In our minds, Google has always been the most successful search engine in the world. And users rely on Google because it gives them good search results. But what if users’ names show up on the online ads on Google, would they still use it and share their experiences?
In Clarisa Madilao ‘s recent post“Marketing: Google Users become Advertising Tools”, she mentioned that users’ comments on Google’s products and services might be used for its marketing campaigns. Users’ names might also appear on those ads for more reliable word-of-mouth recommendations.
From a personal angle, I totally agree with Clarisa that this movement could potentially offer users more reliable recommendations since it’s based on people’s real experiences, and users can filter the useful information and use it to help themselves make decisions on the choice of certain services and products. However, it is also true that users ‘ privacy could be infringed because their names and other personal information would be visible to the public. Although word-of-mouth promotions are important, Google needs to know that they should be used wisely without the cost of infringing users’ privacy.
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