A new and important trend is emerging amongst the best of the documentation and eLearning sites.  Both Adobe and HP are delivering in product contextual ads based on user search queries.  While Google has been doing this for some time, they don’t control corporate ads on corporate search sites. 

It’s important because technical documentation has always been seen as a necessary cost of doing business.  With contextual product ads, companies like Adobe and HP can recoup some of their documentation expense by delivering relevant ads when a user performs a search. 

   Adobe Community Help Search Results

HP Contextual Search Results

In the future, you’ll see more cross selling ads and promotional ads in search.  The tools exist today to deliver a similar experience for your company.  Most require customization and a general sense of what people are searching on. 

Relevant, focused ads make sense especially when the user is looking to do due diligence on a product.  If I am satisfied with your documentation on an issue I am having, then it’s OK to show me how to buy the solution.  That works for most people.