The Scary Future of Google Advertising Capabilities
The mechanisms search engines such as Google and Facebook use are down-right creepy. So many times I have found after online shopping for a pair of boots I really want but decide not to buy, that these items soon reappear on my Facebook feed, asking me to give them another chance. This phenomenon is called dynamic marketing, and it numbers among the many creepy tactics the internet employs to advertise to users. Through AdWords, Google’s system of advertising which uses a Generalized Second Price Auction method of selling ad slots, Google can even use what you write in Gmail emails to advertise to you. In his article in Search Engine Land, columnist Todd Sauders writes his hopes and fears for the future capabilities of Google advertising.
Saunders imagines that one day, for example, Google may be able to use information about weather to promote certain products to internet users. For example, Google could advertise house repairs for areas that have just been affected by natural disasters or advertise spa weekends to areas where the weather is freezing.
Furthermore, he imagines a world in which google could use fitness tracking to advertise food to people who have just finished a workout or more workout gear to people who have just taken up running.
He suggests that Google may even develop the capability of using what shows users watch to target advertisements to them. For example, Google could market home security systems to someone who has just watched a horror movie.
The ploys that internet mechanisms have already developed to advertise to users are frightening as-is — it is only scarier to imagine the potential capabilities Google could develop in the future!