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That logic may be true about bikes. But what if my Facebook profile says I like the movies Godzilla, Jurassic Park, and The Bourne Identity? It's very easy to
by dcurtis 18y ago
That logic may be true about bikes.
But what if my Facebook profile says I like the movies Godzilla, Jurassic Park, and The Bourne Identity? It's very easy to extrapolate a common movie "typeness" that someone likes from a list. Then you can target new movies in that genre very specifically to users who would be most likely to watch them.
For movies, books, tv shows, etc, and repeatable purchases, the cache of information at Facebook is far, far more valuable than two words at Google.
- natrius 18y ago"For movies, books, tv shows, etc, and repeatable purchases, the cache of information at Facebook is far, far more valuable than two words at Google." That data is valuable, but not more valuable than Google's data. It's not just two words. Google knows every movie you've searched for since the last time you cleared your cookies. Assuming Google links the cookie from AdSense with your general Google cookie, they know what sites you visit. They know tons of things about you, and that data is similar in value in isolation to Facebook's data. When you combine that data with intent, which you know from a given search query, you can display more valuable ads than Facebook could ever hope to. If Facebook Chat gets traction and Facebook pushes its messaging as more of an email replacement, they'll have useful data they can use to determine intent, which they can use to better target ads and get more money per click.
- whacked_new 18y agoSpeaking of FB Chat, I used it for the first time yesterday when somebody messaged me, and it freaked me out. I don't know how many people enjoy having to chat with a browser window open. Sure, it's portable, but it's unappealing in many cases; and you're practically guaranteed that they're analyzing your chat logs.
- dcurtis 18y agoI am pretty sure Google doesn't use your back search history in advertising targeting. They've said this many times. If they did, here's my past few searches: jordan ritter, glowing resin bar, mac hard drive use visualization, ironport, joost commercial, photoshop light bar, wiki futurama, wiki lost, xserve g4 wiki What does that list tell you about me or my buying habits? Now expand that list by a few thousand random search terms. Any more detail?
- xirium 18y agoDoubleClick is now part of Google and DoubleClick has a terrible record with promises and privacy. In the 1990s, DoubleClick said that they wouldn't associate off-line profiles with on-line profiles. They lied. DoubleClick and Google were very prolific with webbugs before their merger. (The latter is in the form of Google Analytics.) They're probably the most prolific now that they're combined. And they wouldn't do it unless they thought that the data was valuable.
- natrius 18y agoThose aren't "random" search terms. They tell quite a bit about the types of products you would be interested in, in this case hard drives and computers. Plus, data in aggregate is far more useful than data in isolation. Google knows what ads people with a similar search history have actually clicked on, and they can use that information to target ads at you. Google can rebuild most of the useful data from your Facebook profile (what kinds of books, movies, activities, etc. that you're interested in), and they also know what you're interested in right this moment. That is very valuable. I didn't know that they don't actually use historical search data, but they have the data and it can be used in the future. I don't see how using past searches to target ads is so different from using current searches.