Google’s behavioral surplus became a zero-cost asset diverted to market exchange

Evidence

Behavioral data, whose value had previously been “used up” on improving the quality of Search for users, now became the pivotal—and exclusive to Google—raw material for the construction of a dynamic online advertising marketplace. Google would now secure more behavioral data than it needed to serve its users. That surplus, a behavioral surplus, was the game-changing, zero-cost asset that was diverted from service improvement toward a genuine and highly lucrative market exchange. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 255

Categorization

• DEFINE: Core definition of behavioral surplus as data beyond what is needed to serve users, repurposed for exchange.
• XREF: Directly speaks to the stated reading purpose: behavioral surplus as the defining mechanism of the digital economy. — connects to: Google reclassifies publicly-funded geographic data combined with captured behavioral surplus as private assets — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 473; Mobile-device shift forced Facebook to master surplus capture anew — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 502; Google’s auctions actually traded derivatives of behavioral surplus — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 259 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Google’s auctions actually traded derivatives of behavioral surplus #expands (0.85) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 259
• Google’s ad-ranking innovation operationalized behavioral surplus as its core asset #corroborates (0.85) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 239
• Early Google ran a self-contained behavioral value reinvestment cycle treating users as ends #contradicts (0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 217
• Behavioral surplus from targeted advertising drove nearly all Google revenue by 2016 #expands (0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 294
• Google’s advantage cycle lacked a market transaction to anchor reciprocity #expands (0.75) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 215