Is Google getting ready to serve up display ads to people based on their Web surfing habits (as opposed to their Web searching habits)? Ever since the DoubleClick acquisition closed, industry watchers have been waiting to see how Google would dip its toes into behavioral ad targeting. One rumor going around is that Google is going to target ads to people who use the Google Toolbar, which is now bundled with Dell PCs.
The rumor came to us via an online measurement startup that expects Google to make an announcement about a new service leveraging the Google Toolbar at the upcoming Audience Measurement 3.0 conference later this month, which Google is sponsoring.
The rumor could be an attempt to spread FUD, but it is not just startups that are playing the privacy card. In a discussion with Washington Post editors and reporters on June 4th, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer raised a similar privacy issue in relation to the Dell deal (see video below):
Why is that toolbar there? Do you think it is there to help you? No. It is there to report data about everything you do on your PC.
Now that Google’s age of innocence is over, competitors will be bringing up privacy concerns every chance they can. Google already collects so much data on what people do on the Web. With the increasingly widespread toolbar, though, Google gathers data well beyond the search bar.
Since the Google Toolbar can track every site you visit, that data could theoretically be used to target ads served by Google (including DoubleClick display ads anywhere on the Web, or to further refine search ads). For instance, you could browse a Lumix digital camera on Amazon, and then see ads for digital cameras when you land on an unrelated travel site that happens to serve up DoubleClick ads. Or perhaps the next time you do a search on Google, it will push a Lumix ad out to you. Google could also use the data to create a Web measurement service that competes with comScore, Quantcast, Hitwise, or Compete.
These are all hypothetical at this point. But there is nothing stopping Google from doing so. Per Google’s general privacy policy, it reserves the right to process “personal information” for the purpose of:
Providing our products and services to users, including the display of customized content and advertising;
And the separate Google Toolbar privacy policy doesn’t say anything specifically about not using the data it collects for advertising purposes. In fact, it notes that:
Certain optional Toolbar features operate by sending Google the addresses or other information about sites when you visit them.
But it also notes that users can disable the toolbar’s ability to collect personal data if they choose (presuming they can figure out how to do that). At the very least, Google has certainly thought about doing something like this. One patent issued last March describes a way of:
tracking user behavior, determining a user topic interest (e.g., from a plurality of different candidate topics) based on the monitored behavior, and serving ads relevant to the determined user topic interest.
Google did not respond to an email I sent asking whether it intends to use the Google Toolbar to target ads at users.
If Google does start targeting ads based on Web surfing habits, you can be sure that Microsoft and others will add that to its list of concerns it brings to Washington. Ballmer, in that same discussion quoted above, believe it or not, relishes the prospect of competing against Google on privacy. Here is a fuller excerpt from the video above:
One of the things you can reward users on is their privacy. You can literally say, “Hey look, you will cede this data to us if you use our search engine, but we are going to pay you.” And it’s a trade. If your don’t like the trade, it’s ok. Don’t use our search engine or don’t use it in a certain way. And there will be competition between us and Google and whoever else along that line.
. . .the number of people who have any clue what data is being collected or not being collected by them—Any of you own a Dell PC at home, personally? There is not much about you it does not know . . . to Google, because it is their toolbar. We just won the HP deal, but anyway.
Why is that toolbar there? Do you think it is there to help you? No. It is there to report data about everything you do on your PC. I am not trying to say this is nefarious or bad, I am just saying being clear is probably the most important thing. And any user can say, “This is clear and this is OK with me.”
I actually think we are going to have to compete on privacy policy.
When he says he is willing to pay users to give up their privacy, he is being literal. Who would you trust more with your privacy, Google or Microsoft? I’m not sure I trust either one.
They have your shopping habits if you use Google Checkout…..
I personally don’t care if Google collects data about my surfing habits or not. I would much rather see ads that suit my needs than the random, ‘flatten your belly’ or ‘find guys in your area’. The thought of Microsoft raising privacy fears is frickin’ hilarious. Google is more secure than any other system. I wouldn’t trust Microsoft with anything.
doubelclick?
I think it’s been fairly obvious that they’re pushing a heavy ad strategy. Same with android. The only thing that really distinguishes between it and symbian is the interface and that it’s a platform for pushing ads.
I have been using Google Toolbar for quite long, and those privacy advocates who are trying to raise concern should also know that Google does ask a user whether they want to share data or not. So for those who do have privacy concerns should simply say no and shut up.
He who sacrifices freedom for toolbars deserves neither.
Of course Google is going to use the toolbar data.
Google is launching more and more applications not for the fun of it. They do it for data. Google is a data company. The understand advertising is all about the data you have.
And as Display advertising will go to more and more BT solutions, Google will have to go to this direction also. A few months ago they already started to allow some advertisers use demographics data to target ads. This is just the first phase of a full BT solution which, I i will put my money on, will be launched in the next 18 months.
My thoughts on Google’s toolbar privacy features
i think i will install the toolbar just so i _can_ give them more data about me!
Or you could use AdBlock and ignore text ads and live happily enough…
@mga911
How did I know some retard would post that?
Who cares?!?!
If it does start profiling our ads an awful lot guys are going to have to figure out a way to explain all the ads for Viagra that suddenly appear on their computers.
http://www.imageco.com
Of course they’re using the toolbar to track and target. The big surprise is that people think they aren’t.
That reminds me that I have been using Google Toolbar for like .. forever!
Hmmm … Should I click on Uninstall?
I am sure lots of people will be thinking about that after reading this post. But don’t be paranoid.. I am sureeee Google is not “Evil” .. (psst.. they are already working on a special technology just to redefine that word as we speak)
So yeah.. don’t be paranoid
Aaaaaand just uninstalled the toolbar. It was redundant anyway, since I get my GMail using Digsby etc. I’m all for a little targeting, but there is a limit, for me. Ballmer makes a good point: privacy is now a selling point. I guess it’s always been a chit insofar as Web use goes — the difference is that now people are becoming more aware of it.
Is the Google Toolbar a Trojan Horse?
Trojan?! - Re-check the definitions please.
Google is already using your searches to target you(Just not with ads currently)
They do it with RSS feeds in Google reader, for example they recommended a feed to me related to an industry(I wont say what) that i do not even have 1 feed subscription! Nothing related to that at all.
The only interactions i had in that industry was i purchased a product (Online) via Google checkout, and joined a few Google groups. But here’s the killer part, the RSS feed they recommended to me, was recommended in an entirely different account then the one i used for Google checkout and to sign up for these groups.
This is just freaky!
Microsoft can never kill Google. Google will die itself by natural causes.
WOW
back in the day i used to sell software that i could bundle with various add-ons to make money. most of it was spyware so i refused. however you could install the google toolbar to make $1. wow! google~! the best search engine ever, of course i have to promote this, anddd i get a dollar?
whoops
Of course it will be used for tracking you, and the same can be said of Windows Live Messenger, or MSN Explorer, these systems all exist to increase the advertising revenue for the supplier
@Everyone (comment #10)
I’m curious about the “DoubelClick” question - it’s incorrect three times in the post; correct not even once. Is this some sort of boycott, or attempt to get around a bot?
Two words:
who cares.
is this somehow more nefarious than reading your emails to serve you ads?
A track for this post… (to view all the links one after the other)
http://www.jogtheweb.com/reade.....rackId=104
Targeting has one T in it. (mentioned in the least smug, critical way I possibly can)
Even without the Google Toolbar, I have a sense that Google knows where I spend my time about 40% of a given day. I use their search engine, I use their email, a lot of sites are either using AdSense or Google Analytics and I usually hit their maps app a couple of times. These are disparate data sources, but collating these into my singular identity is just the type of geeky problem I expect Google types get off on. I’m pretty sure Google is already targeting me with all of the data I’ve given them. I’m quite certain they can tell you where I live without a 10-block radius.
Yes, it kind of gives me the creeps. However, until they prove untrustworthy, I’m willing to play their game.
Personally I prefer targeted ads if I need to have flies in my soup to get it for free (new metaphor I am trying out for ads and how they impact content value
Small point, but I thought behavioral targeting was already inclusive of search history. Search is simply one set of indicators of behavior, but in order to have real relevance or context we would need more than search history.
@bitpakkit
It’s called Google “Web History.” I think they rolled it out to a small percentage of their authenticated users. It’s promoted as…
Web History: All the web sites you visit, at your fingertips.
View your web activity.
Search the full text of pages you’ve visited.
Get personalized search results and more.
Google Toolbar already sends your browsing history back to Google home base if you enable the PageRank feature.
That’s how it is able to show you the pretty PageRank icon.
RTFM
http://www.google.com/support/.....swer=14292
“PageRank: We collect the URLs of the pages users visit so we can send the corresponding PageRank (our score of the page’s importance). This feature is only turned on if the user affirmatively chooses to enable it during installation or from the Options menu.”
Apt, that the ads currently running along the side of this article for Mate1 is reading the ip address and serving the content … nice to know some 25 year old called lara4u is looking for a hot date in my area … girlfriend asked if I was on a porn site.
our data is everywhere, the data miners are more than happy, they just need to work out how to sublimely NLP us to cha ching.
Naw its not nefarious.
Is it different than checking emails for ads. I think we should feek OK if everything is done by computer algorithms, and we have that much faith in Big G .i.e Google
Sorry but video comments are pointless if they have to await moderation and text comments don’t.
@Peter - Try throwing the word V i g r a into a comment and see if it doesn’t get moderated.
It is better than TechCrunches tool bar which didn’t allow comments about it.
All companies sell our data, it makes things actually relevant and hopefully prevents me from ever seeing organic tampon ads again.
The question I have is does Google really have any real competition online for ad revenue anymore?
I want to speak in support of Google and expressed support some people, that Google, unlike many others, warns of information collection and provides an opportunity to turn it off.
Google loves personal data. Any company looking to optimize their ad targeting abilities will do just about anything for some user data.
There are a few crucial ideas and concepts people can consider and act upon to hit any goal you set for yourself in business.
The Law of Attraction
Neural research shows that when you think positively towards a certain idea or object, every time you think of it in the future, positive neural chemicals are released in your brain, influencing you to take a positive stance on whatever it is you are thinking about… http://www.readtheanswer.com/index.php?rta=blog
@Kayembee. Great way to discover the post. Thx.
I wonder if the Techcrunch guys will use this way of showing their posts?
Google and Yahoo are the biggest spyware companies of the world doing it legaly. Both companies are using different technics of generating installs.
Usually you just understand you have forgoten that checkbox when you were installing acrobat or div-x or you just get a new pc with a nice toolbar.
Yes, google does *ask*.
But 99.9% of users absolutelly don’t care about privacy.
Try promoting a privacy software - it won’t get installed even if it’s free.
Using browsing habbits to track ads allows to avoid paying high ad prices for high value websites. For example techcrunch and linkedin audience is extremly valueble, so if you could follow the visitors of techcrunch around the web - it would influence the prices on techcrunch itself. I am not sure if google dares to use this data officially.
To the 34% that voted for Google, why would you trust one corporate entity over another? Why is there a belief that MSFT, YHOO or GOOG would do anything to personally benefit you ahead of their corporate goals? As time marches on, we will all begin to see just how far Google has taken your ‘private’ information and turned into more coin on their bottom line.
Any corporation that is creating value off of customer activity will eventually create a sour taste in the mouths of their consumers. As we begin to see more of a movement towards privacy in our lives (as opposed to the current open sourcing of every detail of our personal lifes), there will be a greater emphasis placed on this, unfortunately, by that time it will likely be too late for many of us to do anything about the oodles of private information that we have shared.
It is a shame that the marketplace doesn’t value privacy unless it is forced to.
Dewey,
Give it a rest. Do you think google would do it if millions and billions of people said hell no? People don’t care because we understand the game. We get nice free tools and they get our info to give us relevent ads. It is a fair tradeoff.
The problem with Microsoft is you have to buy all their tools.
Imma gonna have to agree with you there, Michael. The privacy implications of googles cookies is astonishing — but dont go for the proxy; be our george and to for the head of the dragon.
Google is the very definition of evil; and the path to hell is paved with good intentions. As always. So who’s gonna call it for the rest of us?
go for the head of the dragon
Spelling error in the article:
You wrote:
“you will seed this data to us if you use our search engine…”
I think what he really said is:
“you will cede this data to us if you use our search engine…”
i.e. “cede” not “seed”
bob wyman
If you don’t trust google, why are you using their analytics software on your site?
“Now that Google’s age of innocence is over”
it is amazing how the self-reference here is sick, so since yesterday google’s innocence is officially over? Google was an innocent company all this time and nobody told me. Thanks TC.
Funny that nobody is mentioning Gmail. I use email even more than I surf, and Google probably already know more about us this way already.
So unless you start encrypting your emails with a tool like http://www.cGeep.com don’t expect Google to know nothing about you.
hey TC Guys what is going on with this google news. Did you get a blank check by microsoft.
Google add this toolbar but what about windows…
Google is more scary than Microsoft. why not respect people’s privacy and allow opt out. ask.com has “eraser” option that deletes search queries. why can’t google implement it.
Well, maybe I am a bit paranoid, but it is not going to be fun if Google becomes another Microsoft. Tired of any form of monopoly.
@43 completely agree
I’d have to say I’d trust Google with my privacy a lot more than Microsoft. As Google refused to give data in 98is to the Justice Department. Every website you visit collects usage data.