How does the google ads script work?

[thecard]

I have been studying the google remote scripts for some time.

 

I know that the google ad script must:

 

1) Find out the domain name (easy in js).

 

2) Then select information from a database according the domain name.

 

3) Then output the information retrieved from the database.

 

But how does the script do this? Surely you would need a server side script to do this, not just a .js file!

 

agh!

[BlueSkyIS]

Javascript can talk to PHP directly via Ajax, or simply append parameters to a PHP script URL, e.g.,

 

window.open('somegooglescript.php?browser=IE&domain=whatever.com'), etc....

[thecard]

I understand that, but if its ajax, how does it work across domains?

[thecard]

And just using the query strings...I'm not sure that would work.

[PHPTOM]

You call an external JS file. So then it just document.write's the ads? The external file isn't a JS file. It's a PHP file or another language but then dubbed via MOD_rewrite or something similar to be a .js.

 

It will have the header text/javascript I believe

[thecard]

So how do you exactly make a php file look like a javascript file (using MOD_rewrite).

So does the php get executed on the browser side?

[PHPTOM]

PHP is executed server side as normal.

.htaccess:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^ads\.js$ ads.php

 

 

ads.php:

header('Content-type: application/javascript');
//You can do PHP stuff. But when you want to echo stuff do document.write
echo "document.write('hello world')";

 

 

Now you can do

<script type="text/javascript" src="ads.js" />

 

I don't know if this will actually work. But there is a chance

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[BlueSkyIS]

to clarify, the way adsense ads works (at least the content ads): each ad has it's own identifier, included in the javascript. a special google spider (mediapartners) visits the page with the ad placed on it to collect keywords and determine the most relevant ads for your content. when the ad .js is executed, ads relevant to your content are served, based on the spider information. no magic involved. the domain name may have little or nothing at all to do with the ads served.

[thecard]

Is there a way of doing this without using a spider?