Google Tiptoes into Behavioral Targeting - Other Forms of Google Targeting
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Google is not engaging in traditional behavioral targeting. Let’s take Google’s word for that, and turn to a different service it offers: Personalized Search. When registered Google users are logged into their accounts, this is the default form of search. It deals with organic search results rather than sponsored links, but it works in a rather interesting way.
For those who are not familiar with Personalized Search, the service lets users maintain a history of searches; it looks through this history to understand what keywords mean when entered by particular users. So it would know that a musician searching for “bass” probably wants information on guitars rather than fish, because on all of his previous searches using that word he clicked on guitar-related links. Does this sound like behavioral targeting to you? It should – because it is.
The big difference is that it applies to organic search results, not sponsored links. So the information goes no further than Google; it is not shared with third parties. This is not “traditional behavioral targeting,” in other words.
But wait a minute – don’t the organic search results affect the sponsored links that appear? So doesn’t that mean that the ads will become more relevant? When you combine that with the single session-based behavioral targeting that Google now practices, you’d expect the search engine to be telling all of its advertisers about the improvements, right?
Only it isn’t. Anna Papadopoulos, interactive media director for Euro RSCG4D, didn’t hear anything before Google’s announcement, at which time the search engine had been experimenting with single-session behavioral targeting for weeks. Her agency has a number of large purchases with Google, “and I wouldn’t be surprised if some of our campaigns, especially automotive, were part of this new serving strategy.” Still, it’s galling not to be told about these things. “They’re not very forthcoming with innovation as it relates to the search engine. A small business is one thing, but when you’re working with agencies and big advertisers, I thin you owe it to them to [convey] any changes in algorithm that would affect your advertising.”
Why would Google keep a low profile about this? The most obvious reason, of course, is DoubleClick. U.S. investigators are looking into the search engine’s purchase of the online advertising company, and there are concerns about how well Google will guard its users’ privacy now that it has this kind of temptation to tap into a major source of ad revenue. If Google wants to be permitted to close the deal with DoubleClick, it is going to have to make sure that anything it does concerning user information will not trip the alarm bells of privacy advocates.
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