Google is into all kinds of research and products – Nexus devices, driverless cars, maps, Google Glass, navigation systems for cars and more – but when it comes down to the bottom line…they make their real money on advertising. Companies are willing to pay big bucks for information about YOU and the more Google knows about you and your specific habits, the more they can charge for their services. After all, a company is willing to pay more money if they are fairly confident that the names given to them are more likely to actually make a purchase. Google strives to make a better match with your buying habits and companies that are offering those products or services. This happened to me a couple weeks ago – I did some searches in my browser and even watched a few YouTube (owned by Google) videos concerning a new coffee maker, now when I go to websites, even our own Android Headlines, I am constantly getting ads popping up concerning the type of makers I was doing research on.
When we agree to us Google’s services, we are, for all intents and purposes, entering into an ‘agreement’ with Google – Google helps us and we will help Google. This happens every time we use Google Search, Gmail, Google Maps and YouTube for free – we benefit from it and so does Google by selling this information to their advertising customers…to the tune of billions of dollars each year. By logging the places we search and the websites we visit, advertisers can tell what products or services you are most interested in, and by directing advertising at you for those interests, chances are better that you may make a purchase or at least inquire on their website.
You may be thinking to yourself, “those sneaky bastards,” but you would only be half-correct, because we freely give information about ourselves out every time we signed up and ‘create an account.’ For instance, they always ask for a first and last name, home and/or business address, phone number, location, date of birth, create a user name, and a password, on so on. This information in of itself gives advertisers a place to start and Google simply acts like Sherlock Holmes and deduces information about you based on how you use their products.
What is really cool is the fact that we can manipulate most of the information Google has on us by going to a of couple websites – ‘Ads Setting‘ and ‘Account History‘ – and here you can edit information about yourself and even delete places you have search or YouTube videos that you have search on and watched. Jump over to these two places and take a look – I guarantee you, it is quite eye opening and interesting at the same time. Then, hit us up on our Google+ Page and let us know what you think…as always, we would love to hear from you.