We have all climbed onto Google and done a search for items that interest us. What we might not have known, is how intensive and invasive Google’s searches are on us. Sometimes they go a little too far and get their tail feathers burned. What we might not know about this quiet giant is how far they are willing to go to help themselves along in their business. Why do they need so much of our information in the first place? Why are they so inquisitive and nosey in matters they don’t need to worry about?
In 2012 Google made 12 billion dollars in advertising. We all think of that as coming from the little sidebar ads that show up in all of the searches we do. These ads are generated by Google’s AdWords cost-per-click (CPC) advertising product. When someone clicks on them, the person doing the advertising gets charged. Yes, that’s correct. Instead of just doing a regular advertising campaign for the customer, they rely on you to click on those little ads that rotate on different searches. It runs on an auction-type system. You have to jump up and down with your price to get the attention of potential customers. You don’t get to be the low bidder, you have to be the high bidder to show up high in that sidebar.
For businesses that need high volume advertising at low prices, it does not work very well because the conversion rate (how many people actually click on those ads) is very low. But for Google, it worked 12 billion times better than for anyone else. They did rather well!
Searches
Have you ever had a home invasion and been robbed? They may have gone through your Tighty Whiteys or your personal drawers and touched things that just were not theirs. Google is doing much the same thing with your searches. We all have the impression that when we search, we grab our information and dash off to do what we need to do. For Google, that is just the beginning. They collect information about you, your IP address, what you are searching for and then offer up things that you might just be interested in.
This works through the Google AdSense program that allows publishers in the Google AdSense Network to serve up text, image and video ads that are targeted to the audience. So, if you happen to be searching for information on Jeep Cherokees, and then a while later surf to a site that serves up AdSense ads, you’ll probably see ads show up for Jeep Cherokees from vendors that are conspicuously very close to your physical location. This is called Geo targeting.
Caught with their hand in the cookie jar
So, you think they aren’t willing to go further? Just ask the Apple customers how they felt when they discovered that Google had tricked the browsers on their mobile products to access information about them. If someone hadn’t been paying attention, they would have gone on with their piracy and completely gone beyond the bar of trust. Read this article: “Google Secretly Tracked Apple’s Safari Users, WSJ Reports”. You’ll be shocked!
After this writer began searching
After this writer started doing searches on Google and what tactics they have been up to, a bar showed up at the top of the search screen.
“Hi there. Our new Terms of Service update – how we display your information in content & ads – Learn more – Got it”
Interesting …
It’s understandable that they want to know enough to send the customer in the right direction of their searches. But, with what this writer has learned in the last few hours of research, it seems maybe they know more than they should.
So be careful what you are searching for, because Google is not only watching and making money at it, they intend to go to a whole other level that maybe we are not ready for at all. And, they are not alone. Read this … Businesses Test Facial Recognition Software To Learn About Customers.
Photo Credit
Photo is from the Microsoft Office Clipart Collection
Guest Author Bio
Blair Thomas
Hello, my name is Blair Thomas and I’m one of the Co-founder’s of emerchantbroker.com, which specializes in high risk merchant accounts. I have over 10 years of experience in the electronic payments industry, managing several successful agent offices and registered ISO’s. I work hard during the day and spend my nights and weekends developing my music as a singer songwriter signed to David Faustino’s label Old Scratch Records.
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