Google wants to use your face to sell ads

The Washington Post

By Cecilia Kang

Uno de los centros de datos de Google

Google has made a fortune selling ads. Now it’s trying to put its hundreds of millions of users to work as company pitchmen, using the profiles, pictures and recommendations of ordinary people to endorse products and services across the Web.
After the policy takes effect Nov. 11, users who review a video on YouTube or a restaurant on Zagat.com could see their name, photo and comments show up in ads on any of the 2 million Web sites that are part of the company’s display advertising network.

The controversial practice, announced Friday by Google, is part of an emerging trend on the Internet. Advertisers believe that consumers place enormous value on product endorsements that come from a friend or family member, and growing numbers of Web companies are trying to capture that social advertising in a systematic way.
But critics say tactics that further exploit the data people leave online amount to a bait-and-switch. People signed up for Google’s services because they were free and convenient. They probably never thought their words and identities would be put in front of strangers to sell a product.
Users who casually endorse a product or song on Facebook or Google “may be exposed to unwanted, and possibly misunderstood, implications,” said Eric Goldman, a professor of Internet law at Santa Clara University law school.
Google said the launch of “shared endorsements” will help consumers make better choices. “We want to give you — and your friends and connections — the most useful information. Recommendations from people you know can really help,” the company wrote in its announcement.
It added that users can opt out of the ads and that it will automatically exclude anyone under the age of 18.
The announcement follows a similar advertising feature by Facebook called “sponsored stories,” which turns a recommendation made through the social network’s “like” button into an advertising endorsement on a friend’s Facebook page. The company has said its users cannot opt out of the practice. About 1.2 billion people are on Facebook.
Last month, the Federal Trade Commission said it would review whether Facebook’s push into sponsored stories violated the company’s 2011 privacy settlement with the federal government. That agreement required Facebook to give adequate notice of changes in privacy policies and to make sure users aren’t misled about how their data is being used.
Due to the government shutdown, the FTC said it could not respond to a question on whether its investigators would also examine Google’s new advertising practice.
Google said its new advertising policy would apply only to the 390 million people who have signed up for Google Plus, the company’s social network. The company can also draw on endorsements made with Google’s +1 button, which is similar to Facebook’s “like” button and appears on sites across the Web.
A user who wants to limit the reach of his or her advertising endorsements could adjust settings so that a positive review for, say, a car is shared only with a small circle of friends on Google Plus, the company said.
Some privacy experts commended the way Google is rolling out the feature by giving users a month’s notice of the changes and options to decline.
“Some people may like the fact that their reviews will be promoted and more influential. Others have a pretty easy way to opt out,” said Jules Polonetsky, executive director of the Future of Privacy Forum.
In May 2012, Google agreed to a $22.5 million FTC fine for misrepresenting its tracking practices on the Safari browser used on Apple devices. The settlement included continued supervision of the firm’s disclosures about how it handles users’ data.
Google said it will display the latest change in its privacy policy on its main home page, through Google Plus notifications and in other prominent places.
Still, some privacy advocates remained skeptical of the search giant.
“This move by Google reflects the growing and unchecked expansion of online data collection by the industry,” said Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy.

Hayley Tsukayama contributed to this report.

Clase magistral de negocios: EL PREMIO “CONSOLACIÓN” QUE OTORGA MAYWEATHER JR

Por Andrés Pascual

      Nadie puede negar que Floyd Mayweather jr es un virtuoso de las relaciones públicas, el tipo sabe  cómo se exprime la naranja.

      A través de su carrera profesional ha logrado desarrollar una popularidad ambivalente que, quizás, nunca antes se vio en el boxeo: un 70 % que quiere verlo caer, si muerto, mejor y un 30 % que lo aprecia como persona, pero en el gettho.

      El resultado es que el 100 % compran los paquetes de PPV como no hacen con nadie: Floyd en television quiere decir todo el mundo atado al aparato, bien por bajas pasiones, como por las pocas simpatías que despierta en algunos.

      “El tipo es un engreído, no le ha ganado a nadie, mono, mico, mándenlo para África…” es lo menos que se puede leer o escuchar con respecto al pugilista; sin embargo, tal vez esos epítetos agresivos contra la decencia no molesten a lo mínimo al estilista, porque, a no dudarlo, con su comportamiento, con su personalidad, los fabrica para provecho propio, por eso hay que pagarle tanto.

       El individuo ha sido tan inteligente que, después de prácticamente casi noquear a Miguel Cotto en la postrimería del pleito, con 10 rounds a su cuenta en las tarjetas, se echó al publico boricua en los bolsillos al ofrecerle un premio Consolación al perdedor y a su fanaticada, que consistió en alabar la actuación del borinqueño a extremos de “lo más fuerte que he encontrado en mi camino hasta hoy”, eso, más un poco de sangre por la nariz y por un labio interior, contentó a un público que, antes de la pelea, no le daba oportunidades al americano, así de ciego estaba, además de querer matarlo gratis sin móvil aparente.

       Mayweather jr, criado entre leones, conoce bien la reaccion del fanático del boxeo; a fin de cuentas, tan humana como cualquier otra, por lo que pudiera parecer poco el premio que le dio a Cotto; sin embargo, para sus intereses es enorme, después de todo, hoy pudiera ser que un 35 % de boricuas lo vean desde otra órbita, solo porque reconoció la grandeza pírrica del gladiador caído.

      Al tipo no le dicen “Money” porque tenga mucho dinero, sino porque sabe cómo hacerlo en el negocio. El boxeador que quiera hacer billetes tiene que pelear con él, regla de oro del boxeo en este momento.

Germany's PYMES success

By EconomistMagazine

Future Eye Tracking Systems Will Read Your Mind

By Nic Halverson 

Read >>

Richard Branson on Marketing and Business

Neuromarketing: The Buy Buttons in Your Customer's Brain

Recent studies show that the average consumer receives nearly 10,000 selling messages a day. Yet how many of these messages successfully reach the part of the brain that decides?

Neuromarketing merges Neuroscience with Marketing to help target the part of the brain that drives buying decisions: the reptilian brain. This new science will help you create messages your customers will finally notice, understand, remember and value over those of your competitors! Neuromarketing now returns millions of hits on search sites. You can no longer ignore it, especially in tough market conditions! This unique approach is proven to create and deliver compelling messages that will help you quickly close more business.

This video captures Christophe in action, feedback from attendees at the Newmarket Vistage Open Day and a small clip showing a Vistage Member, Angela Rushforth, discussing the benefits of becoming a member.

Neuromarketing: How to Appeal to the Reptilian Brain

Neuromarketing pioneer Patrick Renvoise discusses the importance of visual stimulation as it relates to the reptilian brain's influence on consumer spending habits.

Neuromarketing expert Patrick Renvoisé exploits his knowledge and experience in engineering, technology and sales to develop and execute innovative new marketing and sales strategies...shaped around the latest findings in Neuroscience. Renvoisé, educated in France, is a noted author, managed global business development for Silicon Graphics and is presently president of SalesBrain.

In cooperation with the Louisville Young Presidents' Organization (YPO).

Much more than a conference, the IdeaFestival is a catalyst for high-speed innovation, product development, and creative endeavors. This series of events attracts leading thinkers and curious minds from across the nation and around the globe.

How You'll Advertise in a Newly Capitalist #Cuba

By: Matthew Creamer 

PICTURESCOLOURLIBRARY.COM STOCK CONNECTION USA/NEWSCOM

Viva la Revolucion: The only outdoor ads the typical Cuban sees are government propaganda. 

__________________________

When the U.S. embargo of Cuba is lifted one day and American brands can finally pour into that untapped market just 90 miles off Florida, one of the hottest commodities may be the knowledge of Adam Armstrong, a 37-year-old ad exec little known outside Toronto.

Mr. Armstrong, now owner of Graymatter Design & Marketing, has an item on his resume not many others can claim. For the better part of seven years, he worked in marketing in Cuba, where for five decades no marketing -- as we understand it -- has been allowed. Working for Cerveceria Bucanero -- first at its agencies and then directly for the company that was at the time a joint venture between the Cuban government and the Canadian brewer Labatt -- he saw the Cuban people as few others have: as consumers.

"The thing about Cuba and probably most communist states is that there's always a craving for capitalism and capitalist ways and by no means is Cuba an exception," he said. "There's a certain amount of advertising and marketing that still goes on there even though it's frowned upon." 

Full story...

El fenomeno Blair Fowler: E-Marketing o E-Boberia?

Parecía un día más para la tienda on-line de venta de zapatos Shoes of Prey. Nada hacía presagiar que de la noche a la mañana, recibiera la friolera de 200.000 visitas en un solo día y pusiera contra las cuerdas los servidores de este, hasta la fecha, desconocido negocio electrónico australiano fundado por el ex trabajador de Google, Michael Fox. Fox tuvo la genial idea de ponerse en contacto con Blair Fowler, una joven norteamericana de 16 años, cuyos vídeos tenían mucho tirón en YouTube. El incipiente negocio australiano no contaba con un presupuesto generoso, así que decidió apostar por el efecto viral, enviando un par de zapatos a esta aprendiz de Paris Hilton.

Marketing guevariano/ Javier Gómez

Marketing guevariano "El símbolo más importante de la publicidad izquierdista está prohibido en la televisión cubana".