Google to Serve Ads Based on Browsing History

Google has announced the launch of "Interest-based" advertising as a beta test for the company’s partner sites and on YouTube. In other words, Google will be serving ads based on sites users visit.

Google will allow you to choose categories for ads you want to see. You can also tell them categories you don’t want to see ads for. Advertisers can target ads to users based on past interactions they’ve had with them. Here’s what Google says about three important features of Interest-Based Advertising:

- Transparency - We already clearly label most of the ads provided by Google on the AdSense partner network and on YouTube. You can click on the labels to get more information about how we serve ads, and the information we use to show you ads. This year we will expand the range of ad formats and publishers that display labels that provide a way to learn more and make choices about Google’s ad serving.

- Choice – We have built a tool called Ads Preferences Manager, which lets you view, delete, or add interest categories associated with your browser so that you can receive ads that are more interesting to you.

- Control – You can always opt out of the advertising cookie for the AdSense partner network here. To make sure that your opt-out decision is respected (and isn’t deleted if you clear the cookies from your browser), we have designed a plug-in for your browser that maintains your opt-out choice.

Interest-Based Advertising will roll out over the next several months in its beta form, and will expand later in the year. Advertisers looking to get in on the beta can go here.

AdWords advertisers stand to have their ads more targeted and reach the right audience. AdSense publishers stand to further monetize their content sites by helping the ads succeed.

Privacy issues will no doubt be discussed extensively no matter how transparent Google is about it and how much control they give users. When you get into behavioral targeting, some people are just going to be uncomfortable. Although, studies have shown that consumers in general are actually getting more comfortable with it.

There are 4 Comments. Add Yours.

Adam
March 11, 2009 at 1:09 pm

I guess Amazon have been doing something similar for a few years as they advertise products based on your recent searches – it makes good sense. But I can’t see people interacting much with the choice option – most people don’t really care about the ads anyway.
Alex
March 11, 2009 at 4:04 pm

This is very important step in right direction! The era of keywords is almost over!
By definition of interest, people search the internet according their short or long term interests. Therefore all searches are just expression of these interests. Interests are the driving factor of search on the Internet.
However list of interest in Ads Preferences Manager is very primitive and does not reflect natural diversity of interest. For example it list only 3 hobbies!
The next step will be using cross-reference of interests. Like if you are already indicated interest in X you should be also interested in Y. The only site that has a list of practically all interests and cross-reference of them is http://www.interestmatrix.com
Bay Area Web Guy
March 12, 2009 at 12:20 am

Harmless if you buy what Google’s privacy guy says as the whole story. Concerning if you think that Google is tracking your visits to any other website you view, not just their own. This isn’t your run-of-the-mill cookie. And the technology used to do this could be exploited to connect that cookie to your identity. That is the problem. Trust Google? Then don’t worry about it!
Hotels
May 7, 2009 at 2:35 am

Totally makes sense, since browsing history is an obvious and important metric to leverage.