Google Starts Targeting, Too. What Will Congress Do?
by Peter Kafka
Posted on March 11, 2009 at 5:01 AM PT
Behavioral targeting–serving up ads to Internet users based on the sites they’ve already visited–has been standard practice on the Web for a couple of years, but not at Google. That changed this morning when the search giant rolled out its version of behavioral targeting, which it’s calling “interest-based advertising.”
So who’s the guy on the right, and why am I showing you his picture?
That’s Rick Boucher, a Democratic congressman from Virginia. And I’m pretty sure Google (GOOG) just ensured that you’re going to be seeing and hearing from him with some frequency.
That’s because Boucher, who heads the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet, has already drawn a bead on behavioral targeting. Last month, he called on Congress to start regulating the practice rather than allowing Yahoo (YHOO), Time Warner’s (TWX) AOL and everyone else promise to behave themselves.
At the time, Boucher said he didn’t have a timetable drawn up for his proposed online privacy bill. But Google’s announcement today surely means we’ll see it introduced sooner than later.
Comments
Behavioral is scarrrrry, isn’t it? The media loves the privacy issue.
When is the “advertising” media going to start looking beyond three inches in front of its collective nose and provide a little insight on the future of advertising.
Do you think behavioral targeting is going away? Then, say it.
It’s an easy hook for reporters but I think it shows a lack of understanding the value behavioral and other forms of targeting provide to users, publishers, advertisers and the web ecosystem in general.
Joe Fredericks
Posted by Joe Fredericks at March 11th, 2009 at 7:46 amhttp://www.adexchanger.com
Got this one wrong, Joe. It’s not that behavioral is bad, or scary in and of itself. It’s that consumers, and lawmakers, haven’t really gotten a handle on what it is. Which means you and your colleagues are going to spend a lot of time making your case to those constituencies, whether you like it or not.
Posted by Peter Kafka at March 11th, 2009 at 8:14 amSearch is currently flawed and this takes us one step closer to fixing it. People who don’t know what life is like without the internet ( Those of us under 30 ) expect this kind of service – many of us demand it. We want advertisers only when appropriate and when possible before we even know we need them. We don’t want cute or clever – we want useful.
Google’s announcement brings much needed attention to the importance of targeted advertising. It’ll be interesting to see how this evolves, but we need to remember that content still reigns supreme.
Just showing display ads closely related to a general point of interest doesn’t automatically mean that it’s useful to them or enhancing their search.
Posted by Jordan English Gross at March 11th, 2009 at 12:37 pmSearch is currently flawed and this takes us one step closer to fixing it. People who don’t know what life is like without the internet ( Those of us under 30 ) expect this kind of service – many of us demand it. We want advertisers only when appropriate and when possible before we even know we need them. We don’t want cute or clever – we want useful.
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Posted by kiran kumar at March 11th, 2009 at 10:35 pmJordan, I strongly disagree with your assertion that people under 30 want to have their behaviour monitored. I think in reality many of us can’t imagine that bearing it all online could be worse than having to spend extra time looking for what we want. Sadly our generation is just too lazy to care.
Posted by Christine Ullmann at March 12th, 2009 at 2:22 am