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Google Profiling Social Network Users
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Mon Oct 06, 2008 11:09 AM
from the well-of-course-they-are dept.
from the well-of-course-they-are dept.
David Harry writes "Google is looking deeper into behavioral targeting of social network users with three more patents. A while back, one patent came to light in the poorly termed ‘friendrank’; Google could be profiling social network users. These three patents now bring the series to five in total."
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Technology: Google Seeking "FriendRank" Patent 80 comments
theodp writes "In its just-published patent application for Network Node Ad Targeting, Google hatches plans for identifying the most influential of a circle of friends and providing this 'influencer' with 'financial incentives from advertisers in exchange for permission to display advertisements on the member's [social network] profile' (sound familiar, Jeremy?). Doing so will 'provide advertisers with the option of targeting either all members in the community or advertising only on the profile of the influencer, thereby targeting the entire community,' explains Google. Who says you can't buy friendship!"
Firehose:Google profliling social network users by Anonymous Coward
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Profliling?? (Score:2)
Re:Profliling?? (Score:5, Funny)
Profiling? Sounds painful.
Not if you use a profilactic, and remember boys, if she says "opt out" she means "opt out".
More seriously, anyone who joins a social network wants to be profiled. Isn't that the whole point?
Parent
Tired of amateur fliling? (Score:5, Funny)
So they _COULD_? (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm reasonably confident Google _COULD_ do lots of things...
It never ceases to amaze me... (Score:5, Interesting)
I honestly don't understand. It's been quite clear for a number of years that Google has no problem selling jewels from their data mines to marketing clients who want them, mostly in the form of "targeted advertising".
Of course Google is profiling social network users. Someone has to figure out what they want to buy.
Re:It never ceases to amaze me... (Score:5, Insightful)
Fixed that for you.
Parent
Re:It never ceases to amaze me... (Score:5, Interesting)
Someone has to tell them what they want to buy.
Sort of a funny story I have pertaining to this.
After my girlfriend broke up with me, we changed our Facebook status to "Single." The next day, I was on Facebook and I noticed an eHarmony advertisement that said the following:
"27 and single? PATHETIC. Visit eHarmony.com to find singles in your area."
It's funny now, but I sort of wonder what kind of world we live in where you're "pathetic" for not being in a relationship. That part is sort of sad, really.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
not at the same time; note he said "had"
Not Alone (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
If people think that Google is the only advertiser who's profiling people, they're daft. Any and every advertiser with a hint of intelligence studies their target audience and does everything within their power to know them better than they know themselves. Google just has more tools at their disposal than most advertising firms but they all do it.
Even more important than Google's large toolbox is the exceptionally large size of their user base, and the fact that Google knows the email addresses and real names of a large fraction of that base.
Re: (Score:2)
Precisely! You know those membership savings cards grocery stores give you? It's a trade-off. They give you a small discount in the name of "member's savings", and in turn, you give them your shopping habits. So every item you ever buy through them with that card gets recorded. It lets them pinpoint what consumers like buying, so they stock up more on the hot sellers.
And I'm pretty sure that the grocery stores do not keep this information to themselves...
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Of course it's useful to track that information down to a specific person. One example: Say you put milk on sale for $2/gallon. Are the people who are buying milk this week new customers, or are they the same old people who have been visiting your store? Tracking information like that is insanely useful.
Put it in technical terms - in website logs, would you rather just have an overview of traffic data (you received 10,000 visits today), or do you actually want to see each request, where it came from, what p
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
It's not as nefarious as you think, but there is considerable value in tracking what you buy as a single consumer, both to you and to the store. The store would rather maximize value per consumer, than necessarily maximize sales. By maximizing sales from a smaller amount of consumers, they can potentially reduce inventory, and reduce labor, thus increasing profit for a given amount of sales. By tracking not just what was sold, but associations between goods sold, you can find out some interesting things
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I think it's also worth mentioning that the social networks themselves are profiling people. There's a reason they want you to enter your occupation, educational background, yearly income, and all other types of information.
What drives me the most crazy is Facebook actually creates search pages for search engines to index. I'm the kind of person who likes my words to be seen by everybody, but my pictures to be under my own control. So I searched for myself on Google and found that not only do they put my na
Data mining social networks (Score:4, Insightful)
Seriously, this is a surprise?
The world's biggest commercial data search and profiling company is going to profile yet more online, public information.
I just wonder if the folks at Langley will sit up and say "prior art".
Google needs to revise their motto (Score:5, Informative)
Make money for stockholders
Few companies set out to do bad deeds but most won't rule them out. Google was supposed to be different. Regarding "Don't be evil"(tm), CEO Eric Schmidt recently clarified the policy saying that it was simply meant as a conversation starter.
Here's Google from good to bad...
Plus
Creating a foundation to fight poverty.
Plus
Establishing on-site day care as an employee perk.
Minus
Giving Brazilian police access to private photo albums on Orkut to assist an investigation into child pornography.The lesser of two evils is still pretty lame
Minus
Google's on going smear campaign against Privacy International [google.com] for giving them a last place rank.
Bigger Minus
Raising cost of on site day care to $57,000 per year.
Real big minus
Instituting keyword filters at the request of the Chinese government. Google's do no evil policy only applies to the U.S.
Source: Wired 16.10
Honestly why should anyone be surprised that Google acts like any other company?
Re:Google needs to revise their motto (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Next time, try and broaden [google.com] your biased view.
Re:Google needs to revise their motto (Score:5, Interesting)
Google bashing, huh? Ooo, fun!
Seriously, though. Your "evil" points are somewhat weak.
Creating a foundation to fight poverty.
I'll agree. That's a good thing. Although, some people will argue that they're just using it to get the tax breaks.
Establishing on-site day care as an employee perk.
You have that down as a plus. But, if I don't have kids, that means my benefits are going towards something I don't use. Sounds kind of evil to me.
Giving Brazilian police access to private photo albums...
Private? How so? Private as in Picasa's "private" where it just means you don't come up in searches (but if you know the address, you can still find the album)? Or private as in password protected, etc. Also, the albums that they were given access to - were these people already under investigation. Was Google forced to give that information?
Google's on going smear campaign against Privacy International [google.com] for giving them a last place rank.
I don't know this one, so I can't speak to it.
Raising cost of on site day care to $57,000 per year.
From what? $56,000? $0? Either way - how does this make them evil? Daycare is freaken expensive. I can't believe people use it to be honest. The fact that Google is charging someone for this is not a big deal. I don't know of any place that offers this sort of service at all.
Instituting keyword filters at the request of the Chinese government. Google's do no evil policy only applies to the U.S.
Oh, now, you had to go there. See, at the surface level, Google did evil. They filtered words. BAD GOOGLE! The problem is, if they didn't do that, they would have NO influence in China. What's worse? For them to get their foot in the door and follow protocol now and try to influence change later, or never be there in the first place? It's easier to influence from the inside than it is from the outside. Once Google becomes ubiquitous in China, they will carry a lot more sway. Hopefully that use that to help the people there.
Anyway, your cynicism is definitely well-deserved - lots of companies screw up (because they are run by people and people screw up). But, I just can't say I agree with the issues that you chose (either way).
Parent
And what's up with /. and google analytics???? (Score:2)
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Re: (Score:3, Funny)
DNS resolved google-analytics.com to 127.0.0.1
Oh darn. Now how did that happen?
Offtopic tag rant (Score:2, Troll)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Profiling for Ads (Score:5, Funny)
I hope that all this uncomfortable profiling is really going to improve the ads I'm going to see.
But how will I know when it works? Maybe when they start selling penis shrinking pills.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
The kind of relations where in the real world you greet people friendly and discredit them behind their backs?
You obviously do not have high school age daughters.