If you thought Google had gone to far in its quest for ad dollars then think again. The search giant turned advertising agency has now applied for and been awarded a patent that allows for ads to be served based on “environmental conditions” of the user.
This means that Google want to gather information about the weather conditions where you are as you use a Google product or make a phone call, and then serve you ads relevant to that weather. For instance, if the sensors pick up cold temperatures where you are, they will serve you ads, for example, that sell you warm clothing, and if you are somewhere that is raining, umbrellas, or something of the sort.
This patent application is both as ingenious as it is preposterous. Only recently, Google moved to consolidate all their privacy policies across their 60 separate services, which now allows them to compile more detailed information on its users and use that for so-called contextual targeted ad serving.
This brought about an uproar from rights bodies in the US and Europe but these all fell on the dead ears of Larry Page, who seems obsessed with beating Facebook at any cost. The patent has received mixed reactions from the technology fraternity with some saying it was a fair innovation while others were not so kind.
Naga Saravan Golla wrote on thenextweb.com: ‘That will be really annoying!’ and Wayne Smallman said: ‘What desperation. Google, you’re losing it.’ Only two weeks ago an ex-Google executive said the Google he knew to innovate is no more and what is left is an advertising company.
The bottom line seems here that Google is shifting its focus on being the company we all loved because of the great new products it brought us to just another ad company that will do anything for another buck. If Mr. Page is were not so fixated on Facebook, he would realise he is single-handedly flushing Google’s great reputation down the toilet.
