The future of online marketing: You become the Ad

Google updated their terms of service this week. Interested to see what might be happening to my personal data now, I took a look. They’ve made 3 changes but the most important related to how users’ profile names and photos could appear in future in Google products e.g. reviews, advertising, search results.

Google says they want to give us and our friends “the most useful information.” To do this, they want to share the recommendations, reviews, and likes (or in google-speak +1’s) that we create with our circle of contacts.

In other words, you and your online profile are about to become an ad – or more specifically a free endorsement for a range of products and brands.

Why is this “most useful”? Because recommendations from people we know are more influential on our decision to act – and buy. Google knows this and wants to leverage its user base to drive better lead generation and sales for its advertisers and commercial partners – and to generate more ad dollars and commission for itself.

Google does of course insist that users remain in control of what they share, so long as they go into “Shared Endorsement setting” in their Profile information area and manage it or turn it off.

Given hardly anyone reads Google’s terms of service updates, how likely is it that users will be aware they need to take this action? Right. Not likely. So don’t be surprised the next time you log in to Google that the endorsement for Nike’s new vest is no longer a world class athlete, but instead your college drinking buddy.