The whole idea of AdSense is made possible by the ingenious mathematical algorithm devised by the folks at Google. As explained by PoisedGuru, Google analyzes the words on a Web page and how they are used, then generates ads appropriate to the content. But like Star Trek's Mr. Spock, the AdSense algorithm, while highly intelligent, has trouble understanding the wiles of the human mind and heart, often with amusing results.

The less text there is, the fewer words AdSense has to analyze, and types of writing that are not in straightforward narrative form are difficult. Poetry, in particular, gives AdSense fits.

For the poem "Leaking in the yard," which mentions leaves and ants, AdSense yesterday generated the following ads:
"Pest control services"
"Rid your yard of ticks"
"Get rid of fleas for less," and
"Rat zappers $29.99"

The poem "When Your Soft Body Lay In Sweet Repose" similarly stumped AdSense. The algorithm correctly figured that the word "repose" has to do with relaxing or tiredness, and ran with it. Here are the ads it generated yesterday:
"Legs restless?"
"Migraine headaches"
"Chronic fatigue syndrome"
"Pepper can stop headaches"
Finally it seemed to recognize that this xombyte was a poem, and included the ad "Free poetry contest."

Unfortunately, when I went back to these articles today AdSense had generated ads that were different and more appropriate to the content, though not nearly as fun to read.

The good news is that today I was able to find at least one article–a straightforward essay at that–that threw AdSense for a loop. AdSense somehow thought the article "Follow the Pope that Failed?" was about financial management, and served ads for "Portfolio Diversification," "Inflation Indexed Annuity," and "Global Software Management."

AdSense is an amazing tool that is accurate most of the time, and I don't mean to bite the hand that feeds me. I'm just pointing out an amusing side effect of its algorithm; it's kind of like early Palm Pilot handwriting recognition systems that often misinterpreted words with hilarious results.

I'm sure Google will continue to tweak its programs for more accurate results. But for the time being, the AdSense algorithm is sometimes prone to answering human emotions with a puzzled, Spock-like "That's illogical!"

But hey, at least now I know where I can buy a rat zapper for under 30 bucks.