense Directory now features Google Maps, the AdSense Calendar & Video Tips.

By adding Google Maps to AdSense Directory Pages, it is easier for advertisers to find where the AdSense Publisher is located. Although the publisher lives in New York, the website is focused on walking tours and shopping promenades in Paris. Basing the map on the relevant keywords the publisher uses on their website provides a more accurate location in terms of keyword relevance – which helps advertisers find new website using the AdSense Directory

The AdSense Directory helps advertisers target globally orientated publishers.

We have also added the AdSense Calendar to AdSense Directory Pages it allows AdSense Publishers to stay in touch with important dates for their online publishing business. We hope these additions to the AdSense Publisher Directory will improve the experience for both publishers and advertisers.

A question many people are asking is how does Searchforecast collect all the websites in the AdSense Directory. Our proprietary crawler has been running for many years now and each day collects websites that are running AdSense. Each day, we migrate the data and de-duplicate the database, so the websites and keywords are always fresh.

Our engineers manually oversee the de-duplication ensuring the database integrity. Here’s a daily report we push around internally…

Web Crawler Report
1: De duplicate 49,000 URLs from new crawled data
2: Updated the existing URLs, Title, Description & Keywords.
3: Removed duplicates URLs, Publish /Tags URLs
4: Monitoring the Crawler Load & CPU

Existing Database Total: 3,340,234
Newly URLs: 47,191
Total After Merging URLs: 3,387,425

Google Adwords Advertisers and PPC specialists have been using the SearchForecast AdSense Directory for targeting across the Google Content Network. With over 350,000 AdSense Publishers indexed by 1.2 million keywords, the AdSense Directory provides a targeting placement tool that allows websites to be identified and added to the “Managed Placements” section of the Content Network within Google Adwords.

The product originated because of the understanding I gained through Adwords professionals like David Rodnitzky from PPC Associates and Shelley Ellis who are helping clients target sites across the once blind Content Network which Google generates $7 billion a year from!

It’s worthwhile noting that “managed placement” will work only if Google gives you managed placement status. In other words, if you are running AdSense on XYZ123.com and Google has not yet identified that site as being qualified as a managed placement, the advertiser can’t target that directly via Google Adwords – but that’s not to say they can’t contact that website and deal directly with the publisher.

Growing up in Australia, I understand the power of China – our Asia Pacific sleeping dragon. Slow to uptake the Internet, the dragon has breathed fire into Building 43 at Googleplex and now with the Google.cn closure almost certain, we have seen the traffic from China to our AdSense Directory increase over the past month.