Google rolls out targeted ads

Wed Mar 11 2009, 18:26 PM

Google is trialling targeted ads, allowing advertisers to deliver web ads based on a user’s browsing history. The system is an extension of Google's contextual AdSense programme, which currently serves display ads based on the content of a site or specific search words.

Google will roll out the new "interest-based" search service in beta for testing by existing ad partners and Google-owned video site YouTube. The system will record users’ web activity with a browser-based cookie and serve appropriate ads selected from a number of categories, such as sports, gardening or cars.

Yahoo! and AOL are already experimenting with similar targeting systems, but many web companies are cautious about behavioural ad targeting due to privacy concerns. Last year, targeted ad company Phorm admitted carrying out a stealth ad trial with BT, where it collected user data without permission. This caused an outcry among civil liberty groups and sparked a police investigation.

Google has been quick to confront privacy concerns and stresses that the system will be transparent and promote user choice. However, it will run the system on an opt-out, rather than opt-in basis.

Users can click on a label, contained within an ad, to access more information about how the ad was served and the information tracked. A new Ads Preferences page will also allow Google users to view which categories were selected for them and manually add or remove from a list of 27 categories.

Google says no ads will be based on sensitive interest categories, such those aimed at children, and it will not record visits to sites listed as sensitive by the European Union, which includes those related to politics, religion, health, sexual orientation or pornography, reports The Guardian.

Users that click to opt out of the service have an opt-out cookie attached to their browser. This is not permanent and ad targeting will resume each time this cookie is deleted. However, users can download a Firefox and Internet Explorer browser plug-in, which allow them to permanently opt out.

"By making ads more relevant, and improving the connection between advertisers and our users, we can create more value for everyone," says Google's VP of product management, Susan Wojcicki. "Users get more useful ads, and these more relevant ads generate higher returns for advertisers and publishers."