How Will a New Breed of Browsers Effect Internet Advertising?
In September Google's launched its new browser, Chrome, and it received a lot of media attention.
Having used it for the past couple of months I have found it fast, reasonably stable and very minimal.
Like the Google homepage it is streamlined, clean and simple.
Like Firefox it integrates well with web applications and offers greater security against malicious code.
With the release of Chrome, Google seem to have acknowledged that the internet has evolved from mainly simple text pages to rich, interactive applications, and have built a browser which is also a great platform for web applications.
Chrome is also open source, meaning that geeks around the world can improve on the design of the browser and changes can be continual.
Google hope that by collaborating with the online community, they can help "drive the web forward".
But why have Google suddenly developed a web browser? Many think it is because of the threat posed by the new Internet Explorer, which features a privacy mode which prevents the collection of cookies.
These cookies are what make Google's paid search advertising so profitable and targeted, and could lead to them losing revenue on internet advertising.
InPrivate Browsing on Internet Explorer allows the user to create a new browsing session where no record is kept of internet activity.
History, cache and temporary internet files are untouched, cookies are stored on the computer only and no data is collected.
When the browser is exited, all sessions and records vanish.
This feature could really minimise the effectiveness of Google ads.
If cookies aren't being shared then Google has very little data to collect and display relevant paid ads.
Google must also have been aware of the potential for Microsoft to use its browser to direct traffic towards its MSN search.
Google Chrome's Omnibox is the url address bar and a search term entry field in one.
Very helpful for using the internet, but if the user leaves auto-suggestion on, Chrome will capture data before the enter key has been hit.
This doesn't sound like much, but it could make a profound difference to Google's paid search ads.
If, for example, a user was looking for a good quality leather jacket, he might begin by typing "bespoke leather jacket" but then change his mind and decide to search for "leather jacket" to see if there were any special offers or bargains.
Despite the fact that "bespoke" was removed from the search terms before Google was queried, it could still trigger targeted paid search ads for the terms "bespoke leather jacket" instead of the more general terms.
So what does Google Chrome mean for the future of online advertising? It was an almost inevitable move for Google, which relies heavily on browsers to access its users and displaying paid, targeted ads.
This situation leaves competitors like Microsoft in control of this process (currently with 72% of the browser market).
Google say it will maintain a relationship with the Mozilla/Firefox team (who hold 20% of the browser market) which has been Google's alternative browser to date.
Chrome means that Google's competitors (other browsers) can't stop Google from receiving and analysing the cookies, and displaying targeted ads for that user.
It has been suggested that internet users have become too accustomed to browsing the internet with plug-ins which block out ads from web pages.
Some are anxious about switching browsers to Chrome since it doesn't feature the same anti-ad features as certain Firefox plug-ins.
That's unsustainable for Google, whose main business is on selling and displaying those adverts.
Google are not going to try to make it easy for users to browse the internet without encountering some advertising.
Conversely, Chrome's Incognito mode means that advertisers will be unable to enforce frequency caps - which prevent paid ads being displayed to the same user multiple times.
So incognito mode means that Google could potentially collect more from advertisers, but will lose much of its targeting power without cookies.
Google must be hoping that Incognito or "porn" modes are only used in rare circumstances, otherwise the effectiveness of cookies could be lost forever.
Having used it for the past couple of months I have found it fast, reasonably stable and very minimal.
Like the Google homepage it is streamlined, clean and simple.
Like Firefox it integrates well with web applications and offers greater security against malicious code.
With the release of Chrome, Google seem to have acknowledged that the internet has evolved from mainly simple text pages to rich, interactive applications, and have built a browser which is also a great platform for web applications.
Chrome is also open source, meaning that geeks around the world can improve on the design of the browser and changes can be continual.
Google hope that by collaborating with the online community, they can help "drive the web forward".
But why have Google suddenly developed a web browser? Many think it is because of the threat posed by the new Internet Explorer, which features a privacy mode which prevents the collection of cookies.
These cookies are what make Google's paid search advertising so profitable and targeted, and could lead to them losing revenue on internet advertising.
InPrivate Browsing on Internet Explorer allows the user to create a new browsing session where no record is kept of internet activity.
History, cache and temporary internet files are untouched, cookies are stored on the computer only and no data is collected.
When the browser is exited, all sessions and records vanish.
This feature could really minimise the effectiveness of Google ads.
If cookies aren't being shared then Google has very little data to collect and display relevant paid ads.
Google must also have been aware of the potential for Microsoft to use its browser to direct traffic towards its MSN search.
Google Chrome's Omnibox is the url address bar and a search term entry field in one.
Very helpful for using the internet, but if the user leaves auto-suggestion on, Chrome will capture data before the enter key has been hit.
This doesn't sound like much, but it could make a profound difference to Google's paid search ads.
If, for example, a user was looking for a good quality leather jacket, he might begin by typing "bespoke leather jacket" but then change his mind and decide to search for "leather jacket" to see if there were any special offers or bargains.
Despite the fact that "bespoke" was removed from the search terms before Google was queried, it could still trigger targeted paid search ads for the terms "bespoke leather jacket" instead of the more general terms.
So what does Google Chrome mean for the future of online advertising? It was an almost inevitable move for Google, which relies heavily on browsers to access its users and displaying paid, targeted ads.
This situation leaves competitors like Microsoft in control of this process (currently with 72% of the browser market).
Google say it will maintain a relationship with the Mozilla/Firefox team (who hold 20% of the browser market) which has been Google's alternative browser to date.
Chrome means that Google's competitors (other browsers) can't stop Google from receiving and analysing the cookies, and displaying targeted ads for that user.
It has been suggested that internet users have become too accustomed to browsing the internet with plug-ins which block out ads from web pages.
Some are anxious about switching browsers to Chrome since it doesn't feature the same anti-ad features as certain Firefox plug-ins.
That's unsustainable for Google, whose main business is on selling and displaying those adverts.
Google are not going to try to make it easy for users to browse the internet without encountering some advertising.
Conversely, Chrome's Incognito mode means that advertisers will be unable to enforce frequency caps - which prevent paid ads being displayed to the same user multiple times.
So incognito mode means that Google could potentially collect more from advertisers, but will lose much of its targeting power without cookies.
Google must be hoping that Incognito or "porn" modes are only used in rare circumstances, otherwise the effectiveness of cookies could be lost forever.
Source...