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I also run adsense both for content and for search. I have not had a problem with Google googling my site prior to setting up adsense and with the standard robots.txt file. Most of my site has been indexed and google has been finding new content on my site pretty quickly.
I just changed my robots.txt to incorporate the suggested language from Google, thinking that it could only enhance the indexing that Google already does so well. Now it looks like this:
User-agent: Mediapartners-Google*
Disallow: /cgi-bin/
Disallow: /tmp/
Disallow: /cache/
Disallow: /class/
Disallow: /images/
Disallow: /include/
Disallow: /install/
Disallow: /kernel/
Disallow: /language/
Disallow: /templates_c/
Disallow: /themes/
Disallow: /uploads/
I do have some question whether the "user-agent" line limits the robots to google or simply assists google robots in knowing that this is a site that is running Google adsense, i.e., is a media partner. I would guess that it is the latter rather than the former.
Google explicitly claims that running adsense will not enhance your google search rating and positioning. The old "separation of church and state" thing. . Or if you prefer, the "chinese wall" between "ad and edit" for those in the publishing business. Don't believe it! It only makes sense that Google search listings would want to consider "mediapartner yes/no" as a variable in rating sites, because the more traffic sent to mediapartner rather than non-mediapartner sites, the more money for Google. They may have a mantra "don't be evil" but that doesn't stop them from trying to make bank, and all else being roughly equal, who would you rather send traffic to?
