Blue Pill.

Thursday 04 September, 2008

There has been a great deal of discussion over Google’s brand new baby, the WebKit and V8 powered Chrome browser.

Indeed, it would be difficult to miss all the news on this thing, even if one desperately wanted to. Of course, there have been concerns over what Google is really up to here.

For example, Nils Geylen attempts to join the dots:

“Did what I think happened here, happen? Did Chrome track that I visited One, then serve me this ad?”

Nils asks a very pertinent question given Chrome is a Google production and at the end of the day — even if it’s based on open source code — has had quite a polarising effect on users.

So did he stumble on to some kind of secret in-built advertising centric code? I don’t believe so. Further, it doesn’t fit the current set of processes Google use to track and serve content.

It is important to remember that Adsense is a contextual beast — whilst it’s indeed tempting to try and connect the dots — the very same algorithm used to generate advertising in other browsers was responsible in this instance, not some nefarious browser code.

If you have ever used Gmail, you’ll have seen that algorithm in action with Adsense advertising popping up — with sometimes hilarious results — on the right hand side of the message list.

It’s sometimes easy to forget just how pervasive such advertising has become. Most of us will either attempt to block, or simply through exposure, have become desensitised to their impact. In fact, can you recall the last four online advertisements you’ve seen? I certainly can’t.

However, when an environment changes and there are already privacy concerns — granted Google’s original EULA hasn’t exactly helped — it’s a great deal easier to see ghosts, where in-fact likely none exist.

Had this same coincidental advertising been generated within Firefox or Safari, it is reasonable to expect that that simply would not have been noticed. Just another blip in a proverbial sea of advertising.