Google to add user photo to ads
12 Oct 2013
Google yesterday said it would start including recommendations made by Google+ users in its advertisements. The new policy is set to take effect from 11 November.
Users could work on Google+ to rate some product or service, which the company behind that product wanted to advertise on Google.
When the company purchased an ad, users' friends would would see a version that included the user who recommended the product along with what was said about the product.
According to commentators if all this had a familiar ring to it, it was because critics had been up in arms about a similar advertising scheme by Facebook (FB) called sponsored stories.
The Facebbok ads led to a class-action lawsuit, with the social network eventually having to pay a $20 million settlement and clarify its privacy settings.
Both Google and Facebook had been in trouble for violations of users' privacy, but nothing about the latest Google move was an inherent privacy violation.
The problem with Facebook came not from the inclusion of users in ads but from the lack of clarity about what it was doing. Google was trying to avoid the mistake, making it easy for users to opt out of the ads.
Users could just go to a page and unclick the box giving it permission to use their likeness.
Users wishing to opt out would see a pop-up warn that in disabling the setting ''your friends will be less likely to benefit from your recommendations''- but otherwise opting out would not be a hassle.
The changes under ''shared endorsements'' would apply to properties including search, Google Maps and Play, the store digital music purchase, movies and books.
''Feedback from people you know can save you time and improve results for you and your friends across all Google services,'' the Google said in a post yesterday.
Google earlier added profile photos with names to promotions after users hit a button called ''+1'' that indicated they liked a page or a search result. The update would see it expand to other types of endorsements, including reviews.
For instance a web surfer could search for a restaurant and see an ad for a pizza place with a friend's opinion. Or someone's four-star rating on a new album might be visible to a friend who visited the band's page on Google Play.
Users could work on Google+ to rate some product or service, which the company behind that product wanted to advertise on Google.
When the company purchased an ad, users' friends would would see a version that included the user who recommended the product along with what was said about the product.
According to commentators if all this had a familiar ring to it, it was because critics had been up in arms about a similar advertising scheme by Facebook (FB) called sponsored stories.
The Facebbok ads led to a class-action lawsuit, with the social network eventually having to pay a $20 million settlement and clarify its privacy settings.
Both Google and Facebook had been in trouble for violations of users' privacy, but nothing about the latest Google move was an inherent privacy violation.
The problem with Facebook came not from the inclusion of users in ads but from the lack of clarity about what it was doing. Google was trying to avoid the mistake, making it easy for users to opt out of the ads.
Users could just go to a page and unclick the box giving it permission to use their likeness.
Users wishing to opt out would see a pop-up warn that in disabling the setting ''your friends will be less likely to benefit from your recommendations''- but otherwise opting out would not be a hassle.
The changes under ''shared endorsements'' would apply to properties including search, Google Maps and Play, the store digital music purchase, movies and books.
''Feedback from people you know can save you time and improve results for you and your friends across all Google services,'' the Google said in a post yesterday.
Google earlier added profile photos with names to promotions after users hit a button called ''+1'' that indicated they liked a page or a search result. The update would see it expand to other types of endorsements, including reviews.
For instance a web surfer could search for a restaurant and see an ad for a pizza place with a friend's opinion. Or someone's four-star rating on a new album might be visible to a friend who visited the band's page on Google Play.