To me, it reads like somebody in the trenches who wants very much for this to be true -- but doesn't necessarily have the authority to make it happen at a higher level.
The fact that Eric Schmidt feels otherwise, and that privacy is a leaky thing, suggest that this may be an employee engaging in wishful thinking.
Maybe I'm jaded, having worked with Marketing agencies, but that reads so clearly like a PR piece, feels fake, did not ease any concerns over the author's boss mocking privacy just a few months ago. But perhaps that's what works for the audience of Forbes magazine.
ads, incidentally, that help pay for all the great content on the Web, so it can stay free of charge
Oh, thank you mighty google for making the web free! Where would we be with you!
With adwords you are the internet's true saviour and not really the cause of the billions of spam sites, spam comments and spam blogs plastered with your useless ads trying desperately to capture extra clicks that you didn't catch the first time.
Man that really stuck in my craw. Google are fast becoming my new monopoly to hate.
The only possible application I can think of the Ads Preferences Manager is to deliberately choose things I hate/have no desire for so they don't even catch my eye.
The fact that Eric Schmidt feels otherwise, and that privacy is a leaky thing, suggest that this may be an employee engaging in wishful thinking.