Google announced today that it will begin to gradually retire public service ads (PSAs) from AdSense sites.

PSAs are unpaid ads that would appear on publisher sites when Google was unable to serve a paid ad – for example, when relevant ads were unableable or if a publisher exceeded the amount of time to verifity their address by receiving a personal identification number (PIN).

For Adsense publishers this means that if you selected “Show public servce ads” in the AdSesene interface, you will begin to see a blank space appear instead of a PSA. Those Adsense publisher that opted show non-Google ads or to show a solid color will not be affected.

Another small but important side note - Google will continue to support its non-profit partners with free AdWords advertising through Google Grants.