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June 27 2008
Google to tailor ads to individuals.
According to details posted on a New York Times blog Google has changed its AdWords ad placements to take in to account the searches a user has done in previous pages
The Bits blog post on the New York Times (http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/26/google-tests-using-your-search-data-to-tailor-ads-to-you/index.html) has revealed that Google is in the process of testing ways to improve it’s Ad Words relevance by choosing ads influenced by what was searched for a few minutes earlier.
The information came to light after a series of tests by Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray, who earlier this year started a series of tests looking at which ads were displayed in a series of queries on Google’s search engine. He found that the ads you see on one search may be influenced by what you searched for a few minutes ago. Search for “Baltimore dining,” then something else, and then “T-shirt” and sometimes you will get ads for T-shirts from Baltimore restaurants.
If the research is true then this marks a change in the way Google looks at previously stored search information. Up until now, all data collected from users on searches has been stored but not used.
Google changed its privacy policy a few years ago and warned users that it might capture personal information about them for reasons that include “the display of customised content and advertising.”
Nick Fox, a director of product management who looks after ads on Google’s search site, told the New York Times that the company was now testing the use of more search queries in its ad targeting.
Fox said “We are trying to understand what the user is trying to do right now. In some cases, those queries are ambiguous, so you need a little more context.”
As far as we’re concerned this can only be a good thing for everyone. It’s effectively doing what an effective loyalty card scheme does, but online, and how many people object to that? For advertisers it means you get a much better targeted ad, and for the user you get a much better targeted ad, where’s the problem?
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