The standards debate may be in full swing in our industry - but the decisions may be soon taken out of our hands if the FTC continues to define allowable advertising practices.
MediPost has a good overview of the developments of behavioral targeting and how they can be used. "Ad industry players are urging the FTC not to impose any new regulations — and also argue that the proposed voluntary guidelines are too restrictive," they reported.
Where this gets close to our industry comes from the people seeking greater regulations. "Privacy advocates, on the other hand, want to see rules that will require companies to honor Web users’ preferences about whether they wish to be tracked online and to receive targeted ads," MediaPost notes.
If this occurs then search is on the horizon of these groups. And we better be aware of them if consumer advocacy groups are claiming they "want to see new rules, rather than rely on voluntary compliance with trade groups".
MediaPost quotes both Google and Microsoft at the end of the article and they have opposing views.
"Google, meanwhile, is especially concerned that the standards could affect search ads. In comments to the FTC, Google said it’s testing personalized search results, and argued that search ads shouldn’t be considered “behavioral” even when the ads displayed to users are based on their search history.
“We are currently experimenting in our Search service with providing ads based on both the current query and the immediately previous search,” Google wrote. “For example, a user who types ‘Italy vacation’ into the Google search box might see ads about Tuscany or affordable flights to Rome. If the user were to subsequently search for ‘weather,’ we might assume that there is a link between ‘Italy vacation’ and ‘weather’ and deliver ads regarding local weather conditions in Italy.”
Google rival Microsoft, on the other hand, said it supports the FTC’s goals and that the proposed guidelines should be extended “to include the full array of online advertising activities.”
Funny about the Microsoft position given I have been in a pitch for increasing our budget where they used competitors advertising information to suggest other terms and ads..... anonymous of course but not hard to reverse engineer.
>>Source Link
>>Blog: searchenginewatch
>>Publish Date: 4/12/2008 7:01:47 AM
>>Keywords: search ads
Related Posts
>>Google Targeting Ads Based on Previous Queries #
Reuters reports from a briefing for journalists at the Googleplex, where Google"s Susan Wojcicki (pictured) talked about how Google is a bit wary to use behavioral targeting... that is, to deliver ads
>>Ask to Launch Contextual Ad Network #
Advertisers buying search ads in Ask.com"s Ask Sponsored Listings (ASL) program will soon have the option of buying contextually-targeted ads on IAC-owned sites and third-party publishers. The progra
>>SEW Experts: The Beginning of the Fragmentation of Search #
In today"s Search Ads column, "The Beginning of the Fragmentation of Search," Tony Wright ponders the evolution of search marketing from its heady first years to the competitive situation today. Can t
>>Search Engine Advertisers" Wish List #
In his latest ClickZ column, Kevin Lee has compiled a Search Engine Wish List -- changes that search engines could implement to make PPC search advertisers" lives easier. The first installment include
>>SEW Experts: Boosting CTRs in a Search Fragmenting World #
In today"s Search Ads column, "Boosting CTRs in a Search Fragmenting World," Tony Wright reports further on the fragmentation of search with reader-submitted tips and some of his own. Here"s what you
>>SEW Experts: Microsoft adCenter Could Win the Search Battle #
In today"s Search Ads column, "Microsoft adCenter Could Win the Search Battle," Tony Wright explains why he thinks Microsoft adCenter can win the search wars -- if it can scale the audience.
>>SEW Experts: Google"s Local Search Land Grab #
In today"s Search Ads column, "Google"s Local Search Land Grab," Tony Wright tells you how you can help Google to digitize local search information, and help yourself in the process.
>>Search Box Ads Popular in Japan #
Andreas notices that in recent times, it became popular in Japan (and possibly elsewhere?) to show TV or train ads that feature "a mocked up web search box, suggesting the keyword you should use for g
>>Google Finds Less is More #
In some cases, less is more. Google is finding that out in respect to the number of ads it shows on certain search results pages. Last week, Robert Scoble shared his cocktail party conversation with a