Max Waterman just wrote a comment about our Ad-powered Download! client beta trial that ended in December 2007:

I’d still like to know what the results of this trial were. The silence is deafening and, frankly, not encouraging.

Apologies Max for the delay. Here’s the wrap-up email that the development team had asked me to share:

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the Advertising-Powered Download! client beta trial. In the end, 312 people took the time to complete the online survey and provide us with great guidance to develop this concept further. More than 3 quarters of all participants told us they’d be happy to download advertising-sponsored applications, and the concept overall received a ‘Good’ rating. It was a contentious topic with some participants, however, and it shows that the ability to opt-out of receiving advertisements is important. Perhaps not surprisingly, the most popular type of ads were those that related to the content that was being browsed in Download!, although a relatively big group of respondents didn’t mind what kind of ads were displayed as long as they still received the benefit of more free application downloads. The trial was completed at the end of December and one lucky participant in the UK was awarded the Nokia E65 prize. Thanks again to everyone who took part.

In addition, here are my personal recommendations from the study:

• Relevancy. Two reasons: (1) better user experience, and (2) more money via higher click-through rates.
• Privacy and sense of privacy. Don’t be creepy.
• Don’t inconvenience people. Usability & user experience first.
• Search advertising or permission advertising over interruption advertising.