Google has recently introduced two new tools in the traffic measurement and advertisement planning / targeting space: Trends for Websites and Ad Planner. Ad Planner is currently by invitation only for agencies and advertisers but is not going to cost anything (free!). TechCrunch has covered Ad Planner here.
There is a lot of speculation around how and where Google is getting this data from. Traffic analysis bucketed by things like gender, age, household income, education background are potential gold mines for advertisers. Google claims it is using the following sources of information:
- Aggregated Google search data,
- Opt-in anonymous Google Analytics data
- Opt-in external consumer panel data, and other third-party market research.
Google Toolbar is conspicuously missing from the above list.
Anil Batra writes about some of these issues in his Web Analysis (Analytics), Online Advertising and Behavioral Targeting blog. I asked him a couple of questions there that he has replied to. Worth reading if this topic interests you.
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