"Hooked them for free and then make them pay". This is what appears to be the latest strategy of Google when it just went "dark" in terms of providing publishers with one of its major sources of free information on which words led people searching in Google to click on their sites.
In October 2011, Google started to encrypt searches for anyone who was logged into Google to allegedly "ensure privacy". Google said it wanted to block anyone who might potentially be eavesdropping on a string of searches made by an individual and also prevent the actual search terms themselves from being seen by publishers, as some of them might be too “private” to reveal.
Now, all Google search is securely encrypted, and web site owners can no longer look at Google Analytics to see exactly which words people use when searching Google to find their sites.
However, it seems not all is what it appears to be. Google actually switched off the "organic" search data, not the paid search data generated when people click on search ads. In other words, the only data Google is now providing about exactly what words generate incoming traffic is for people who pay to advertise on Google.
This is where the contradiction lays. Google is not really protecting privacy as it claimed because they can still sell the data to AdWords advertisers. There were no changes of users being displayed by the data and the same action is used.
The only reason I can think of why Google made the move is to make it easy for publishers to see the actual terms that have been withheld over time through the Google AdWords system. Of course publishers can still see these terms by going into the Google Webmaster Tools area, though they only see the top 2,000 per day and only going back for 90 days (something Google said earlier this month will increase to one year, in the future).
However a change to Google AdWords last August allows publishers to store the terms as long as they like, for easy and instant access — as long as they use the Google ad system. Google will not archive search term data within the toolset it expressly built for non-advertisers — Google Webmaster Tools — but does allow this through its ad system. This suggests that terms have been withheld all along in part to create the new Google advertisers.
In October 2011, Google started to encrypt searches for anyone who was logged into Google to allegedly "ensure privacy". Google said it wanted to block anyone who might potentially be eavesdropping on a string of searches made by an individual and also prevent the actual search terms themselves from being seen by publishers, as some of them might be too “private” to reveal.
Now, all Google search is securely encrypted, and web site owners can no longer look at Google Analytics to see exactly which words people use when searching Google to find their sites.
However, it seems not all is what it appears to be. Google actually switched off the "organic" search data, not the paid search data generated when people click on search ads. In other words, the only data Google is now providing about exactly what words generate incoming traffic is for people who pay to advertise on Google.
This is where the contradiction lays. Google is not really protecting privacy as it claimed because they can still sell the data to AdWords advertisers. There were no changes of users being displayed by the data and the same action is used.
The only reason I can think of why Google made the move is to make it easy for publishers to see the actual terms that have been withheld over time through the Google AdWords system. Of course publishers can still see these terms by going into the Google Webmaster Tools area, though they only see the top 2,000 per day and only going back for 90 days (something Google said earlier this month will increase to one year, in the future).
However a change to Google AdWords last August allows publishers to store the terms as long as they like, for easy and instant access — as long as they use the Google ad system. Google will not archive search term data within the toolset it expressly built for non-advertisers — Google Webmaster Tools — but does allow this through its ad system. This suggests that terms have been withheld all along in part to create the new Google advertisers.
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