Product or service · Advertising and business

AdSense, Google ads on other sites (2003)

In March 2003 Google launched contextual ads, which analyzed a page's subject and showed related sponsored links. In June, the AdSense program added self-service sign-up: a site pasted a snippet of HTML and earned money per click.

There is no official image with documented origin for this record yet. The museum prefers showing no image to using one of uncertain origin.

March 4, 2003

Google AdSense

Product or service · Advertising and business · Active

sources · timeline 2000–2004

Interpretive reconstruction · Classic serif Early-2000s conventions: white background, small sans-serif text, dense blue links. Does not reproduce any Google page.

Dates

March 4, 2003 Launch · exact date [1]
June 18, 2003 General availability · exact date [2]

What the sources say

Claim	Record	Confidence	Sources
First partners	Knight Ridder sites and HowStuffWorks	2 · Single primary source	[1] primary
Advertisers in the network	More than 100,000 Statement	2 · Single primary source	[1] primary[2] primary
Context technology	CIRCA, from Applied Semantics, acquired in April 2003	2 · Single primary source	[3] primary
Official blog in Portuguese	Live since September 18, 2006	2 · Single primary source	[4] primary

What the confidence levels mean

Historical captures

No archived capture has been located for this record yet.

Sources

Google Builds World's Largest Advertising and Search Monetization Program — Google (press release), March 4, 2003. Source primary · accessed November 2, 2026 · look for a copy on the Internet Archive
Google Expands Advertising Monetization Program for Websites — Google (press release), June 18, 2003. Source primary · accessed November 2, 2026 · look for a copy on the Internet Archive
Google Acquires Applied Semantics — Google (press release), April 23, 2003. Source primary · accessed November 2, 2026 · look for a copy on the Internet Archive
The blog archive files the post under 2004, but the press release text is dated April 23, 2003.
Olá, AdSense! — Official AdSense blog in Portuguese, September 18, 2006. Source primary · accessed November 2, 2026 · in Portuguese · look for a copy on the Internet Archive

What still needs documenting

When AdSense began accepting Portuguese-language sites (the 2006 Portuguese blog does not prove that date)

On GD

GD has followed Google since 2006. Search GD for “Google AdSense” (in Portuguese)

How to cite

"AdSense, Google ads on other sites (2003)", Google Museum (GD), https://gd.eurisko.com.br/museu/en/collection/adsense/, CC BY 4.0. Reviewed on November 2, 2026.

ID: adsense · Reviewed on November 2, 2026