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> Google makes far more money on mobile ads on iOS than Android. That’s small potatoes. What I’m talking about is the data Google collects while you’re online

> Google makes far more money on mobile ads on iOS than Android. That’s small potatoes. What I’m talking about is the data Google collects while you’re online and logged in with a Google account or using an ‘Android with Google’ device. From your geolocation to your contacts, to the websites you visit, to the searches you perform, to the documents you create in Apps, etc etc. That is data Google can use to display targeted ads on any device that is tied to you, not only on its Google search engine, but on the majority of websites on the Internet (Google owns DoubleClick.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doubleclick http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doubleclick

cromwellian 13y ago
"Can use". Emphasis on CAN. Display Ads constitute about 12% of Google revenues, the degree to which people imagine Google use's personal data for targeting, and the actual reality are far apart. The reality is, Google makes more money on AdWords through Google searches, and so the default search engine is far more important.
- Samuel_Michon 13y ago
  Given that Google is a publicly traded company, I think it’s a question of ‘when’ instead of ‘if’ it will trade on user data more than they do now. It only takes a flip of a switch. That’s why companies like Amazon, Facebook, and Twitter have the market value they do. Any of those can at any time flip the switch to cash in on the user data and mindshare they’ve collected. Apple has a very different business model. It hasn’t shown any interest in user data (past credit card information) and doesn’t even have the infrastructure to exploit it. Because Apple is so inept in web services, I don’t mind them having my information on file, while I worry about what Google does with my information even when I’m not logged into its services.

cromwellian 13y ago

"Can use". Emphasis on CAN. Display Ads constitute about 12% of Google revenues, the degree to which people imagine Google use's personal data for targeting, and the actual reality are far apart. The reality is, Google makes more money on AdWords through Google searches, and so the default search engine is far more important.

Samuel_Michon 13y ago
Given that Google is a publicly traded company, I think it’s a question of ‘when’ instead of ‘if’ it will trade on user data more than they do now. It only takes a flip of a switch. That’s why companies like Amazon, Facebook, and Twitter have the market value they do. Any of those can at any time flip the switch to cash in on the user data and mindshare they’ve collected. Apple has a very different business model. It hasn’t shown any interest in user data (past credit card information) and doesn’t even have the infrastructure to exploit it. Because Apple is so inept in web services, I don’t mind them having my information on file, while I worry about what Google does with my information even when I’m not logged into its services.