Google will begin showing ads based on their previous online activities in a form of advertising known as behavioral targeting,which has been embraced by most of its competitors but has drawn criticism from privacy advocates and some members of Congress.
Of course, this new technique is creating controversy, as most of the new ways of advertising based on private data. However, Google seems to be concerned by protecting users' privacy.
How It Will Work
Google will use a cookie, a small piece of text that resides inside a Web browser, to track users as they visit one of the hundreds of thousands of sites that show ads through its AdSense program. Google will assign those users to categories based on the content of the pages they visit. For example, a user may be pegged as a potential car buyer, sports enthusiast or expectant mother.
Google will then use that information to show people ads that are relevant to their interests, regardless of what sites they are visiting. An expectant mother may see an ad about baby products not only on a parenting site but also, for example, on a sports or fashion site that uses AdSense or on YouTube, which is owned by Google.
The program will first be tested with a few dozen advertisers but Google plans to expand it.
