I was searching the web yesterday, doing some research on a certain product for work. Obviously, I was signed into my Google account at the time.
A few minutes later, I visited a web site featuring "Ads by Google," and what did I see? Yep, an ad for the product I'd be searching for earlier! Now, this could have been a coincidence, but I doubt it, and I think it's really cool!
Ever since the announcement of Google's new privacy policy came out, people have been bitching no end about it. I don't understand why.
If you think about it, the vast majority of Google's revenue comes from advertising. Every time you click on an "Ad by Google" on a random website, the company pays Google - and Google pays the website owner. If this wasn't so, we'd have to pay Google directly for all the wonderful services they provide for us... how else would they stay in business? What's more, the system I've just described has helped countless individuals and small businesses justify the cost of maintaining a presence on the web, something they would never be able to afford otherwise. I, personally, host a couple websites containing Google ads. This very blog that you're reading is supported in part by Google ads!
Google used to (and still does) target the ads that people see based on keywords on the page on which they appear. The logic being that if someone were browsing a web site about cars, they'd be more likely to click on ads appearing on that website, that are about cars. This logic works in theory, but falls over in practice, where the average person views many different pages in any given day.
The new system is way better. Combined with the old system, it keeps track of everything you search for while signed into your Google account, as well as the things that you share, comment on and "+1" on Google+. Using this information, Google believes it can show you ads that you're more likely to click on.
It's still not perfect, but I say anything that can help to make the web more engaging and valuable to me has got to be a good thing!
So what's the problem, anyway?
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