It looks like Identi.ca (which is developed by the same folks who created Status.net) has decided to sever its relationship with AdBard in search for greener pastures and greater revenues.
Apparently the companies switch upset some of their users, as Identi.ca is currently (as of this post) using AdSense, although the company explains the reason behind the switch in an appeal to its users.
As mentioned before, we have been using AdBard on Identi.ca for almost 8 months. Although we support what AdBard is doing, we haven’t been getting the kind of ad rates that we expected. AdBard is covering about 5-7% of the hosting costs of running identi.ca, with nothing left over to cover any percentage of the salaries of the people who support the site.
StatusNet, Inc — our business — is a small Open Source business focused primarily on a) selling software subscriptions to enterprise customers and b) providing premium upgrades to the status.net cloud service. We continue to support identi.ca single-handedly because we believe in the idea and in the community. It’s a great “home planet” for the federated network of social sites we’re trying to build. We love the site, we love the community, and the last thing we want to do is spoil the experience for people there. (Official Status.net Blog)
For those of you unfamiliar with Ad Bard, it’s an advertising network who boasts itself as “the ad network for ethical computing” who caters towards users and developers in the free software community.
Users apparently championed Identi.ca’s embrace of Ad Bard early on, and Status.net’s reversal caused an outcry (albeit minor) within the community, despite the fact that Ad Bard wasn’t exactly paying the bills.
While Status.net choice of AdSense isn’t surprising (do to Google’s low barrier of entry), the company might want to consider other alternatives (i.e. Say Media or perhaps even Microsoft if the community will tolerate their presence).
Hopefully Identi.ca is able to find a viable (and profitable) partner in the future, as they are one of the few major alternatives for geeks and bloggers whenever a fail whale shows up unannounced.
