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Google's Reach Hits Your Tivo
accido writes "As reported by The LA Times, Google has now decided to expand its marketing and data collection to include what you watch on your Tivo. The data collected would help Google, who sells TV ads, show who watches which commercials and who skips right over them. The article outlines how this could be bad for networks that cash in whether you watch the ad or not. Does this mean fewer commercials for viewers? Not likely, but one can hope."
Rain has nothing to do with this.
Of Tivo users skip commercials. I'm sure the other 1% either don't know they have Tivo, don't know how to use Tivo, or watch so much television that their mental capacity to understand the concept of skipping commercials has been severely damaged.
The article outlines how this could be bad for Networks who cash in weather you watch the ad or not
They have ads there too? Sunny and a 50% chance of Cialis?
I wonder when this arms race for our eyeballs will peak. I'm not angry with targeted ads, overall it makes for a smarter consumer when after a generation or two we learn to identify market-speak at the cost of the last company to the block's poorly-spent campaign. In the mean time there's a greater likelihood I'll chance across something that is actually valuable to me, or a funny Geico ad :)
-Matt
--- Need web hosting?
Why not just set up mythtv and have it auto-extract?
These days, is there anyone left who does NOT block all these data collection and tracking things?
The trouble is that they invent them fast enough that it's hard to keep up. Web bugs, cross site scripts, I block everything I know about, but it takes a little bit of diligence to keep up with it. And some, like TIVO, you can see coming a mile off, so are easy to never start using in the first place.
If we don't stick up for a shit-free internet, soon it will all be commercialized into uselessness. TV 2.0!
Thankfully, unlike TV, it's in OUR hands, and it can only go to crap if we let it. So just block attempts at tracking everyone's every move, and problem solved.
Yes, it takes a little bit of sacrifice. But so does anything that's worth while.
Um... what kind of a question is that? 99% of the US population? Oh wait, sorry, I see - you were being "ironic" and "cool" because you don't do what everybody else does. No, yeah, you're right, there's absolutely nothing of value on any television channel anywhere, and probably never has been. While we're at it, let's throw out all our radios and computers.
Yeah, alot of people don't realize how much better life is without TV. When I moved out for the first time I didn't have the cash for cable, it was something I could live without. After 1 month of no TV I began to realize how much more time I had for things I always wanted to do. I took up sketching, I go stargazing, even started programming side projects.
TV just brings you down, even if you only watch it for an hour, after that hour you feel lazy and you just want to go to bed or play video games. It ends up ruining the whole evening. Without it, I feel obligated to DO something. Usually its absense will help me dedicate that half an hour to chores, and then I will want to do something more creative, like write a song.
Anytime I'm over visitting someone else's place, and they have the TV on, 99% of the time I can't stand what is on there, because its SO trashy. The only channel I would even bother watching now is discovery, for Mythbusters and such.
Or sit here posting Anon on the web. Not that I disagree with any of the things you said were more entertaining or enlightening, but you know, sometimes when I am doing some housework, I like to have some pointless trashy TV going, so I can mainly focus on the housework, but feel like I am watching TV.
Yes, much of TV is crap, but you ever tried getting the latest news update on DVD at your local DVD store? How about the weather updates? TV has it's benefits.
Moved to http://soylentnews.org/. You are invited to join us too!
Seriously, who the fuck still watches TV? There hasn't been anything good on any channel for years now, not that there was much good on in the first place.
All your neighbors. TV has become a "necessity". I overheard a guy complaining about his cable being out. I quote, "My children haven't had TV in two weeks!" I really had to stifle a laugh.
Go see a play at the local theater, watch a live band at a nearby pub, go for a walk, or read a book. Those are all much more enlightening and entertaining options.
Google will eventually have a system where as you enter the pub, you show your ID, and then that information will go into a database. Read a book? Google will collect the data from Visa and MC and AMEX to see what books you're reading and then use that data to market other shit to you. Local theater? Buy those ticket and well, you have to show your ID for pickup - again, data in the database. Live band? Show ID at the door and pay for those drink with your credit card? There you go.
It's not big brother. It's Google and other companies - Orwell was close. It's not the state that will spy (directly at least), it's going to be corporate American.
The state will just buy the information and technically do nothing wrong.
Technology - making life better for all.
It's NOT me! It's the meds! I'm on 1000mg of Fukitol.
For me, nothing beats the Flintstones cigarette ads.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAExoSozc2c
You do, and your Onion-esque attempts to pretend you don't aren't fooling anyone.
Parent poster doesn't even OWN a TV
a big pant-load of results based on guessing what the analyzed data means.
For example, I usually skip commercials. Sometimes when I am multi-tasking thus only half-watching I forget to skip the commercials, but I am not watching them either. And so on...
One thing I know for sure, I picked the wrong business, weathermen and marketing analysis experts amount to the same thing; getting paid for guessing with no repercussions for being wrong. A perfect job!
Did you ever wake up in the morning, with a Zombie Woof behind your eyes? -- FZ
If I was suddenly forced to watch commercials (i.e. no 30 second skip and/or no fast forward) I'd probably dump cable and just watch what I can get on Netflix instead. It would be sad though because there are down-times during the latter parts of my evenings when it's too early to go to bed but I'm too tired to do anything else and I want something passive and relatively low-bandwidth brainpower-wise to do in the meantime, and the few shows TiVo records for me are perfect for that.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
..Google will "team up" me to extract info from my mythbackend.
Tivo was cool in its day, but part of the reason I modernized was to take total control. It's mine, all mine, and if you want a piece, you talk to me. This is why I fuckin' love Free Software.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
Yeah, look where that's gotten us.
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
then it just skips commercials without even needing a remote button push and invasion of privacy like this.
I spend way too much money on cable every month. I don't understand why I can't "order" say Gilligan's Island (the one when they find the radioactive seeds) any time I want. I would sit through a commercial or two to be able to watch what I want. I just don't understand why the way we watch TV doesn't change. Instead of focus groups and canceled new sitcoms, let me watch what I know I already want to watch, then I'll watch the commercials too. How is "The Greatest American Hero" (the first episode they get to meet the aliens) worth more sitting in some vault worth more to the TV folks than me watching what I want and willing to sit through a sales pitch?
Reminds me of an old David Spade bit where he tells of two girls he knew in high school that would argue over who watched less television; each trying to out-bohemian the other.
I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
Fewer commercials? Not a chance. I think what we'll find is more channels being shown to people who just skip over them.
This article just makes me hate google more and more, you have no idea how many patents they have covering every aspect of every possible search engine. Isn't google using illegal means to gain information for their, financial gain then to bombard us with advertisements. This has to come an end, how far can a company go before it gets out of hand. the way this is going googles going to get worse than microsoft, thats a complement microsoft. Isn't this a breach of privacy? How bad will it become before, anyone will put their foot down? Also, Isn't it illegal with the methods that the networks are using to get personal information, in order to fine tune the battering ram of advertisements the besiege us with every day? Isn't time for the government to put their foot down. For the right of privacy of every person in this country, along with the world, as google's masive hand starts to cover the world.
The first two suggestions you made are quite a bit more expensive than TV. The fact that I can get an "buffet" style service for $1 a day seems like a much better deal than paying for a one time event.
Watching commercials on a Tivo Now i live in Canada, so I don't have Tivo, but I have the equivalent in Canadian terms. My question is this. Why would anyone in their right mind watch commercials. That's like buying a car and then pushing it around yourself. Definitely not taking advantage of the technology.
Mean what you say...say what you mean.
Actually it probably means advert placements for those demographics that skip ads become cheaper, whilst those that actually watch adverts become more expensive. Not a massive shift, but expect to see the cheap slots becoming less sophisticated, and open to ever-smaller companies, which could be a good thing.
Alternatively, maybe the ad-breaks for the skipping-demographics will get shorter, to discourage people from skipping, so ensuring they watch the bother to watch 1 advert that is on (rather than skipping all 20).
Grand Theft Wiki
"Anytime I'm over visitting someone else's place, and they have the TV on, 99% of the time I can't stand what is on there, because its SO trashy."
Unless the TVG is holding a gun to your friends heads, it's really your friends you need to think about, not the TV.
After 8 year of no TV, we just got satellite, and it's freakin' awesome. I really enjoy having TV.
Next year we get a TiVo.
TV is just a medium. what you do with it is what counts.
"after that hour you feel lazy and you just want to go to bed or play video games."
where you hittin' the pipe at the same time?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
If they are able to provide target ads for viewers, this could be good for digital video distribution. This market really needs to go and improve. Cable TV is too overpriced for the "content" they provide. We put the phone on the internet and now its time to put the TV there as well.
There are 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who don't.
While an a purely ethics level I don't care for MS's business practices at least they tend to usually just screw other businesses, Google frankly scares the crap out of me. Its pretty easy to avoid MS but avoiding becoming a google statistic is becoming increasingly impossible.
If Google or others sites are recording & selling our search keys, here's a solution:
- develop an application that - while our browser is idle -
selects BOGUS search keys AT RANDOM and sends
them to Google as if we'd entered them in real searches
Ie, feed Google a "noisy" stream of search keys, at about
the same speed as we'd be sending them, if they were
real searches.
I have no doubt that such an application would become
very popular, very soon...
Any takers?
PS Are there any such applications in existence today?
I don't think such a thing would be popular. Most people don't care, but those few that do would find it easier to use a service with a better privacy policy. Perhaps Bing or Yahoo! could profit from the backlash in the unlikely event that one should materialize.
Too busy staying alive... ~ R.A.
Firefox addon TrackMeNot does this. Been using it for eons.
Yeah, alot of people don't realize how much better life is without TV.
Generally, yes. But you're talking about commercial television, just like people who complain about crappy radio are talking about commercial radio
I'm a regular viewer of of PBS and C-SPAN. The Charlie Rose show, for example, is probably the closest most people will get to an intelligent and informative conversation than they'll have had all year long in their personal lives, reading material included. How is that, or the latest documentary or episode of Frontline not enriching? And C-SPAN, hell, what could be more informative? Instead of reading on Slashdot re-circulated Bruce Schneier blogposts, why not watch and listen to him directly?
You need to get out more. Your comments reminds me of the time when I mentioned to a friend that I stumbled across this nutty but really well done show called A Prairie Home Companion on the radio. He told me had been a regular listener longer than he could remember.
The most likely outcome of this is that the networks will finally start an arms race on commercial avoidance strategies.
I really don't get why it is that they still make all of the commercials exactly 30 seconds in length. Ten years ago, I had a VCR with a button that would fast-forward 30 seconds and stop.
Today, MythTV does a darned good job of auto-flagging commercials, and then auto-skipping them for me. And the default fast-forward time is that magical 30 seconds. I haven't watched a commercial in years. I mean, really, VCR manufacturers had it figured out a decade ago, and the networks haven't caught on yet!?!
(OK, if this post is what finally gives the networks a clue, then feel free to hunt me down. I'd deserve it.)
absolutely no mention in TFA of tivo's existing opt-out policy (keeps your tivo from reporting usage and viewing history of your box) and if it will also apply to google's sticky fingers.
(...) Does this mean fewer commercials for viewers? Not likely, but one can hope.
Quite possibly not. It would mean more relevant commercials and less annoying flashing and screaming ads. Before Google entered, advertising on the internet with mere text was unheard of. By using very relevant ads both viewers/users and companies benefit. The issue with todays TV ads is that they are highly irrelevant. It's up to the company to make sure the ad gets displayed at the right time of day. Perhaps Google could improve upon this, so some of us can be freed of vacuum cleaner ads, unless they are robots.
If Google or others sites are recording & selling our search keys, here's a solution:
- develop an application that - while our browser is idle -
selects BOGUS search keys AT RANDOM and sends
them to Google as if we'd entered them in real searches
Ie, feed Google a "noisy" stream of search keys, at about
the same speed as we'd be sending them, if they were
real searches.
I have no doubt that such an application would become
very popular, very soon...
Any takers?
PS Are there any such applications in existence today?
Track Me Not
http://mrl.nyu.edu/~dhowe/trackmenot/index.html
The beauty of a Tivo (or MythTV or SageTV) is that you can record 10 things and then just watch 1. You don't have to be faithful and dedicated about it. You can make the whole thing into sort of a primitive video-on-demand system that includes things that would never be formally in a VOD system.
You're basically taking the possibilities present with a single fixed TV schedule and multiplying them by 1000 or 2000.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
I feel obligated to DO something.
I get enough of that at work, thanks.
With the first link, the chain is forged.