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Google Seeking "FriendRank" Patent
Posted by
kdawson
on Fri Jul 04, 2008 11:30 AM
from the at-least-it's-not-pigeons dept.
from the at-least-it's-not-pigeons dept.
theodp writes "In its just-published patent application for Network Node Ad Targeting, Google hatches plans for identifying the most influential of a circle of friends and providing this 'influencer' with 'financial incentives from advertisers in exchange for permission to display advertisements on the member's [social network] profile' (sound familiar, Jeremy?). Doing so will 'provide advertisers with the option of targeting either all members in the community or advertising only on the profile of the influencer, thereby targeting the entire community,' explains Google. Who says you can't buy friendship!"
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Your Rights Online: Google Profiling Social Network Users 86 comments
David Harry writes "Google is looking deeper into behavioral targeting of social network users with three more patents. A while back, one patent came to light in the poorly termed ‘friendrank’; Google could be profiling social network users. These three patents now bring the series to five in total."
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And your best friend will go with this? (Score:4, Insightful)
If your best friend will go with this, I think it's time to find a new friend.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Why ? If they offer you money to display ads, why not take it ? Is being paid to advertise a product completely immoral on Slashdot now ?
Re:And your best friend will go with this? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why ? If they offer you money to display ads, why not take it ? Is being paid to advertise a product completely immoral on Slashdot now ?
There is a difference between merely advertising, and knowingly participating in a company's targeted manipulation of your friend to extract money.
It's no different then a gold digger's behavior.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Getting paid to make a recommendation that you believe in, and fully disclosing the compensation, is one thing.
Getting paid to make a recommendation that you wouldn't normally make is another, as is failing to disclose compensation.
When I give a friend a Netflix referral code, for instance, it's because I recommend the service to people anyway, and I'm totally upfront that their using my code is going to ship me out a free disc from my queue. I don't consider this "being good"; I consider it the bare minimu
Re: (Score:2)
There is a difference between merely advertising, and knowingly participating in a company's targeted manipulation of your friend to extract money.
If you haven't already suggested that they run AdBlockPlus you aren't much of a friend anyway, are you?
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
1) allow Google to pay you to display ads.
2) Teach all your friends to install and use Adblock, thus ensuring they don't actually see the ads.
3) Profit!
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:And your best friend will go with this? (Score:5, Insightful)
Friendship isn't supposed to be a commercial transaction.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
It is hard to tell who would be the slimiest, so called friends sticking you with advertising or the googlites for patenting and delivering it.
What next will google be patenting the offering of commissions on sales for supply positive reviews on crap products, where the sucker 'er' friend accepts the review and acknowledges the reviewer or may
Tough Competition (Score:2, Funny)
Viacom (Score:3, Interesting)
Rule (auto_increment) of the internet (Score:5, Insightful)
For every innovative google algorithm there is an equal and opposite new type of spamming technique created.
Marketing (Score:2, Interesting)
For every innovative google algorithm there is an equal and opposite new type of spamming technique created.
It's called "marketing" - on the job interview. Never say "spam".
A friend of mine was interviewing at a giant junk mail company. during the interview, they took him into this room that showed their "Products". He exclaimed, "I never seen so much junk mail in my life!"
The interviewer, in a terse voice, "That's DIRECT MARKETING!"
He still got the job.
Re:Rule (auto_increment) of the internet (Score:4, Insightful)
It's not opposite, Google is an advertising company. That's what they do.
Parent
This is a high-tech version of (Score:4, Interesting)
I think this could go a long way, although I sure hope my friends don't get into it.
Find this, Google... (Score:2)
What about a "LoveRank" Patent? (Score:2, Funny)
.. can't money buy you love?
What do they pay... (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
for a great many internet users the same result could be achieved with five pieces of WOW gold.
Seems kind of pointless. (Score:2)
People with a lot of friends on social networking sites probably don't have all that much influence. These are people who agree to be friends with whomever asks them, and will spam people with friend requests. I see pages with "8,000 friends!", and think "uh, no. This guy does not not know 8,000 people personally or well enough to influence their decisions".
What this promises to do is make people think "Wow, if I have lots of friends on my page, I can make some money!", so I can expect a marked increase
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
What this promises to do is make people think "Wow, if I have lots of friends on my page, I can make some money!", so I can expect a marked increase
Wait... Prior Art? (Score:2, Interesting)
The novel parts (Score:5, Interesting)
As usual, a one-paragraph description of a patent covers exactly the parts that are prior art without actually pointing out the new parts.
The novel bits include:
* Being able to advertise things based on the profile of your friends. You may have forgotten to put "skydiving" in your list of interests, but if a dozen of your friends also have "skydiving", you might be in the target market.
* Saving money by advertising only to certain valuable people, not just those with interests but those who know a lot of others with those interests. Why pay for 1,000 ad impressions when 10 would do?
Patents are hard to read, but I recommend skipping the abstract and the claims and going ahead to the description. You'll learn a lot more.
The Tipping Point, Anyone? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
As true as that may be, if Google doesn't apply for a patent, then some patent troll might just pop up a year later and sue Google for a bazillion dollars. I'm sure that the engineers at Google feel the same way you do about software patents; they just need to do things like this to protect themselves from a lawsuit.