Google Begins Behavioral Targeting for its AdSense Program
March 15, 2009
ShareThisLong the hold-out among other sellers of online advertising, Google has begun behavioral targeting in its AdSense program. The program will use cookies placed on users’ Web browsers to track their visits to the hundreds of thousands of Web sites that display AdSense ads. Google will then assign users to categories based on the content of the pages they visit. As visitors go from site to site, ads targeted specifically at them and their categorized interests will be displayed across all AdSense affiliated sites.
Google has currently segmented users into 20 categories with some 600 subcategories. Examples of these categories might include sports enthusiast or expectant mother. Once someone is identified as part of a subgroup, expectant mother for instance, no matter what site she visits, she will be offered a number of AdSense ads directed at expectant mothers.
Privacy advocates are concerned with this trend of behavioral targeting and they say Google should do more to notify people that they are being tracked. However, they did praise Google’s decision to allow users to view and edit their user profiles. Google says it will stay away from categorizing certain sensitive profiles including race, religion, sexual orientation or certain types of financial or health concerns. Privacy advocates are hoping that since Google is the number one seller of online ads, their processes will put pressure on other sellers to follow suit.
Although Google is allowing Web publishers to opt out of the behavioral targeting program, they believe most publishers will stay onboard given that such targeting systems should allow publishers to make more money from their advertising programs.
For more, read the story in The New York Times