With Google in the news every other day about their Google Plus product, the mega machine is now branching out to let users +1 display ads that they find interesting or share-worthy. Ad Age reports that we will begin to see the +1 feature available on ads served via the Google Display Ad Network, starting in October.
Much like Facebook, Google's +1 feature "[allows] consumers to 'like' an ad and share that endorsement to people
they're connected to via Google's social network Google +."
Essentially, it gives Google the ability to collect data about their users: what brands users like, what imagery appeals to users, and what keywords users type to get them to specific pages. This is the closest any advertiser has gotten (or will get, in my humble opinion) to competing with Facebook's user data goldmine. Google will use it as a guise to say that "personalization" is the goal and yes, that's true, to a degree. Google wants to know as much about users as possible to increase display ad revenue. Regardless of how users feel about it, the revolution of user data is about to make another huge expansion.
[Image from Ad Age article: "Google to Add +1 Social Layer to Display Ads." Click on image to go to the article]
[Post contributed by Emily Carroll]