Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Why Does Google Do What Google Does? I have had some experience with building real-time behavioural targeting systems, so I think I've developed a new appreciation for the grand strategy behind google's seemingly disconnected moves. They are building a real time customer profile based on your real identity. This is a very valuable commodity as it gives google the ability to sell high value campaigns to advertisers. This may or may not seem obvious to you, but it struck me in a tetris like way how all the bricks fit together if you are trying to build up a real time customer categorization system that can be used across all properties. Other companies might do the same thing using a portfolio approach. But google has taken a less direct Sun Tzu Art of War approach. If you notice google doesn't create word processors or accounting programs. Almost everything they do is about getting content and getting you to provide an identity to them. * In google's wifi network they will track what you see. And they know where you are at so they can do local ad targeting and build up a profile based on where you travel. Many people don't know that location based services are built into wifi networks. * If you use their local search they track everything important enough for you to keep. * When you use their future micro payment system they'll know what you buy. * If you use their proxy server they can tell what you see. * If you use their search they can tell what you see both by your key words and what you click on. * If you store your email with them they can tell what you see. * If you use their VOIP network they can tell what you see, who you talk to, and who talks to you. * If you use their blog they can tell what you see. If you use their map they can tell where you live and what you are interested in. * And finally, when you use their upcoming free high speed network they will have created something so sticky you'll rarely be out sight of their vast army of digital observers. They will be able to do a complete analysis on all your traffic patterns and content. Of what use is all this you may ask? They can't show ads everywhere, so what's the point? True, they may not be able to show ads everywhere, but they can learn enough about you from all their different sources so that in the mediums where they can present you ads those ads will be amazingly well targeted. More targeted ads are worth a lot more to advertisers. And nobody will be able to build a profile of you better than google. By observing what you actually do and say, google will build a much better profile than they could get by pummeling you with a 1000 detailed surveys. What you do and say during your daily life is real, people fib when filling out surveys or profiles. If you mention hawaii on a voice call they can in real time adjust you profile that you may be interested in travel, car rentals, etc. If you use their map to look at a lot of areas centered around a certain location they could deduce that you probably live their which opens up a lot of local advertising opportunities. If people from universities read your blog that says something about you. If your local disk contains a lot of Country Western music that says a lot about you. And so on... Add all this up together and they can build a remarkably accurate profile of your interests as they happen. If you think you can hide behind fake names and IP addresses you can't. For many of the more advance services they'll know how you are. Even if they don't they can do a pretty good job guessing by doing a content analysis of your word usage and sentence structure combined with a small network analysis of who you talk to and who talks to you. From the outside it's easy to underestimate how much companies are willing to pay for this kind of content and ad targeting. But they are willing to pay a lot, so all google's efforts have a big payoff. I am not going to say the world is going to end or anything. Everything you do with google is voluntary. I am just admiring the view. comment[] 3:48:00 PM

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