We wanted to give you our take on the new Google’s Ad Preferences announced by Google. In case you have not heard about it, Google Ad Preferences is Google’s attempt to become more accurate in showing you ads that are more suited to your tastes and surfing habits (actually up to 600 subcategories of interest). Google calls it “interest-based” advertising. Basically what this means is that the ads you see  will no longer be based on website content. As Google notes, “there are some situations…where a keyword or the content of a web page simply doesn’t give us enough information to serve highly relevant ads.” This is where Google Ad Preferences will take over.  The program will be cookie based and will determine your of interests based on your surfing habits, but you also have the ability to tell Google the type of ads you wish to see ( or not) by editing them manually. Please note you need a Google Account to do this.

Whats also good, is Google is also focusing on those with privacy concerns. You can opt out of the program via two options. You can opt out via using a special cookie hiding your preferences from the AdSense partner network here. And to make sure that your opt-out decision is respected (and isn’t deleted if you clear the cookies from your browser), Google  has designed a plug-in for your browser that maintains your opt-out choice.

Another way of thinking about Google Ad Preferences is looking at the way some companies (used to) offer free services (such as web based mail) in return for a user reievcing emails from selected partners based on categories. As much as some may hate the idea of selecting the ads that target you, the reality is we live in a world where Google’s Ads (and their Ad Network) allow most websites to thrive. Ad revenue also allows Google to offer many services free of charge, that once would have been all pay to play. From a  marketers perspective, being able to target users choosing the content (even if not by direct choice) will be an interesting experiment to follow. If nothing else, Google Ad Preferences allows an advertiser’s precious recession squeezed budget to be spent more efficiently. In the end its a win for advertisers to get money spent wisely, users to get ad content they will see anyway better related to their interest, and Google more revenue from better accuracy from more conversions.

***Update***

We have updated our privacy policy as an Adsense Publisher with these latest developments. If you are one as well, it is recommend you do the same. Get more info here.