AdSense turned Ad Intents on via an "experiment", despite me having them switched off
Just a semi-warning to users out there that AdSense automatically started an "experiment" on my sites using the awful Ad Intents adverts.
I did have the experiment feature switched on, thinking it would only be minor experiments to adjust sizes, colours and the like. But finding a 50:50 experiment running with Ad Intents got the "experiment" feature turned off straight away.
Ad Intents are the adverts which appear to be links, and when a user clicks or hovers over them, they show an advert with an AI answer. It honestly looks like malware on a text-heavy site, with random links on random words. When I tested them, these adverts confused users into thinking they were genuine links.
I had Ad Intents switched off in my Ads settings, but the experiment ignored this and just started anyway. So much for the idea that the format is opt-in and entirely optional for publishers. But I guess the take-up rate is so low that this is the only way they can get anyone using it.