Commentary
Oh Brother, Has Google Finally Become Big Brother?
- by Joe Mandese @mp_joemandese, April 29, 2013
I’m starting to think so. After listening to Google’s own Search Advocate Joan Arensman speaking earlier about Google Now’s precognitive features that tell us what to do before
we know to do it, and now George Michie, CEO of Rimm Kaufman Group, is telling Search Insider Summit people “how cool it is” that Google knows everything about us.
Google knows when you’re at home and when you’re at work,” he gushed, adding, “And they know when you’re on the road.”
Okay, but
knowing and knowing how to use that information, aren’t necessarily the same thing. Michie indirectly made this point, by offering the following scenario to Maxus’ Jaimie Knocks on behalf
of her client Church & Dwight’s Trojan brand.
“Google knows that you are an 18-year-old male. They know that you’ve been talking on G+ about the
date you’re going on... this would be a great opportunity to serve them an ad [for Trojan condoms,” he suggested.
At which point Knocks pretty much demurred,
citing the condom sense wisdom that it might actually be the absolute wrong time -- and reasoning -- for Church & Dwight to serve a condom ad.
Joe Mandese is the Editor in Chief of MediaPost. You can reach Joe at joe@mediapost.com.
