Narrative and Site Created by:
Adam Richard Rottinghaus
North Carolina State University
College of Humanities and Social Sciences: Communication Dept.
December 2007
The Digital You FAQ
How does Google do it?
Is the database really of information on you?
What is Google doing with this digital you?
How does Google's advertising model work?
What does this mean for advertising?
What will Google do in the future of advertising?
What does Google do with this database of information it is building on you?
Google uses the database of of information to build a "digital you". By remembering past search histories and web behaviors, it can remember where a certain IP address has visited in the past. Aggregating online information builds what is known as "The Database of Intentions". "The Database of Intentions is simply this: the aggregate results of every search ever entered, every reults list ever tenered, and every path taken as a results. It livcs in many places, but three of four places in particular - AOL, Google, MSN, Yahoo - hold a massive amount of this data." (Battelle, 2005).
Is the database really of information on you?
Yes and no. The aggregate data is generic, meaning it is not affixed to any single user. However, the data is collected through IP address. Every time someone uses your internet connection, your self, others in your home using the same or different computers, even your neighbor pirating you bandwidth, the data is collected from your IP address. As more activities and services migrate online, many of them require logins. With the login name comes much information about yourself, that you have freely entered into the database of the login. Google's Gmail, Google Docs, iGoogle, YouTube, Picasa and Orkut, just to name a few all connect to the same database connected to your login information. In this sense the data is about you. The content of your e-mails, the nature of your documents, the videos you upload and view all provide a robust picture of the digital you. As Google acquires more businesses and online services those too, will feed the digital you. Microsoft's recent acquisition of a 1.6% stake in Facebook, (article) gives MSN access to information to build their database. As services like iGoogle, Yahoo, AOL, MSN, use logins to personalize your experiences, the doorway to personal habits, not just aggregate data, is opened. Social networks sites like MySpace and the aforementioned Facebook, and Google's Orkut work to construct rich databases of freely offered information about you. Hyves, a social networking site based in the Netherlands, outright asks you as part of your profile which brands you like the best. These identities on social networking sites literally are versions of a "digital you".
What is Google doing with this digital you?
Google is making money. It uses the database of information to target and sell advertising. This makes Google, in the traditional advertising sense, a media placement buyer. In the advertising world, whoever is the best at finding the consumer efficiently, is the best media buyer. This makes Google the best media buyer in the history of advertising, new media or old. Google is so successful, because it targets your searches and provides consumers with relevant advertisements, instead of broad banding ads based on viewing content. Traditional media attaches the ads to the sought after content, without regard for the individual, only the masses. Google auctions keywords and ad placements which essentially makes the "digital you" part of the auction. It is the aggregate data, the personal info on your social networking profile and online habits that dictate the market value of the auctioned data. In terms of convergence culture, if old media advertising is a shotgun, new media advertising is a sniper rifle with a high powered laser scope. By separating the content from the ads and allowing both content and the ads become more relevant. (More on convergence culture.) If old media companies produce content to attach ads to, new media companies produce a "digital you" from the databse to attach ads to. This is a fundamental change in the way advertising operates.
How does Google's advertising model work?
Google unlocked the financial tsunami when it launched AdWords, 2000. By producing "sponsored links" that were generated along side, but separated from the organic search results via the recognizable blue line, Google could show ads relevant to search queries. Google's ads were simple links with a couple lines of text further explaining the nature of the link. After some initial work as a "per view" model Google finally settled on a "per-click" to generate revenue for both the advertisers and itself. From here Google launched AdSense, a clever technology used to place ads on websites based on the content of the website. For example, if you were running a sports dedicated website, Google would route AdWords onto the site dealing with sporting goods. This quickly became a way to subsidize a website through relevant advertising. The beauty of this system was two-fold. First, it migrated the process of figuring out wear to place ads from a human to an algorithm. Second, in didn't require any huge upfront cost of media placements without a guaranteed return on investment. Traditional media buys were expensive and unquantifiable. Which means small and mid-sized companies often couldn't afford large advertising campaigns. AdSense only requires the advertiser to pay when the AdWords are clicked on. Thus, giving creditability to the ad through data on the interaction. Companies could then directly tie websites sales to click-throughs coming from Google, and the ROI was ensured. This too, was a fundamental change in the way advertising operates.
What does this mean for advertising?
As Google fundamentally changed advertising expectations online, and defined a new quantifiable form of advertising. It's position as a media buyer, naturally leant itself to expansion and the quest to buy media offline as well. A recent deal with Nielsen ratings and the launch of Google print are solidifying Googles plan to expand their targeted advertising into traditional media models. See articles. In combination with companies specializing in tracking up to the minute viewing habits Google plans to target TV commercials to the viewer not the content. By separating the content from the advertising Google can then place ads relevant to the viewers habits of consumption. If Google is successful in implementing custom printed targeted ads and TV commercials, it isn't a stretch imagine branching into radio. Mobile device advertising is a market waiting to broken open. Google plans on leading that charge as well. It's recent announcement of Android, a mobile device operating platform, may acquire more personal information than any other user interface. See article. Imagine an advertising placement algorithm that collects data from a device that rarely leaves your side. More importantly than imagining the possibilities, is to look at what a shift in creditability and quatifiability means to the advertising industry, which has operated since its inception virtually without statistics linking ads to consumer behavior. This is a fundamental shift in the way advertising operates.
What will Google do in the future of advertising?
Google is so entrenched in advertising, 70% of the business is search and advertising dedicated, (article) they will be in it for the long hall. To accommodate this, they have begun, plucking high ranking advertising executives to help. See article. Google is an efficiency and profit minded company, if in their opinion it is more profitable and efficient to produce the ads they already buy media for they will. It is not a stretch to ask when will Google start forming partnership with creative agencies, or outright acquiring them, to provide better experiences for their customers. Why have your customers spend tons of money developing campaigns only to come to Google for media buying, when customers could come to Google right off the bat so Google could take its cut? One stop brand building would certainly be more efficient and profitable than a customer having to deal with several companies to get their campaigns off the ground.