According to an article in the NY Times, Google is finally taking steps to use some of the massive amounts of data it’s collected on users online behaviour to serve up ads. Instead of relying on data that is a few days or perhaps a month old, Google is now stepping it up a notch by serving ads which are relevant to the last 3-5 search queries a user has submitted.
For example, if I performed a Google search for “Caribbean”, then 5 minutes later, performed a search for “scuba gear” Google would begin to display ads related to vacations in the Caribbean or for scuba diving equipment. Cookies need not apply here as the browser usually contains data related to previous search queries as well as previously browsed websites during it’s session which is the data Google is tapping into.
This is certainly one way of showing relevant ads, but its kind of creepy if you ask me. It’s only a matter of time before we go to Google.com, begin typing a search string into Google and in real-time, advertising pops up based on keywords and the entire search string.
What do you folks think about this experimental new way of advertising? I don’t use Google Adsense so I’d like to know, does the technology Google use to increase its ad revenue trickle down into Adense and Adwords? If so, wouldn’t this increase your revenue?