
Why personalization done well is not in Google's self-interest - amichail

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yaacovtp
You have it backwards. The more a publisher knows about it's users the more
targeted ads they can sell for higher rates. Compare CPM on myspace.com
(pennies) vs the wsj.com (tens of dollars). Yahoo and Google have similar
people searching, but Google has been able to provide more personalized ads
and therefore make more money. Advertisers measure their return for every
dollar spent. If Google doesn't keep on doing a better job than other sites at
personalizing pages their users will go elsewhere where they can find what
they need more quickly.

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amichail
Yes, knowing more about people's interests is great for targeted advertising.

However, providing (unpaid) personalized search and news can hurt you since
there is less need for paid advertising.

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amichail
If personalization is done really well, then it could have a very bad effect
on paid advertising.

After all, if potential customers are likely to see your product via
personalization, why bother to pay for paid advertising at all?

