Google Tiptoes into Behavioral Targeting - How is Google’s Targeting Different?
(Page 2 of 4 )
Susan Wojcicki, Google’s vice president of product management for advertising, tried to explain that this was not the approach the search engine giant was taking. She tried to emphasize that Google is very careful about its users’ privacy. Instead, Google is focusing on improvements to its ad targeting that last for just one session.
“We believe that task-based information at the time (of a user’s search) is the most relevant information to what they are looking at. We always want to be very careful about what information would or would not be used,” she said.
How might this work? If a user searches for “Italy vacation” in Google he might see ads that show cheap flights to Europe. If he then types in “weather,” some of the ads may be tied to weather conditions in Italy. Or someone who separately types in “vacation” and then searches for “tennis” might see ads for vacations with a focus on tennis.
Ben Murphy, writing in his blog Ben Murphy Design, says that he has already seen this in action. At one point he typed in a search for an accountant in Akron, and then searched for a New York vacation. One of the top sponsored links was for a “Good NY CPA.” It seemed a little strange to him. “On one hand, it’s kind of cool…but as a user it feels, I don’t know…spammy? I told you what I was interested in before, now I’m telling you what I’m interested in now. Why distract me?”
By paying attention to a session or set of searches only during that one session, Google hopes to avoid raising privacy issues. “What we are very careful about is traditional behavioral targeting,” said Wojcicki. “Nothing is stored, nothing is remembered. It all happens within that session.”
Google might also improve the relevance of the ads it serves by keeping track of only one session. Wojcicki used the example of someone searching for “video games.” Is that person really a gamer? Maybe – or maybe she’s a grandmother looking for a birthday or holiday gift for her grandson. In that case, she probably won’t want to see video game ads after she finds the right gift, until she’s shopping for them again.
Next: Other Forms of Google Targeting >>
More Search Engine News Articles
More By Terri Wells
/ 4 
