Does adsense impact relevancy?

Referring to the searchenginewatch.com article "Hiding JavaScript" at
http://searchenginewatch.com/_subscr...le.php/2153181
does anyone know if having adsense javascript at or near the top of the page impacts relevancy of a page to other search engines?

The article implies that enclosing javascript in comment tags is not necessarily sufficient. Google has no comment with regard to other search engines - just Google. I asked the Google people and they gave me this (my questions at bottom):

----------------------

Hello Rob,

Thank you for your email. I understand you have some questions about how
your participation in AdSense might affect your search engine rankings.
First, please note that participation in AdSense has no effect on your
sites' PageRank, or its appearance in the main Google index.
Unfortunately, I have no information regarding how other search engines
might react to the AdSense ad code.

Regarding your second question, we do recommend publishers place their ads
above the fold of a page -- that is, the section of your page visible
without scrolling. This makes the ads more readily visible to your
visitors, increasing the opportunity for clicks. This and other
suggestions can be found on our tips page, at
https://www.google.com/adsense/tips

Finally, please note that we also recommend including the ad code in the
same file as your page's content. if you include the AdSense code in a
separate file, the AdSense code will be contained in a different URL from
the URL of the page. As a result, the referring URL for the AdSense code
will be the URL of the .js file instead of the URL of the page which
contains the main content. This could result in poorly targeted ads or
public service ads.

Also, the AdSense code itself is a block of HTML containing JavaScript
tags. If you place the code into a separate JavaScript file, you will most
likely need to modify the code so that the JavaScript will write out each
line (for instance, document.write("google_ad_width=468;"). However, it
is against our program policies to modify the AdSense code in any way.

However, if you wish to use an include file for the AdSense code, we
recommend that you implement the code using a server side include (SSI) so
that the AdSense ad code is displayed in the HTML source as if it were
directly implemented on the web page.

Please feel free to reply to this email if you have additional questions
or concerns.

Sincerely,

Khalil
The Google AdSense Team


Original Message Follows:
------------------------
1. Does the adsense javascript interfere with spidering of the site by
search engines?

2. Search engine optimization articles suggest moving javascript further
down the page, but it is more beneficial to have ad sense banners near to
the top. Can you advise on this?

3. Can the adsense code be placed in a .js file to get it off the page?
(without affecting ad sense's ability to send relevant ads).

Thanks
..Rob

---------------------------

[David Wallace]

1. No

2. It doesn't really matter where it is as far as SEO and search engines go.

3. As Google recommends, it is not good to place Google JavaScript in external file. you can place it in an include which is what I do on site that I run AdSense. That way it displays as html in the page and not as a separate file.