HUA HIN, Thailand - The Big Brother
of Internet advertising got even bigger this week
when Google announced that it will be introducing
behavior-based ads throughout its network. The
company's present advertising model displays ads
relevant to the content of the web page being
viewed; there is a column of such ads to the right
of this article.
The Adsense program
allows publishers to place these text and image
ads on their websites whereupon they generate
income for themselves (and Google) when they are
clicked. Google, the world's largest search engine
makes 97% of its revenue from advertising.
The US$3.2 billion acquisition of
DoubleClick in 2008 bolstered Google's behavioral
profiling technology, allowing the company to
up the ante and take a
bigger slice of the online advertising pie.
In a post on its official blog on
Wednesday, Google announced that it will begin
serving ads based upon people's web browsing
habits and history. The trial service will show on
Google's Adsense partner sites and YouTube from
this week. Advertisers will not be able to display
their own ads until April. Other companies such as
Microsoft and Yahoo are already using behavioral
ads, but their share in the online advertising
market is eclipsed by the Google behemoth.
The company has dubbed the new program as
"interest based" advertising which will bring
consumers more "useful" ads based upon their
interests. If you have been searching for
hard-disk prices you may get ads for other
computer components regardless of the content of
the website you're currently viewing, while some
ads will be able to "follow" you across the web as
you browse. The claims are that higher interest
relevancy will increase click-through-rates and
earn more money for the publisher, and of course
Google.
Advertisers are always looking for
more efficient ways to reach those who are most
interested in their products and services, but the
reality is that people may not appreciate their
browsing habits being monitored. There is
something a little unethical about the world's
largest search engine tracking and profiling its
users to increase its revenue - which climbed 31%
to nearly $22 billion last year even as its
competitors were being battered by the global
financial crisis.
Google, knowing that
this will attract the attention of privacy
campaigners, have stated that there are three
safeguards: 1) users can choose to opt out of the
program by going here
and downloading a cookie (a file allowing
communication between web server and browser); 2)
users can edit their profile and preferences
online; 3) users can learn how the technology
works and how the ads are pitched to them. But
taking the time to manually opt-out is a process
that Google knows the majority of Internet users
simply won't bother doing.
Privacy
advocates are already asking that changes be made.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)
has asked the US Federal Trade Commission to
intervene, and the Center for Digital Democracy
(CDD) requests that users are left opted-out by
default. Privacy International has stated that,
although Google is pitching the program as a
positive to bring more relevant ads to users, the
technology can still be used to monitor and track
all of your Internet activity, no matter how
sensitive or personal.
Google intensified
its monitoring activities in December when it
started putting DoubleClick cookies on its
advertising partner's websites. So while most
Internet users go about their daily surfing in
blissful ignorance, profiles are already being
compiled and Google's python-like stranglehold on
the world's electronic data continues to
strengthen.
Security Another
"patch Tuesday" went by and another round of
security holes got filled in as Microsoft dealt
out the digital band aids via its website and
automatic updates this week. Although the severity
level in March was lower than previous months, no
version of Windows escaped the updates. This time
the flaw was with the Windows image file format,
allowing hackers to create malicious EMF or WMF
files that could permit them to wreak havoc on
un-patched systems.
Adobe has also been
patching this week, with updates to its
universally used Adobe Reader software. A security
hole in version 9 has been allowing hackers to
take complete control of computers since January.
Adobe stated it expects updates for Adobe Reader 7
and 8, and Acrobat 7 and 8, to be available by
March 18.
Telecoms Microsoft has
been turning up the heat on its Windows
Marketplace mobile applications store, launched
last month, by initiating a program to help
developers to get their applications into the
virtual store. In competition with Apple's App
Store, the pioneer of smart-phone applications,
Microsoft now claims to have 20,000 Windows
applications that are compatible with mobile
gadgets. Developers for mobile applications on
both the Apple and Microsoft platforms are allowed
to keep 70% of the sales revenue of their
programs.
Blackberry manufacturers
Research In Motion and cell-phone giant Nokia both
have mobile application stores in what is
predicted to be a rapid growth business in 2009
despite the Gartner-reported 5% drop in mobile
phone sales in the last quarter of 2008.
Martin J Young is an Asia Times Online correspondent based in Thailand.
(Copyright 2009 Asia Times Online
(Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
contact us about
sales, syndication and republishing.)
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
Security
