Google Showing Ads In Chrome Browser, Is This The Beginning Of The End?

[BrianBosworth]

Internet users are accustomed to seeing ads on Internet pages. One of the most prominent advertisement schemes used these days is Google Adsense which is available for websites, searches on websites and for mobile devices. Adword ads dominate the Google search result pages, and other Google properties are also displaying their fair share of ads.

Salimane Adjao Moustapha recently posted a photo of another place where Google (seemingly) has started to display ads: The Chrome browser. The screenshot shows a new tab page of the Chrome browser. The Apps section is open and at the top of it is an ad for Google’s own Chromebook. It states: Get a Chromebook for the holidays: the computer powered by Chrome.

I’d like to know your opinion about ads in web browsers. Do you think it is ok for Google to display ads in the browser, especially if it is for other company products? Or would you say that ads in a browser are a no-go, regardless of what they promote?

My personal opinion on the matter is that Chrome has turned adware if Google makes the decision to display these kind of ads to all Chrome users. It does not really matter if the ads promote Google products or third party products, it is still an ad.

Google Showing Ads In Chrome Browser, Is This The Beginning Of The End?

[Resurrection]

I don't see any in mine... Adblock Plus is working I guess

[slikrapid]

Google Showing Ads In Chrome Browser, Is This The Beginning Of The End?

if anything, its probably only the beginning (of ad-infested browsers trend)

Internet users are accustomed to seeing ads on Internet pages.

respectable web sites don't have (third party) ads, period

I’d like to know your opinion about ads in web browsers.

its abominable


another negative thing is that more and more sites use all kinds of google related tools/scripts: google...syndication, apis, analytics, gstatic, google.com and whatnot, which are basically a combination of spyware & google having a more intrusive access to web sites, their data & users (user behavior, preferences, statistics,...) allowing for, among others, more focused/targeted ads choice, distribution & supply

No anonymity on future web says Google CEO

"If I look at enough of your messaging and your location, and use artificial intelligence, we can predict where you are going to go," Schmidt said, adding unnervingly.

"Show us 14 photos of yourself and we can identify who you are. You think you don't have 14 photos of yourself on the internet? You've got Facebook photos!"

"In a world of asynchronous threats," said Schmidt, "it is too dangerous for there not to be some way to identify you. We need a [verified] name service for people. Governments will demand it."

http://www.thinq.co.uk/2010/8/5/no-anonymity-future-web-says-google-ceo/

[SealLion]

".....Governments will demand it."

For sure.
We are google's data makers. Google users are it's products as the products (people) make the websites that others peruse on over to. As a matter of fact, look carefully at this. Google as you know is a huge storehouse of data about the public and Google is just one of the very many Web services around from which the federal governments can regularly requests user data from.

When a person uses things like Facebook, Twitter, and the newest Google social media enterprise, those same social media products are great tools from which to begin investigations with. These social media enterprises are the new wiretap. In my own personal opinion, it is best to avoid social media as you would the plague.

Every now and then, when you log into your Gmail account, have you noticed your being asked to provide your cell number in case you forget your password?? This is just one tool that is used to trace users.

In addition, some watchdog agencies do initiate legal actions against government-related agencies for failing to disclose their policies regarding the use of social media for surveillance. Is there any good reason for government agencies to disclose such surveillance-related information to the public?? Of course not. Why would there be?? Freedom of information is regulated throughout different parts of the world. Freedom of information is not necessarily becoming a right anylonger. Rights are slowing being eroded away. And that not necessarily being done by accident either. There is a purpose to such actions. It's part and parcel of surveillance measures.

Furthering my point. Suppose there is going to be a G20 summit meeting somwhere.
Ok. Great.
Now pretend your a government official who's intently interested in the obvious up-and-coming-and-never-ending protests that are sure to be there. You, within your governmental role will be making use of social media sites like Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and also Twitter. It is known that such tactics are used to aid in any number of investigations such as the coordination of protesting.

Google caches such information. If a person has a blog, it's a good bet your somewhere in Google's cache of information.

There are a myriad number of security agencies and large corporations around the world are using social media for managing information Such agencies exist in the US, the UK, Germany, France, Australia, and anywhere else. China, of course should be included in this list as it is well known for censorship and scrutiny of it's citizens when they traverse the internet.

To continue, government agencies do quite routinely request information from the operators of such social media networks when wanting to investigate activities in order to access data users have hidden from the general public view. I can't even imagine how many requests sites such as Twitter and Facebook routinely get. I'm sure it's more than 1. Here's further proof of how indecent and intrusive a government can be against the internet user. Remember all the big stories that occurred with Wikileaks some time ago?? Well, Google was requested by the US and did distribute both the Wikileaks volunteer's Gmail addresses and IP addresses to the requesting party. Were the Wikileak volunteer Gmail users notified of this handing over of information?? Of course not. If they were not, do you think you would be??

It's most obvious that data-mining companies like Google, Yahoo, and other search engines are being given a growing place in society and the shaping of public policy in any one country. It's pretty obvious that Google has some pretty long fingers. Don't count out services like Yahoo!!, either. Finally, it's most obvious Google is using Google ads inside it's own browser to track that browser user. This is no different than any of the other tools it has available for tracking. Google, as a data-mining company is just reaching out to use another data-mining tool in it's tracking of users.

[Mihai]

Just a thing: adblock does not work on new open tabs so how come I never seen that add? I mean, I use chrome daily and never seen an add like that. Anyway, if I do spot one, it's bye bye google chrome and hello firefox or opera.

[XiaBoruoxo]

I never liked Google browser right from the beginning because there had to be created a spyware-free version called "Iron Browser" and a regular crap. so glad I never used it.
if you don't know Iron read about it here: Iron Browser: A Secure Alternative to Google Chrome

[SealLion]

This Iron browser is able to use the same extensions that Chrome uses which is good; however, when installing these extensions, you still get the same pop-ups informing you that the extensions access your data. Not very good, I find. It seems to me that Iron, albeit it running on the same engine as Chrome, is/might be only marketing itself as an alternative to Chrome though it seems it still has privacy issues with respect to the extensions requesting user permission to access that user's data. This is something that normally shouldn't be happening.

[kelly]

I didn't really notice the ads until i came across this thread.

Well google is google, if it really wishes, it can even retrieve your bank password.

Google makes money via many ways , one way is Search Engine Optimization . There are several companies which pay hefty amount to display " their sh1t " within top n results. Atleast this was the way it was before, don't know what google is up to these days

[SealLion]

...

Well google is google, if it really wishes, ....

Google is definitely being Google (a character description if we could call it that) When a person creates a Google profile, like the kind that Google offers to any of it's Google product subscribers like the kind being displayed here in it's "create a profile" page

https://profiles.google.com/

Is can't be much of a surprise that Google is going to be more than a search engine to it's users. One of the ways that Google is Google is that it is a search engine for those people/organizations that want to make use of Google's huge-mongous cache of information of it's users. Kind of like when you sign into Google and begin surfacing the internet. This is just another way that search engines such as even Yahoo!! can keep track of your search habits. see where you have gone, keep records of that and so on. So when you mention that Google is Google, again if we're describing Google as having a character description, for sure Google is being intrusive. And that is part of it's character ( being intrusive). And not just with sticking advertising into someone's face either.