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Is Google watching your surfing habits all the more closely to target ads that would serve your personal needs? Perhaps you haven't taken note, but a member on WebmasterWorld did.
I'm currently working on my personal site and I just happen to read some of the ads.They are very off-topic for my site. But they are exactly my interests.
He says that he has browsed related sites and discussed the topic within his Gmail account -- and he suspects that this is the cause of the ad targeting.
Google has enough information for the personalized ads to be pretty targeted, so I wouldn't be surprised at this direction. Other members feel the same way.
Very interesting! I haven't seen this myself and haven't heard any news, but I wouldn't be surprised if Google was starting to implement "behavioral targeting" - seems to be the future of advertising. And between Search and Gmail and a bunch of other programs, Google is certainly building up quite a bank of information on people's interests!
Barry says that this is very farfetched for the time being. I think it's a likely direction with all the information Google has amassed about its users.
Have you noticed these extremely targeted ads? Let the readers at WebmasterWorld know.
Comments:
Marek
04/26/2007 02:53 pm
MySpace could use some of this *new* Google technology... :) Their ads are useless.
Barry Schwartz
04/26/2007 02:53 pm
AKA --- behavioral targeting...
Loren Baker
04/26/2007 03:32 pm
I've been noticing AdSense ads targeted to my web surfing and post-search behavior for a good while now, especially on MySpace. The ads shown there are targeted to the searches I've performed and profile information. I list Pearl Jam as one of my music interests, and on almost every admin page (not my profile page) I'm served ads for Pearl Jam Ringtones :) Have I seen this outside of MySpace? Nope. But since MySpace Google Ads are low quality, the guess it trying to raise the CTR% based on my web usage and personality traits.
Marek
04/26/2007 10:19 pm
Loren, do are you logged in to Google while online? Do you use Google Toolbar?
emad
04/29/2007 03:00 am
and now, with doubleclick...