Slashdot Mirror
Google Nabs Patent To Monitor Your Cursor Movement
bool2 writes "Google has been awarded a patent for displaying search results based on how you move your mouse cursor on the screen... Google's plans are to monitor the movements of the cursor, such as when a user hovers over a certain ad or link to read a tooltip, and then provide relevant search results, and ads, based on that behaviour. It means that it does not require users to actually click a link to know that they were interested in it, opening a world of opportunity for even more focused ads."
This can be done right now in any browser unless you turn off or restrict JavaScript.
I'll go further and say that I tend to move the cursor AWAY FROM where I'm looking so as not to be distracted by it or cover things up. They'd get a negative correlation with what I'm interested in from my cursor movement. But maybe they already know that.
...the future crusty old bastards are already drinking the Kool-Aid.
Websites have been doing this for at least a few years now already. They've got heat maps that show where people keep their mouse. I don't really see how Google's idea is any different, unless they feed it through some mouse gesture software to get a deeper meaning.