Adwords is Google's revenue engine. Advertisers pay to be included on Google's search engine results page as well as on targeted Web sites that host Google ads, ranging from personal blogs to local and topical news sites. When the user clicks on the Google ad, the advertiser pays. And when that ad is hosted on someone else's Web site, Google splits the revenue with that Web site owner. The program is called Adsense.

I used Adsense a year ago on my site and the revenue wasn't much to get excited about. I didn't like the sidebar clutter so I took them down after a month or so. But where $10 to $25/day isn't much money to a small business it is a lot of money to a small business in an emerging market.

Which is what this USA Today article is about. Says the article: "Thanks to Adsense, a blogger in New Delhi can earn the same 5 cents for an ad-click as a blogger in Detroit. For many Adsense users in the developing world, that opportunity has become perhaps the most unintentional — and most successful — development program to spring from the online revolution."

The article does note that fraud is a constant and looming issue, but still you gotta love the local success stories. Here's one in particular:

Deepesh Agarwal, who runs a small cybercafe in Rajasthan state, India, draws about 90% of his income, or $1,500 a month, from his Adsense earnings. It is a princely sum in a state where the average income is just $300 a year.

"Adsense has changed my life," Mr. Agarwal says. "I can afford things that I was not able to before. I am planning to buy a new car. I can save for my future."