Google asks you which ad you want to see (or not?)

By Christelle Deliens on 19 March 2009 in Cleverwood | Comments Off

Google recently announced on its official blog the launch of the interest-based advertising and hopes to offer a better user experience for each stakeholder in the process: the advertisers, publishers and the Google users.

The principle is quite simple: each time a user googles a keyword, a number of specific interests-based commercial ads will be displayed depending on the previous search queries and on some preferences the user can indicate. Both information are stored in a cookie.

The first interest-based ads are expected to be launched during the second quarter 2009.

What I liked

• Everyone should find his interest: both surfers, publishers and advertisers.
• Give relevant ads to users.
• Higher returns for advertisers and publishers.
• Easy and flexible : Settings can be changed easily at any time

Challenges I expect

• There will certainly be some reluctance with regards to the privacy policy, the feeling of data being stored at Google will be strong at least for some users.
• If you delete your cookies, you’ll have to repeat the same operation again.
• To switch off permanently the preference based ads, you have to download a plug-in, which is in my eyes a barrier (one plug-in for each  browser).
• For those like me who tend to use various browsers and/or several computers, you must perform the deactivation or the customization for each browser and each computer.
• The publishers using AdSense on their site will have to adapt their Privacy Policy.

Tags: advertising, Google, interest-based advertising, user experience