[LINK] Google developing eavesdropping software

Craig Sanders cas at taz.net.au
Tue Sep 12 12:15:02 AEST 2006


On Tue, Sep 12, 2006 at 10:32:10AM +1000, Tom Worthington wrote:
> At 10:27 AM 9/7/2006, Craig Sanders wrote:
> >On Thu, Sep 07, 2006 at 09:38:46AM +1000, Tom Worthington wrote:
> >> ...PVR ... read the closed text captions ...
> >> to select ads, much as good does for web pages
> >> <http://www.tomw.net.au/technology/it/adwords.shtml>.
> >
> > ... i'm sure advertising people would love it, but why would the end
> > user want it - or even tolerate it?...
>
> If targeted well the end user will see fewer TV ads and those will be
> on topics they are interested in.
>
> Advertisers will pay more for targeted ads, so fewer of them will be
> needed to pay for the program. Also if the ads are well targeted, they
> are likely to be more tolerable for the viewer. I would rather one
> minute of ads about something I might buy, than fifteen minutes of ads
> about toilet cleaner, which I never buy*.
>
> Google does a reasonable job of making its web ads targeted, so that  
> they are not such a burden.                                           

i don't think you can equate them quite so blithely as that.

a google ad is a plain text link to a product, service, or company.
no graphics, no animation, no lying, no obsequiously false attempt to
ingratiate. just a plain unadorned announcement.  THAT is why they
are not a burden - they're not even accidentally annoying let alone
deliberately annoying (as many TV ads are), they're unobtrusive, they're
there if you want to see them and, most importantly, they dont distract
from or interrupt the content when you're not looking for them.

none of these things are true about TV advertising.

i think that instead of seeing 'targetted' ads *replace* untargetted
blanket-coverage ads, they will add to them - so we'll see MORE ads
overall and have privacy infringed even further.

craig

ps: i don't like google spying on me either, and take privacy-protecting
steps including rejecting various cookies and blocking javascript
spyware as well as web-bugs. i also block banner ads as much as
possible. because they are only plain text, i haven't yet blocked google
ads, but will do so if they ever start having animated gifs (ditto if
they start using blink or marquee tags).


pps: targetted advertising for me would mean no advertising at all
unless i was specifically looking for something. i doubt if that is
going to be an option.

i don't buy things just because i see an ad - quite the reverse, the
only noticable effect of advertising on me is that it tends to make
me more inclined to boycott a product or company if the ad annoys me
enough to even notice it....an ad has to be very annoying to get through
whatever book i am reading during the ads on the rare occasions when i
watch commercial TV.

-- 
craig sanders <cas at taz.net.au>           (part time cyborg)



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