Google to launch "behavioral advertising" programme

Posted by Emily Dilling on March 12, 2009 at 8:32 AM

Behavioral advertising, Google's latest strategy to track clients' Internet search and surfing habits to ascertain their interests and thus identify more effective ads for each user, launched Wednesday, Ars Technica reported. Although Google has said it will not allow identifying information attach to the cookie, privacy watchdogs are worried about the move.

The company announced that it will launch a beta test of the system on its partner sites and YouTube. Advertisers will be invited to participate in the program starting in April.

Google's official blog states that the service will be valuable to everyone by "making ads more relevant, and improving the connection between advertisers and our users."

Users have the option to control the ad targeting through the preference pane option, which allows clients to view the information that has been gathered about them. The user can then add or delete specific interest categories, according to Google.