Two days ago I visited the Clearly Contacts website, and though I did not buy anything – my time spent on the website exceeding no more than a minute – today, every website I visit that functions around Google ads is featuring one of these :

    Though in recent years Google has seen a lot of negative publicity in regards to their privacy policies, it has never been a tightly held secret that Google tracks and stores its users web history in order to provide more personalized, and hopefully more effective, ads. However, never before has this fact been more obvious and creepy than in the past few weeks, and this is where I doubt the effectiveness of Google ads themselves.

    Disregarding the negative perception people might have towards their privacy, the beauty in online advertisement lies in the seamlessness with which it integrates content. I should not be consciously noticing these ads, not realizing exactly how and why they are being targeted at me, and definitely not looking upon them with distaste. In the past 24 hours I have seen this company appear on the websites I visit  more times then I can count, but my perception of this brand is not a positive one.

    Subtly in a fine art, and I’m finding that Google’s lack of is rendering its ads not only pointless, but counterproductive.