This photo is for tranquility when dealing with targeted advertising. I couldn’t “like” this with a click when I experienced it… although Justin did with one and a camera.
Ok Readers, I’m taking a small break from my reminiscing stories to offer a bit of advice. Recently Google has introduced “Endorsements” to your Google+ / Google Plus pages.
For those of you who don’t know Google+ is Google’s response to Facebook and other social networking sites and the benefit they bring the host –that’s NOT you::
They benefit through Targeted Advertisements and advertising. This kind of advertising is tailored to you, based on your likes, dislikes, search history, browsing history and all sorts of other fun information that in of itself is pretty useless but when ads are injected into your browser which you might be MORE LIKELY to click, they become more valuable. There is a whole bunch of research and statistics and more information on this, but Facebook and Google like to profit from things you actively like and dislike and place you into little advertising boxes – My friend Mark Fuentes would say, like a Japanese Food Box, which, before coming out of the closet, was how i kept my friends in relating to each other… separate! Not relevant though, so I digress…
- -If you have a Gmail Account, you might have Google+
- -if you have an Android-based phone, then you likely have a Google+ account tied to that email
- -If you had an Android Phone in the past year (depending on the version or the OS — i.e. Ice Cream Sandwich, Jellybean, Fro-yo, Donuts, Eclair, pastries galore – blah.) then you may have Google+
For those of you in question about your Android Phone, my guess is:
- -if you have or had Jellybean OR Ice Cream Sandwich, then you probably have a Google+ account tied to that corresponding email on your Android Device. (this does include a tablet)
Don’t ask me about the iPhone, I don’t know how Google relates to this; as they are almost as much an evil empire as Google is now, in my humble opinion. But ask me and I may look into it.
First goto Google+ this can be achieved by clicking “your name +” from top right of gmail or logging in seperately. then follow the RED Notations made by me on this picture
So goto your Google+ Account as directed, either through Gmail by clicking “Your Name+” in the top right and following my school-teacher Red Remarks made on each graphic. Sometimes there are arrows! (and captions)
Don’t be afraid… follow the menu down to that “Settings” item with the little gear next to it and Clicky-Clicky! (you probably need only click once).
Look for “Endorsements” and click that “edit” sucker!
Just do as those RED REMARKS say… don’t be afraid this isn’t a trick. the next page in this one is a bit bigger and wordy so scroll down after performing the ABOVE action and see Below for simple guidance on that wordiness.
Scroll down… read the fine print involved which I will include in the Blog below in fine print
Okieday. If you don’t know what all that wordiness is, see me after class. A lot of it is telling you that your FRIENDS may “Endorse” something that they MAY or MAY NOT BE trying to sell ON BEHALF of someone else. It’s really a foolish advertising means that poke references into your public profile and say that you might buy this product, have bought it, or whatever. I’m, not precisely certain how the info will be used, but it may be misleading.
If you want to read a review then go for it, CNET, Engadget or whatever. However I wouldn’t make my own unsolicited reviews public unless I intend to make them public. Not from sleaziness round my profile or whatever (because people often post negative things they don’t really mean, or do so IN-JEST. (I do that). I wouldn’t want someone to think I hated something just because it wasn’t working for me and I mentioned it in a Facebook post. I also don’t want to worry about libel suits before they begin. And this isn’t necessarily what Google is doing right now, but I see where it is going. Endorsements (weather intentional or not) might be inferred through hash-tags eventually. #stupid.
More on Targeted Advertising and YOU, in another technical post that is really dry and boring to do for me, but hopefully a bit helpful for you.
I did promise Google fine-print below… so here ’tis: This is really cheese on their part because it comes from their “help” section. Stupid. The below may be copyrighted and or change, changes which I will intentionally neglect in attempts for the self improvement of the GOOGLE entity admits public outrage, should it arise– Changes have also been made to the formatting for added ridiculousness.
For the current page see: In addition, there should be no reason that you cant DISABLE your Google+ account and resume previous functionality without all this crap.
Next tech post: Keeping Words with Friends functioning in a privatized browser!
https://support.google.com/plus/answer/3403513?hl=en
How shared endorsements work
To ensure that your recommendations reach the people you care about, Google sometimes displays your reviews, recommendations and other relevant activity throughout its products and services. This sometimes includes shopping contexts, like the Google Play music store, and ads. Your profile name and photo may appear with the recommendation.
For example, if you search for “Italian restaurants,” you might see an ad for a nearby restaurant along with your friend’s favorable review. Or, in Google Play, you might see that another friend has +1’d a new song or album.
We call these shared endorsements.
Here are some examples of shared endorsements. The example on the right shows a shared endorsement displayed in an ad:
Don’t worry, your account’s privacy settings are not affected. You get to decide whether you want your name and photo included in shared endorsements that appear in ads through the Shared Endorsements setting. And for users under 18, their actions won’t appear in Shared Endorsements in ads and certain other contexts.
How to turn on or off shared endorsements on ads:
- Sign into your Google account. If you came to this page while still creating your account, finish that process first, then come back here.
- Go to the Shared Endorsements setting page. If you are not already a Google+ user, you will be asked to upgrade your account.
- To allow people to see your name and photo in shared endorsements appearing in ads, check the box next to “Based upon my activity, Google may show my name and profile photo in shared endorsements that appear in ads.” Then, click the “Save” button to save your new setting.
- If you’d like to disable this setting, just uncheck the box and click “Save.” Remember, unchecking the box means that Google won’t be able to share your recommendations with your friends in some cases where they might otherwise see and benefit from them.
Copyright Google 2013
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(I haven’t survived some of this without a little help)
Related articles
- Google ‘terms of service’ update allows users profile information to be used in ads (globalnews.ca)
- Your Face and Name Will Appear in Google Ads Starting Today (gizmodo.com)
- How to Opt Out of Data Tracking on Your Most-Used Sites (mashable.com)
- Google argues for right to continue scanning Gmail (bigstory.ap.org)
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