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Google Seeking "FriendRank" Patent
theodp writes "In its just-published patent application for Network Node Ad Targeting, Google hatches plans for identifying the most influential of a circle of friends and providing this 'influencer' with 'financial incentives from advertisers in exchange for permission to display advertisements on the member's [social network] profile' (sound familiar, Jeremy?). Doing so will 'provide advertisers with the option of targeting either all members in the community or advertising only on the profile of the influencer, thereby targeting the entire community,' explains Google. Who says you can't buy friendship!"
If your best friend will go with this, I think it's time to find a new friend.
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
For those of us that like seeing our 'friends' beat the piss out of each other for out 'affections' ?
Great. So now when Viacom sues Google they'll not only get viewership information, they'll know all the relationships between those viewers too.
For every innovative google algorithm there is an equal and opposite new type of spamming technique created.
I don't think it's going to work properly right away.
It'll be too easy to create sockpuppet groups managed by only one profeteer, aside from bloating the social networks with a new variant of spam.
Besides, a lot of people will discover that it was true that they didn't have any friends...
For every innovative google algorithm there is an equal and opposite new type of spamming technique created.
It's called "marketing" - on the job interview. Never say "spam".
A friend of mine was interviewing at a giant junk mail company. during the interview, they took him into this room that showed their "Products". He exclaimed, "I never seen so much junk mail in my life!"
The interviewer, in a terse voice, "That's DIRECT MARKETING!"
He still got the job.
I think this could go a long way, although I sure hope my friends don't get into it.
Now I'll have to endure tech buying advice from the more social types. I don't have a MaSpace page, Facebook account or Twitter addiction, but I do make the hardware decisions around here. Analyze that.
I'm going to find Google's most influential plan hatcher and drown him in the combined tears of the world's geeks, collected in a giant pot with the letters "DON'T BE EVIL" stencilled on the outside.
biopowered.co.uk - catalytically cracking triglycerides for home automotive use since 2008. Just say no to big oil!
So... Google plays favorites in group circles?
I'm going to be offended if they don't choose me. "I'm a leader, not a follower. I promise!"
...whatever crap the ad-box below is trying to sell you!
You failed again, AC!
Patent law needs to be seriously overhauled. Anyone can apply for a patent. Even an upgrade, slight change or adjustment to an existing patent can be obtained. Patent Trolls run rampant. It's just ridiculously out of control.
somecanuckchick dot com
Google jumped the shark long ago,
.. can't money buy you love?
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
People with a lot of friends on social networking sites probably don't have all that much influence. These are people who agree to be friends with whomever asks them, and will spam people with friend requests. I see pages with "8,000 friends!", and think "uh, no. This guy does not not know 8,000 people personally or well enough to influence their decisions".
What this promises to do is make people think "Wow, if I have lots of friends on my page, I can make some money!", so I can expect a marked increase in unsolicited friend requests from people I don't know.
The Internet is generally stupid
New Tag, anyone?
All that time spent during high school pressuring nerds into smoking pot pays off!
IANAL so I don't know if this applies but Stanley Milgram's small world experiment sounds very similar. This is where the 6 degrees of separation idea came from. Basically social networks consists of spokes and hubs. Hubs are basically popular people who knows everyone in their area and these hubs allow people to be connected with other people in other areas, ensuring that people are never separated by more than 6 hops. Think of these as routers but for people. Isn't Google's "influential" people the same thing? I mean once you have a graph of a social network, the hubs are pretty obvious. Where's the originality in this concept?
EvilCON - Made Famous by
As usual, a one-paragraph description of a patent covers exactly the parts that are prior art without actually pointing out the new parts.
The novel bits include:
* Being able to advertise things based on the profile of your friends. You may have forgotten to put "skydiving" in your list of interests, but if a dozen of your friends also have "skydiving", you might be in the target market.
* Saving money by advertising only to certain valuable people, not just those with interests but those who know a lot of others with those interests. Why pay for 1,000 ad impressions when 10 would do?
Patents are hard to read, but I recommend skipping the abstract and the claims and going ahead to the description. You'll learn a lot more.
Malcolm Gladwell talks about this concept in his book The Tipping Point. Specifically, Google is looking for Mavens, the people that you go to for information. Mavens are the early adopters, and a circle of friends often relies on their opinions to determine whether or not to purchase a product. Marketers have been trying to find a way to specifically target Mavens for decades. I don't think that what Google is doing is very manipulative (since they are asking the Maven in the first place). I would assume that a Maven by nature would reject advertisements that he/she didn't agree with, or make comments about the ones he/she likes or doesn't like on their personal page anyways.
It's not a bug, it's a feature
that I feel really glad I've never registered for any community site, nor watched anything more than home videos on YouTube. I also avoid blogs, and price comparison sites. The only IM I use is jabber and that runs from my server.
Surely there are other people around who saw all this shit coming ?
My ass. Software patents are evil, period.
My other account has a 3-digit UID.
I just checked Facebook and MySpace and both already have advertising on their pages (probably somewhat based on your profile). What's the difference with adding advertisement on those popular profiles? they already have advertisements on them! That Tom dude on MySpace is gonna make a ton, though :-)
This is not a new idea.
As soon as there was email there were schemes from companies to "sign up' your friends, and for every friend that joins, you get a month of free service, or an additional entry into some lotto, or some such incentive.
What follows, is I ask my friends nicely not to do that anymore. If they persist when you get a new email address, they do not get it (and you likely block them in the meantime). Which leads to loss of communication, which leads to them not really being a close friend (which they likely are not anyway if they refused to obey your wishes).
I have the same ire for dumb ass friends that send me chain letter emails. If you want to send me something funny, I don't mind, but some drivel trying to pressure you to send it to all your friends is just garbage.
For every innovative google algorithm there is an equal and opposite new type of spamming technique created.
News flash! The whole point of this patent is to do better advertising targeting. The innovation is to improve the quality of targeted advertising. Google's entire business model is advertising. Almost everything they do is related to advertising or to better monetise their content.
If I have profile on facebook, they have all the power to display all the ads they want on my profile, without my permission. And they do.
The only entity in position to sell ad space of those "influential" friends is Facebook.
It is really stupid to involve users into this.
Why not just insert your ad to the popular user's profile without asking him? Or even better, why not insert ad to every profile page no matter if it is from the popular user or not? Or even even better, why we don't insert ad on every single page on the site? Oh, wait, it's the way Internet works for decades.
No sig today.
This reminds me of the questions and issues that rose from Multi Level Marketing, tapping into Social Networking skills of members to bring benefits to the Mothership and its crew.
There's no way this method is vulnerable to fraud! It's totally solid!
how many of those kids [or adults] on social networking sites already have banners or small graphics trying to advertise their interests to other people...
if the adverts look similar, many not care so much.
Of course friendship isn't a commercial transaction. If I have to pay someone to be my friend or they only hang out with me because of the nice stuff I give them they aren't really my friend.
However, being friends with someone doesn't mean you can't help them get good deals. If I buy a new laptop there's nothing wrong with offering my friends the first chance to buy the old one. If I use dreamhost there is nothing immoral about getting my friends to use my referral code so I get reimbursed when they purchase hosting.
I agree it's immoral to give your friends a paid opinion masquerading as your genuine advice. However, it seems clear in this case that there is no danger of confusion about whether you are making a personal recommendation or just being paid to put an advertisement on your page. I don't see any reason anyone would actually think an ad was your friends genuine advice.
So sure you shouldn't choose your friends because of monetary compensation you don't have to refuse the benefits from having that friend. I didn't make friends with people in college because they owned cars but that didn't mean I couldn't ride with them when they wanted to get some food or take advantage of it when they offered to help me move.
If you liked this thought maybe you would find my blog nice too: