Long a sideline sitter on the behavioral advertising playing field, web giant Google will now start selling display and text ads using behavioral advertising, reports the Wall Street Journal. The practice, which places advertising on the web pages a user visits based on where and what types of sites a user has visited in the past, is already employed by Yahoo and AOL, two of Google’s chief rivals.
The data fueling Google’s behavioral advertising gambit won’t come from browser search histories or queries, but from cookies Google installs on the browsers of users who visit the sites on which Google places ads. But unlike other behavioral advertising systems, Google will offer a way for users to view and change the advertising “categories” in which Google places them via a website for managing such preferences. Google claims it won’t track individuals by name, and it won’t use behavioral advertising in conjunction with its massive search-ad business.
The move doesn’t come as a surprise to many Google watchers, who foresaw such a day when Google announced its intention to acquire DoubleClick in 2007. The deal, which closed in 2008, sharply increased the number of partner sites on which Google could place display and text ads, reports the Wall Street Journal. Currently, only 1.1% of these types of ads are placed by Google, chiefly on its YouTube site.