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Source:Valleywag

AOL already owns Advertising.com and is looking to acquire another ad networks similar to text-links broker Quigo, according to a source. And it’s rolling up its motley collection of ad plays into a new unit, Platform A. Today announced a new system to allow users to opt out of ads targeted to their online behavior, like the websites they visit. Some users are creeped out by the thought, so AOL’s letting them decline the ads. Here’s how the news affects others.

That AOL feels it needs to back down on behavioral targeting exposes one potential flaw in Facebook’s SocialAds master plan, for example.

One reason users might want to opt out of behavioral-targeted advertising is that it can make you feel as though someone or something is watching your every move on the Internet. This an accurate feeling, of course. Especially if you’re a Facebook member.

But not everyone knows that yet. Behavioral targeting makes it clear. Imagine if you were sending a friend an email on AOL about Saw IV with a friend, and then saw an ad for the DVD on CNNMoney — like AOL, a Time Warner property and an Advertising.com customer.

The Saw IV ad is possibly a better match for your declared consumer desires than an ad from Barclays Capital, which would be targeted based on demographics and CNNMoney’s financial content. But would the Saw IV ad’s appearance on a completely unrelated site creep you out? Publishers might worry it would. And if publishers don’t buy the idea, the ads won’t run. That’s why when Facebook launches its network, it should make clear it’s following AOL’s lead.

(Photo by Marxchivist)

Source:Valleywag

Google’s share price cross $700 this morning. Of course analysts at Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, AmTech Securities and Pacific Crest have all already raised their price targets to $800 or above. [Seeking Alpha]

Source:Valleywag

Google’s ads are paid for; its search results, supposedly, are untainted by commercial concerns. But French blog Zorgloob landed itself a screenshot that calls Google’s purity into question. It shows what Google search results look like to a member of Google’s AdWords sales team. The picture raises more questions than it answers. For example, why are there dollar signs among so-called “natural” search results? And why does Google note whether a website in its search results belongs to an advertiser? Here’s the image.

The most charitable interpretation? Google’s salespeople uses these results to identify potential customers. An AdWords sales rep probably looks up a product and these results indicate if each site turned up by Google’s algorithmic search is also advertising with AdWords. If a site owner is not, the GG Score indicates how much that site owner would have to pay to get a sponsored link to appear near the top for that search term.

But there’s a darker possibility — that this data factors into Google’s website-ranking algorithms. Small website owners have long groused that their Google rankings seem to change arbitrarily, and that buying AdWords seems to be the only way to get back in Google’s good graces. Until now, it’s been easy to dismiss their complaints as mere whining. But if Google is actively tracking the revenue potential of websites that appear in its search results, who’s to say it can’t quietly tweak those results to help its salespeople meet their quotas?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 31st, 2007 at 12:19 pm and is filed under , search, google, online advertising, Top, AdWords. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.