Now right off the bat, I am aware that a number of people are pretty upset about this. To be honest, I don’t get the big deal about Google offering ads in RSS feeds. If it means one less popup ad, I say it is a fair exchange in moderation.

Google Inc. has begun testing the inclusion of text ads in Web content distributed through syndication technologies such as RSS or Atom, the Mountain View, California company announced Tuesday.

Web publishers are increasingly making their sites’ content available via syndication, and the ability to include ads in feeds such as RSS (Really Simple Syndication) opens up a new revenue opportunity for them.

Google’s program, an extension of its AdSense network, will include in the feeds text ads that are relevant to the content being distributed. When readers click on the ads, Google will split with the publishers the fees it charges to advertisers.

Once Web publishers get approved for the AdSense for Feeds program, Google will provide them with lines of code they need to add to their feeds to trigger the inclusion of text ads.

Google acknowledged in late April that it was working on this after a blogger disclosed details about his participation in this beta program. [Read the rest]