News of Google’s newest advertising venture:
In its just-published patent application for Network Node Ad Targeting, Google hatches plans for identifying the most influential of a circle of friends and providing this ‘influencer’ with ‘financial incentives from advertisers in exchange for permission to display advertisements on the member’s [social network] profile’. Doing so will ‘provide advertisers with the option of targeting either all members in the community or advertising only on the profile of the influencer, thereby targeting the entire community,’ explains Google.
As some Slashdotters have commented; if your best friend goes for this, maybe it’s time to re-evaluate that relationship: friendship isn’t supposed to be a commercial transaction. As for the targeted ‘influencer’: it’s a perfect example of one of Malcolm Gladwell’s so-called Mavens; the influential early adopters.
via Mind Hacks