Contextual Ads Based On Images

An anonymous reader writes "Technology Review reports on efforts to enable web ads to be targeted based on the content of online images, not text. All those user-generated photos on Facebook and Picasa could apparently be worth much more if it was possible to display adverts for pet food next to your snaps of your dog. Machine vision can apparently make that possible."

Comments

Re:I WANT MY GOATSE-INSPIRED ADS!

[Chrisq]

I WANT MY GOATSE-INSPIRED ADS!

Add for the latest iPhone coming up.

It finally happened

[Anonymous Coward]

Image Related advertising is here.

In before a few hundred thousand people cry like retards when they think that some person looked through their images and assigned ads to it.
Hey, it happened before with Google Ads in Gmail. Retards are everywhere, and they are very vocal.

If all the world becomes a miiror..

[twisting_department]

Great. If all the world becomes a mirror of what I'm interested in, because it knows all about me and my interests, then how do I ever get to find anything new and/or different?

Re:If all the world becomes a miiror..

[HungryHobo]

type "new and different" into the search engines and the advertisers will get the idea.

Re:If all the world becomes a miiror..

[underqualified]

there's a checkbox for that

Re:If all the world becomes a miiror..

[thijsh]

When they know what you like and create an heuristic 'other people that liked X also like Y' kinda system you can actually get useful *new* recommendations you will probably also like... But with an image system like this you can imagine all the stupid fuck-ups and jokes that will ensue... "Yo momma is so fat that the ad Picasa shows next to all her photo's is: 'save the whales'"

Plus you can be damn sure that if this system is smart enough to be useful it will be gamed, and I'm not worried about companies trying to get more hits, but rather the /B/tard horde... Can you imagine the shit they will get this system to display next to your images??? - Spaghetti = "Get your rare tentacle rape hentai here"
Photo's of your little kids = "God loves all little children. Become a priest now!"
Everything pokemon-ish = "So i herd u liek Mudkip"...

Fuck, there will be more horrors than you or I can imagine now... and I can imagine quite a lot...

Re:If all the world becomes a miiror..

[Anonymous Coward]

the /B/tard horde

The /b/tard horde.

Re:If all the world becomes a miiror..

[Anonymous Coward]

Great. If all the world becomes a mirror of what I'm interested in, because it knows all about me and my interests, then how do I ever get to find anything new and/or different?

That's called "risk". Predictability is more profitable.

Re:If all the world becomes a miiror..

[segin]

Don't feel bad, the poor chap has never experienced the clarity of UNIX. He doesn't understand the critical importance of case-sensitivity.

Re:If all the world becomes a miiror..

[Sockatume]

If you happen to have access to Nature, this Philip Ball piece riffs on that topic.

Re:If all the world becomes a miiror..

[mcgrew]

If all your world is media, you have bigger problems than targeted ads.

Re:If all the world becomes a miiror..

[hedwards]

But causing people to want what you're selling is even more profitable than predictability. Just look at the way that the music industry and film industry have destroyed the quality to make a buck.

Re:If all the world becomes a miiror..

[TheLink]

Allow you to choose an arbitrary demographic to view "the world" from?

It may be useful for buying presents/gifts too.

Re:If all the world becomes a miiror..

[Thinboy00]

When they know what you like and create an heuristic 'other people that liked X also like Y' kinda system you can actually get useful *new* recommendations you will probably also like... But with an image system like this you can imagine all the stupid fuck-ups and jokes that will ensue... "Yo momma is so fat that the ad Picasa shows next to all her photo's is: 'save the whales'"

s/photo's/photos/

Re:If all the world becomes a miiror..

[steelfood]

Different? Different!?

Conform, you mindless sheep drone! If you don't conform, you don't belong!

Re:If all the world becomes a miiror..

[apoc.famine]

That a very insightful point. I detest most rap/hip-hop/spoken word, being a heavy/progressive metal fan. Yet I ran into Scroobius Pip some time ago, and was struck by something very different than what I normally listened to. However, for the moment, we're both safe. There are places like slashdot where people will post links to things that you've never heard of, or haven't been exposed to. But the most important part is this:

This is for Ads. Not for anything else. When was the last time an add introduced you to something new and different? If you're anything like me, you tune almost all of them out. I, for one, would welcome ads targeted to things in my life. It'd be far less irritating than the 99% of ads currently that I'm not interested in.

I'm not a normal consumer. I've got a 5 year old car that I'll probably keep for another 5 years. Car ads are useless to me. All the ads for female hygiene produces are useless for me. I drink quality, local beers. All the mass-market beer ads are useless to me. I don't buy much in the way of processed foods - all those ads are useless to me. I don't know that I've had more than about 3 hot pockets in my life. Ads for them aren't going to change that. I don't drink much soda, so you can throw out all the Coke and Pepsi ads. I've been using the same deodorant for years now. The woman loves the smell, so I'm not changing that either. Toss out all the deodorant and body spray ads.

Seriously - I'm ok with better targeted ads. Of course, if that comes to pass, I'll bitch and complain about seeing the same 5 ads over and over and over for years.

Re:If all the world becomes a miiror..

[m2shariy]

Fuck, there will be more horrors than you or I can imagine now... and I can imagine quite a lot...

Why don't you try AdBlock?

Re:If all the world becomes a miiror..

[rastoboy29]

You make an interesting point, but on the other hand, over time, I imagine the ads will introduce you to those new things, too, because what interests you may be more apparent to them than to you!

I always remember how on Napster, when I found someone sharing a song I wanted, I would browse their collection since we had at least one common intersection of interest in music.  Got me into a lot of bands I would never have heard of, otherwise.

Evolution

[Anonymous Coward]

1990s:
People are tired of crapvertisement exploding, find efficient entertainment elsewhere, internet evolves

2000s:
The internets is a fun place, banners and popups are crap but they can be turned off, we have fun

2005:
"Non-intrusive" ads, they work well, people are spending money on things they want

2007:
Explosion of "non-intrusive" ads, so whored out by 3rd parties it becomes a chaos of irrelevant ads with alot of clickthrough to get to actual content.

2009:
After people found a "place online" to display their alter egos, their data is used to target them with unrelevant ads

2010:
People's nonsignificant images are used and linked with any potential "product" that might be relevant 2011:
Internet is the new television, nerds and geeks stop using the general internet and dive into darknets, advertizers chase them further down to sell stuff they don't want or need.

Re:Evolution

[somersault]

Don't know about you, but I just use an adblocker.

Re:Evolution

[Anonymous Coward]

I always thought that the '2000s' included 2005, 2007 and 2009, maybe I'm wrong though. Maybe the rules are different in your one person darknet.

Re:Evolution

[selven]

2015:
People are tired of crapvertisement exploding, find efficient entertainment elsewhere, Freenet explodes

2020:
Freenet is a fun place, banners and popups are crap but they can be turned off, we have fun

2030:
People are tired of crapvertisement exploding, find efficient entertainment elsewhere...

Great idea

[Devout_IPUite]

Because then someone is going to put a life insurance ad on your family portrait... GREAT!

Re:Great idea

[Walterk]

Imagine all the Clearasil ads on the self portraits of most /.ers!

Zing!

Re:Great idea

[will_die]

And that is why this will not work.
Who wants to be that company to place ads next to the family when the pics turn out to be for Grandpa's funeral instead of the happy weekend outing?

Re:Great idea

[apoc.famine]

Or dog food ads next to your girlfriend's picture.....

At what cost?

[Anonymous Coward]

processing images, when processing text is much less expensive and much more relevant, is a waste of cpu time

Re:At what cost?

[sexconker]

I'm sure there'll be a javascript, flash, or HTML 5 solution that handles it, then feeds the hashes to the adserver, which then feeds the ad to you.

I can see it all now

[Anonymous Coward]

Ads for blacksmiths next to pictures of Sarah Jessica Parker
Ads for pet shops next to Richard Gere

I'm sure you can think of a few more...

possibly a double-edged sword

[underqualified]

can it also be used to break CAPTCHAs?

Unwantred advertisements

[Anonymous Coward]

They help me decide what not to buy. Especially annoying, flashy adds that make whole webpages scroll up or down as they unfurl.

If I'm really bored and have the time, I click the ad and on their "Contact Us" link, I tell them why I WON'T be choosing them when I need their product/service...

No examples

[Thanshin]

This would be Epic if they add Clippy-like messages.

"I see you've got a very ugly gf. Do you want to hire a prettier one? Click on me for today's special promotions".

Re:No examples

[roman_mir]

Yeah, it's crazy how much your gf looks like this, I'd say that is quite ugly for a gf, get a new one, better one!

Entertainment Potential

[PopeRatzo]

I wonder if there will be some clever souls who try to see how "interesting" they can make the connection between the image and the advertisement, perhaps using Photoshop and specific combinations of images.

It won't be me, because I'll use adblock or ghostery or whatever is available to thwart these ads.

Re:Entertainment Potential

[TaoPhoenix]

Sign me up!

I wanna see the ads next to today's Fark article "Zombie Porn Movie banned from film festival".

90%

[Fizzol]

will be contextual adds about boobies.

Re:90%

[L4t3r4lu5]

Nobody would click them.

"Punch the what and win the prize?! I think not."

Re:90%

[PePe242]

"Squeeze thy titties, with the prize!!" ... "Harder!"

Re:I WANT MY GOATSE-INSPIRED ADS!

[segin]

I WANT MY GOATSE-INSPIRED ADS!

How about ricktse ads? They go a little something like this:

Never gonna give you up
Never gonna stretch you out
Never gonna run around and expose you

Never gonna make you cry
Never gonna burn your eyes
Never gonna open wide and scar you

Beta tester here

[Lookin4Trouble]

Working out some bugs, got ads for pet food next to pics of my wife!

Re:Beta tester here

[Capt.DrumkenBum]

This is not a bug. It is a feature.

Waste of time and effort

[BVis]

You know, if all the time and effort spent on finding new and interesting ways to annoy people with advertising were spent on something more important (like, say, curing AIDS, or even sleeping) we'd all be a lot better off.

Screw you AND your ads. Adblock ftw.

Death Spiral of Informative+1

[TaoPhoenix]

"Hi Somersault.

You say you just use an adblocker. Maybe you have tried AdBlock Plus. We would like you to take a short 1-question survey: which filter list is more effective for English viewers - Fanboy's List or EasyList?"

I really dread the rise of Micro-Audience ads, because if they're written smartly they'll be indistinguishable from Informative +1.

Re:Death Spiral of Informative+1

[Mathinker]

> because if they're written smartly they'll be indistinguishable from Informative +1

One could merely "string-out" the other side until one was convinced it was human, before actually answering / believing. This obviously will push AI further along as advertisers struggle to get more and more convincing bots. OTOH, that might not happen if a high enough percentage of the public just falls for it at the first iteration --- in that case, it would be more practical to transfer any real attempts at discourse off to a call center in India. Actually, I have the impression that a lot of customer support is done this way already (bot replies with standard quoting of FAQs which escalate to interacting with a real human after a few iterations).

Re:Death Spiral of Informative+1

[somersault]

Heh. I had a weird conversation on MSN a couple of months ago. Someone messaged me out of the blue and I thought it was an awful lot like the spam messages I get in my email. I said something about thinking they're just a spam bot, and they responded with something like "haha no I hate spam too" or something. I thought they were real until I said something else or they sent a link and I realised I was indeed just getting canned responses.

Re:Death Spiral of Informative+1

[sexconker]

I really dread the rise of Micro-Audience ads, because if they're written smartly they'll be indistinguishable from Informative +1.

I really dread the rise of Slashdot-Audience ads because they're not written smartly, so they're indistinguishable from Slashdot articles.

So don't use their services ...

[tomhudson]

Why host your pictures with ads? Because it's free. So, spend $10 a year on a domain, and a couple of bucks a month for some cheap shared hosting, and be ad-free. You'll find all other sorts of wonderful uses - like running your own webmail that doesn't have ads in it. Putting up your own site, hosting your own files - all ad-free.

Or if you're really cheap, check with your ISP - you probably have some disk space and a home page or two included with your plan.

What Advertisers Don't Understand

[RafaelAngel]

People don't want invasive ads. I like the ads of yesteryear. All they did was provide information. Nowadays I've got ads that try to appeal to my emotions. It's ridiculous. Why such the rampant ads with children? Their only purpose is to attract women into buying said items. It appeals to the mother in them. For men,they see lots of commercials about young boys and baseball. Also young girls and how they are princesses. Appealing to emotions, I think is going to far. Why would I want an emotional response to a box of cereal? Ads for me are just a vehicle to provide information about a product or service I may want to use. The whole concept of using pictures, that you yourself have taken, to funnel ads also goes too far. Imagine if it could discern the age of individuals. Would you like to have the local funeral home advertising just because there is a picture of grandma on the screen? Of course not.

Re:What Advertisers Don't Understand

[Crippere]

You say you don't want an advert for a funeral home appearing next to your picture of grandma, but then, what -is- the right context in which to advertise a funeral home? Next to a picture of people smoking and drinking? Your beautiful mountain landscape? The picture of -grandpa- in a casket?

Or, do people not need to know about what funeral homes are around and available? The purpose of the ad might not be to get you to buy two caskets now, but instead to get you to remember the funeral house when the time comes that you need them.

Re:What Advertisers Don't Understand

[RafaelAngel]

When the time comes, you will seek them. Most people just look in the phone book. That's where the ad should be. If anything, having such an ad when your grandma is not doing well is actually a turn-off. It depresses people. I'm fine with TV ads but when you have a picture of your own grandma and then an ad for a funeral home, that just goes over the line. It's like having pics of young men with accompanying ad for beer or condoms. Or a teenage girl and an ad for birth-control. The ads are fine where they belong, but they don't belong associated with a picture you personally put up yourself.

Yeah; too creepy to work.

[SemperUbi]

Regular ads at least kept a respectful distance, but using personal photos is just sleazy and lame, and the whole tactic smacks of cluelessness. I can't wait to see which companies are stupid enough to try this. It's like a honeypot for marketing idiots.

Re:Yeah; too creepy to work.

[Fast Thick Pants]

It'll be really fun when they start actually integrating your photos into the ads. Grandma's Pancake Mix -- hawked to you by your very own grandma! I wouldn't doubt for a second that Facebook's TOS allow this.

Re:Yeah; too creepy to work.

[Tim C]

Actually Facebook already advertises stuff at you using your friend's pictures - e.g. "$user, Try Friend Finder - $friend1 and $friend2 found friends using the Friend Finder. Give it a try!". I don't know if that extends to third party advertising, I usually kill it with AdblockPlus and/or Greasemonkey, and only noticed it today when I accidentally disabled Greasemonkey.

Re:Yeah; too creepy to work.

[Fast Thick Pants]

Just in case, I think it's high time to start tagging all images in Pig-Latin or ROT13.

Re:I WANT MY GOATSE-INSPIRED ADS!

[Anonymous Coward]

I WANT MY GOATSE-INSPIRED ADS!

Preparation-H? Fruit-of-the-Loom? Hanes? Dr. Bendover, Proctologist? Peril-sensitive Ran-Bans?

I can't wait for all the Emo kidz to start seeing ads for Smith&Wesson pop up...

More Semantic Web Crap

[mandelbr0t]

And, once again, the magic of the computer knowing what is actually in the image is accomplished by combing through huge databases of similar images and gleaning human-inputted tags. What could possibly go wrong?

Re:More Semantic Web Crap

[sexconker]

I'm sorry, you forgot to express your post in the form of a tag cloud.

$20 Says

[sexconker]

The slow-ass image recognition shit will run client side, either in javascript, flash, or some HTML 5 canvas hell (which nerds will jerk off to).

Re:I WANT MY GOATSE-INSPIRED ADS!

[PinkyGigglebrain]

I WANT MY GOATSE-INSPIRED ADS!

Add for the latest iPhone coming up.

AAHHGGG!!!, MY EYES!!

There isn't enough alcohol in the world to rinse that image from my brain.

Wheres the Brain Bleach? I know I have a bottle around here somewhere!

I can see it now

[Reilaos]

On Chatroulette: Penis Enlargement Ads

On Facebook: Clearasil, weight loss

On Playboy: Penis Enlargement

On Twilight Fan sites: Psychologists

On BMW and fancy cars: Penis Enlargement

Re:I can see it now

[pandrijeczko]

On Apple: Penis Enlargement.

On Microsoft: Zoloft.

On World Of Warcraft: Ritalin.

On I Love Justin Bieber: Brain Transplants.

90% of ads

[SnarfQuest]

Based on normal browser usage, 90% of the ads will be for viagra and it's herbal relatives.

Oh please...

[DaVince21]

Please, no more exploitation of technology to display ads everywhere.

Of course, nobody's going to listen to me.