As a long-term user of Google’s AdWords Editor, I have a strong (but treasured) love-hate relationship with the software.
I love it because it saves me time and makes my life easier. And I hate it because it’s quirky, ugly and feature-limited.
But as is often the case in a love-hate scenario, love wins. And I wouldn’t be without it. At least not at my own choosing.
However I’m starting to think that the life of AdWords Editor may soon be over.
It’s been more than five months since version 7.0 was released, and since then there hasn’t been a single update.
Version 6.5 was released in October 2008, and version 6 in June of the same year.
So we had a major release, four months later an update, two months later another major release, followed by 5+ months of silence.
I also get the feeling from Google’s Support that they handle a lot of AdWords Editor problems, but seem to have limited resources to deal with them. I myself have had some serious problems with Editor over the years, and Support were never once able to help me.
I’d also like to present my second piece of evidence: the new AdWords interface.
Buried in the midst of a small ocean of changes, we can also find the ability to copy keywords and ads into different ad groups, the ability to set up a new campaign based on existing settings and more. We can also see quite a lot of new information and settings, none of which are included in Editor.
The new interface, whether you love it or hate it, certainly looks new. AdWords Editor looks like a Windows 3.1 application.
From Google’s point of view, why should they continue to support and update a free piece of software? It isn’t going to convince people without an account to sign up, and ultimately, Google have us right where it hurts.
If they withdraw support for AdWords Editor, and announce that it will no longer work as of a certain date, what are we going to do? Close our accounts and defect to Yahoo?
I suspect that Google have decided when they’re going to kill AdWords Editor. I hope I’m wrong.
He may be a little odd, and he’s certainly ugly to look at, but he’s nice to have around.
Long live AdWords Editor.
