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Yahoo,Google Going Shopping Again

It was not long ago that the Big Internet giants shopped ? Well its time again they start shopping ,Yahoo and google are back in business to buy small companies .Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz said that ” she was in the market once again for acquisitions specifically small and mid sized opportunities” Google CEO Eric Schmidt said that he would use his $11 billion in cash to do the same thing .

Schmidt told reporters at the G20 gathering in Pittsburg, that its “clear now the worst is behind us and his check book is open again .
“There may be larger acquisitions, but they really are unpredictable,” Schmidt said.

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Google Acquisition Rumors Reflect Twitter’s Importance

While rumors of an imminent Google acquisition of Twitter were apparently offbase, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the companies strike up a formal collaboration or partnership.
Twitter, a microblogging service in which millions of people post brief text messages, has emerged as the custodian of a valuable online index of real-time facts, comments, musings and announcements, information that is clearly valuable for Google’s search engine index.

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Google’s new ad network will watch where you go, and what you do

The search giant has unveiled a new “behavioural targeting” feature for websites on its AdSense network – matching a similar service launched by YahooXtra around the globe last month, and enraging privacy advocates.

It’s old hat to match context-sensitive text ads to the article, or video, that a web surfer is currently watching.

But today Google started to trial a new tool that offer what it calls “interest-based ads” – advertisements not matched to what you’re immediately clicking on, but that take into account your interests and habits in general, as revealed by your entire web surfing history.

Google users will be placed into one of 20 pre-determined categores (matching YahooXtra’s targetting service; below), in turn divided into 600 subcategories.

“These ads will associate categories of interest – say sports, gardening, cars, pets –with your browser, based on the types of sites you visit and the pages you view,” says the company in a blogpost announcing the new service. “We may then use those interest categories to show you more relevant text and display ads.” Technology from DoubleClick, bought by Google in 2007, will facilitate the data matching.

IDs of March
The new behavioural targeting service will be trialed worldwide by Google properties, including its search engine and YouTube, from today.

During April, the trial will expand to include independent websites on Google’s AdSense network.

Eat me
Although some privacy groups were quick to label the new ad technique as Orwellian, Google says people can opt out by choosing not to receive the cookie (tracking software) that enables the behavioural targeting (see instructions here), or use Google’s Ad Preferences Manager (below), to refine what categories of advertisement they receive – or, indeed, add extra interests for advertisers to target (recalling, to your correspondent, that cow in The Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy that asks to be eaten). It’s all, says Google, in the name of “making ads more interesting.”

YahooXtra already there
On February 11, YahooXtra launched its own behavioural targeting capability, introducing a service that analyses web surfers’ behaviour, then places them into one of 20 pre-defined behavioural profiles of online users around the globe.

“With media dollars under real pressure in 2009, innovation that drives advertising efficiency couldn’t come at a better time”, said YahooXtra chief executive, Kevin Bowler.

The company says all user data is completely anonymous and is examined at an aggregate level only.

Microsoft introduced worldwide behavioural targetting for its Live.com search engine at the end of 2007.

Collision course with regulator
Google’s privacy approach, which requires users to its Ad Preferences site, may not be enough to satisfy the US Federal Trade Commission.

On February 12, the FTC questioned whether industry self-policing was enough, and hinted that regulation may be needed around behavioural targeting.

A key issue: the FTC’s desire that the likes of Google, Microsoft and Yahoo proactively inform their users about what data is being collected, and opt-out options, not wait for customers to visit their preference sites.

Google to websites: change your privacy policy to accommodate our ads

The search giant has sent a memo to websites on its AdSense network, asking them to change their privacy policy to accommodate its new behavioural targeting technology, which tracks where people surf and serves ads to match their interests.

While context-sensitive text ads are nothing new, Google’s new “interest-based” advertising service will go beyond the article a person is immediately reading, reviewing their long-term web habits to build a profile.

The memo asks websites, using AdSense, to update their privacy policy by April 8.

Google says that due to differing privacy laws between countries, it can’t provide a template privacy policy, but it does provide links to sample text that warns users (at least those who bother to visit your privacy statement) that your site uses tracking cookies.

Learn how to opt-out of “interest-based ads” .click here

That memo in full:

Hello,

We’re writing to let you know about the upcoming launch of interest-based
advertising, which will require you to review and make any necessary changes
to your site’s privacy policies. You’ll also see some new options on your
Account Settings page.

Interest-based advertising will allow advertisers to display ads based on a
user’s previous interactions with them, such as visits to advertiser website
and also to reach users based on their interests (e.g. “sports enthusiast”).
To develop interest categories, we will recognise the types of web pages
that users visit throughout the Google content network. As an example, if
they visit a number of sports pages, we will add them to the “sports
enthusiast” interest category. To learn more about your associated account
settings, please visit the AdSense Help Centre at
http://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/topic.py?topic=20310&hl=en_GB.

As a result of this announcement, your privacy policy will now need to
reflect the use of interest-based advertising. Please review the information
at
https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=100557&hl=en_GB
to ensure that your site’s privacy policies are up-to-date and make any
necessary changes by 8 April 2009. Because publisher sites and laws vary
across countries, we’re unfortunately unable to suggest specific privacy
policy language.

For more information about interest-based advertising, you can also visit
the Inside AdSense Blog at
http://adsense.blogspot.com/2009/03/driving-monetization-with-ads-that.html.

We appreciate your participation and look forward to this upcoming
enhancement.

Yours sincerely,

The Google AdSense Team

Google, Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043