Not one to rest on their laurels, Google recently announced that they were testing some different ad serving platforms.
I actually noticed an occurrence or two of these ad formats on a website I visit. Unfortunately, I didn’t screen capture them, but if I happen to see them again I’ll be sure to update with a photo.
These new ads have the following features:
* using “crumbled” cookies, so that the data typically associated with one unique identifying number or “cookie ID” will be broken up among multiple different cookies and diffuse the ad history of individual users;
* providing better forms of notice within ads, to help users understand who is serving the ads they see, and what data is being collected; and
* giving users the ability to provide feedback to us about the ads they like and don’t like.
Google is also giving users that don’t want cookies the ability to opt-out of this test ad serving program.
To find out more, please visit the Google Blog.