A Reuters article that was covered by Barry at Search Engine Land goes into Google's decision that it is not ready to behaviorally target ads to its users. There is, right now, the ability for Google to personalize ads based on previous searches but that's as far as Google wants to go for the time being.
In the article, Susan Wojcicki, Google vice president of product management for advertising, says that:
"We believe that task-based information at the time (of a user's search) is the most relevant information to what they are looking at. We always want to be very careful about what information would or would not be used."
Some factors involved in this decision are privacy concerns and the inability for Google to understand human intent. The article says that "the intentions of users can be elusive based on any given set of actions."
At WebmasterWorld, advertisers and Google users alike are embracing this news.
I believe this is wise on the part of Google. They can't be all things to all marketers. Google is contextual marketing. Let others attempt to deliver demographics.
Others feel that it will be only time until Google actually does support behavioral ad targeting.
I think it's a logical evolution of the ad targeting process, and Google is no doubt willing to let other firms take the heat while they develop better tools.
...or they'll acquire the technology to do so efficiently.
Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.
