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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!"
Why ? If they offer you money to display ads, why not take it ? Is being paid to advertise a product completely immoral on Slashdot now ?
There is a difference between merely advertising, and knowingly participating in a company's targeted manipulation of your friend to extract money.
It's no different then a gold digger's behavior.
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For every innovative google algorithm there is an equal and opposite new type of spamming technique created.
Friendship isn't supposed to be a commercial transaction.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
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