Slashdot Mirror
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 every innovative google algorithm there is an equal and opposite new type of spamming technique created.
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
As true as that may be, if Google doesn't apply for a patent, then some patent troll might just pop up a year later and sue Google for a bazillion dollars. I'm sure that the engineers at Google feel the same way you do about software patents; they just need to do things like this to protect themselves from a lawsuit.
Love sees no species.
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.
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.
Why not? Because a well targeted ad is worth 1000 (or more) crappy ones. For a long time slashdot showed me ads for IBM mainframes and microsoft products, neither of which I use, so it was just wasted ad space. If, however, I had "managed IBM mainframes" or "MSCE" in my LinkedIn profile, then that kind of ad would make sense.