Adsense Portal

One of the most frequently used techniques used to disguise ads is the use of images next to the ad unit. For example if a series of pics are placed closed to a rectangular ad unit then they look like links which lead to whatever the pics show. Or alternatively if you keep a series of pics at the top of the page and then keep a leaderboard underneath it then too it looks more like the navigation bar that it is supposed to look like. Now what happens is that many people click on these ads either because: 1) They think that it is a part of the site navigation. 2) They think it is a link to the site which the picture is supposed to represent. People who reach websites in this way will generally disinterested in the products on the page. This is bad for the advertiser who paid to bring them there.
And Google doesnot want that to happen. So it has started stopping publishers from doing that. New Google rules stipulate that you cannot place images very close to the ads. If you are adamant on placing images close to them then you have to at least keep a line separating the ad unit from the images. If this trend of blocking Adsense publishers from disguising their ads goes on there might soon be a day when Google will allow us to do nothing but just to just copy paste the default ads. This is one more jolt to us publishers and one more shot in the arm for publishers.
One of them who could be banned is here. Notice how there are no borders there.