Amazon AdSense Ads

How long has Amazon been running sponsored links? I was looking at The Wreckers live album, and saw this in the listing:

Clicking on the ‘What is this?” link gives the following text:

SPONSORED LINKS
Sponsored Links are advertisements that Amazon.ca provides for you. We receive Sponsored Links from Google’s AdWords service. When you click on a Sponsored Link, we get revenue. The selection of Sponsored Links that are displayed is based on keywords. For example, if you search for “Bruce Springsteen” or view pages about Bruce Springsteen, the Sponsored Links may point to sites that sell tickets to his concerts or provide information about him. Sponsored Links are always clearly labelled.

Generating additional revenue from Sponsored Links allows us to offer you lower prices–something we are dedicated to doing in every way we can.

Really Amazon? You’re going to drop your prices because you’re making money from Google? You’re not just going to roll the profits into your quarterly earnings to make your shareholders happy? Yeah. That’s what I thought.

[I really do like Amazon though, I order a lot of stuff from them – pretty much every new book, DVD, and CD I buy comes from Amazon.ca…and I’d buy a lot more from them if Amazon Canada offered MP3s, electronics, etc.]