Google shifted advertising from matching keywords to targeting individual users

Evidence

Operationally, this meant that Google would turn its own growing cache of behavioral data and its computational power and expertise toward the single task of matching ads with queries. New rhetoric took hold to legitimate this unusual move. If there was to be advertising, then it had to be “relevant” to users. Ads would no longer be linked to keywords in a search query, but rather a particular ad would be “targeted” to a particular individual. Securing this holy grail of advertising would ensure relevance to users and value to advertisers. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 231

Categorization

• DEFINE: Establishes the crucial shift from keyword-based to individual-targeted advertising, the technical basis of surveillance capitalism.
• XREF: connects to: Google’s data shifted from improving services to generating ad revenue — Nick Srnicek, Platform Capitalism, 52; Gmail’s targeted ads exploited reader privacy for profit from 2004 launch — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 147; Advertising shifted from selling product qualities to selling user identity — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 550 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Advertising shifted from selling product qualities to selling user identity #expands (0.85) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 550
• Google’s early ad-matching patents replaced guesswork with predictive behavioral data #expands (0.82) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 245
• Google’s search ads sold only intent-rich moments rather than mass attention #qualifies (0.80) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 889
• Behavioral surplus from targeted advertising drove nearly all Google revenue by 2016 #corroborates (0.78) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 294