“Advertising may be coming to your thermostat and lots of other strange places, courtesy of Google,” Rolfe Winkler reports for The Wall Street Journal. “In a December letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission, which was disclosed Tuesday, the search giant said that it could be serving ads and other content on ‘refrigerators, car dashboards, thermostats, glasses, and watches, to name just a few possibilities.'”
“Google made the statement to help justify why it shouldn’t disclose revenue generated from mobile devices, a figure the SEC had requested and that companies like Facebook and Twitter both disclose,” Winkler reports. “Google argued that it doesn’t make sense to break out mobile revenue since the definition of mobile will ‘continue to evolve’ as more ‘smart’ devices roll out.”
“‘Our expectation is that users will be using our services and viewing our ads on an increasingly wide diversity of devices in the future,’ the company said in the filing,” Winkler reports. “Google announced a $3.2 billion deal in January to buy Nest Labs, a startup known for smart thermostats and smoke detectors – a few weeks after it told the SEC to expect ads and other content on such devices.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Sarah” and “Antonio” for the heads up.]
How this company overtook Apple as the most valuable brand in the world has me bamboozled
bam·goo·gle
bam·boo·zle
the people
damn·goo·gle
Do no evil?…….
Do know evil.
Because there are more people that doesn’t give a rats ass about their privacy or being used a fodder for advertisers. These users want it all for FREE and willing to be used as a food source for Google.
I am reminded of:
…And… WordPress borked the URL I posted. Try this one:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_Devouring_His_Son
Delicious, nutritious customers.
Best characterisation of Google ever !!!
You made snort my coffee
OMG. lol. Good one!
The report is pure BS.. It makes conclusions based on a lack of reality. It’s a freshman project, with an F grade. And it’s brand evaluations are unrealistic. If Apple were to change it’s name today, it will loose more than just a couple hundred million dollars. The brand is worth billions, tens to hundreds. But the bozo report suggests branding is less than 200 mill.
its not it’s.. I have a headache.
It’s not loose, either. Pass the Advil.
Lose.
How this company overtook Apple as the most valuable brand in the world has me bamboozled
Geoadm, are you from the Bizarro World? Or did my planet just slip off its access and distort the space time continuum.
Google never surpassed the Apple brand. Saints be praised.
http://www.forbes.com/powerful-brands/list/
http://brandirectory.com/league_tables/table/global-500-2014
I know: AXIS, not access.
Apologies Geoadm. I caught up with the news from the real Bizarro World: BrandZ™.
Meanwhile, the links I provided point out that THOSE brand rating services DISAGREE with bizarro BrandZ™.
As I mentioned in a different MDN post, the Forbes report is dated Nov.2013 and the Branddirectory report is dated Dec.2013. Both at least 3 months older than the just announced 2014 ranking by Brandz.
and i could repeat myself as well but then i yawned
Advertising on/in car dashboards or any part of the interior of a car constitutes a dangerous distraction to the driver. Nix that concept in the bud before lives are lost.
When did that happen, Geoadm?
Ok, so what is the real reason to hide mobile ad revenue? Perhaps they are so low that their stocks could take a hit, because Gaagle cannot tell the truth if they wanted to; not in the DNA.
Maybe it’s a Laundry Service, that’s Cooking the Books …
They don’t want to hide it … they just don’t want to break it out by product segment. Ad revenue is most of Googles revenue.
If I go to raise the temperature on my thermostat, I do not want to be subjected to an ad for sweaters.
Ad for sweaters etc . . . Me neither. How quickly people forget the adware on Windows.
In other words, they want to continue hiding their mobile ad revenue in the lump of all ad revenue, so that nobody realises how little they actually make in mobile ads.
Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner!
Releasing that info would simply stop the few mobile advertisers from continuing to invest in mobile ads.
I really wish Nest had partnered with Apple. At least they would have kept it a cool product
Oh yeah, that’s the ticket! Wanna change the temperature on your thermostat? Slog through this ad first, okay? Just 15 seconds left. Wanna know the time? Sure, just hold on for 15 seconds and we’ll tell it to you. Know evil.Google can keep all their free hardware. I’m not interested in being their product.
If they try to serve up ads on toilet bowls, at least we could crap on them.
They’d probably make you watch an ad before you can. Better hope you don’t have diarrhea.
I have a Nest thermostat, and I’m quite happy with it, but the first time it shows me an ad, I’m going to shove it up Schmidt’s ass.
-jcr
Please do a video!!
Please don’t! (Do a video. The other part sounds great!)
I guess there’s a reason every SciFi film set in the dystopic future shows an ad on just about every possible surface or location.
‘Blade Runner’ is credited as the first film to display a world of ‘everything is advertising’. It’s one of the signs of the apocalypse.
You are correct sir! I should have written: every such film since “Blade Runner”. (One of my favorite films.) I have read that Philip K. Dick never saw it. Do you think he would have liked the screen adaption of DADOES?
I think he would have liked the movie quite a lot. But I have yet to get a hang of him as a person. Once I heard ‘Valis’ (I’ve never read it) I got kind of freaked about him.
Derek,
Hey, let’s not forget about Max Headroom.
Remember the “Neuro-stim” bracelets they were giving out at fast-food places in the episode?
Or how about “Blipverts”; those 60 or 30 seconds of TV ads condensed into about 5 seconds.
BLAM!
Definitely! Thanks.
I sold my Nest thermostat when Google bought the company.
Not okay if we still have to pay for the thermostats.
Now you gotta worry about home appliances building profiles… Who wants to bet Nest will definitely include a camera with facial recognition down the road ?
For some reason (probably the toilet references above) I read that as fecal recognition. Horrible thought.
If I spent $200+ on a NEST thermostat I sure as HELL wouldn’t expect any ads to appear.
No, the thermostat will be “free,” but it will secretly spy on you to determine which ads to present you. A few people will scoff at the idea, but more will blindly rejoice over all the neat appliances Google gives us and we’re an inch away from Orwell. Apple’s iconic 1984 ad is becoming a reality but it he enemy isn’t Big Blue… it’s our friendly data collectors at “do no evil,” just down the road.
I suppose ads on the dashboard will ensure people keep their eyes on the road.
Last time I looked, my refrigerator wasn’t mobile. But it *is* running. (rimshot)
better go catch it!
If you’re here till Thursday I’m running!
I’ve got a great idea for a new product. Solar panels that double as giant displays. Allow Google to display whatever ads it wants whenever it wants on your solar panels and their yours for free, installed! Better yet, how about windows! You can watch a different ad on each window in your house! Who needs to see outside anyway? It’s overrated. Pretty soon, your whole house will be brought to you by Google.
Doesn’t that basically cancel out the power generated by the solar panels?
And what products do birds buy?
New Google Ad for housetops; Drones, drop your loads here.
Google doesn’t want to provide the information because it will tell its competitors how poorly they are doing in mobile.
I do not use Google products anymore so if they add to other devices I will not use those either.
Stop referring to Google as a tech company, they’re just and advertising company.
How can a thermostat or a fridge be classified as a mobile device?
It was shipped to your house, ergo, it was mobile. All the way from China. Mobile.
Google is simply an ad agency masquerading as a high tech company. Their primary and possibly only profit stream is selling ads. Everything they do it oriented toward selling ads.
Give the Android operating system away for free, so users will be directed to Google ads. Develop a great search engine, so ad space can be sold to the highest bidder in the search results.
I’m sure any fool who buys Google Glass will be confronted by constant ads in front of their eye balls. Walk down a street and pass by The Gap and Google Glass will flash the latest Gap sales ad in front of your face.
Therefore, is it any surprise that Google plans to put ads on the Nest thermostat or any other home automation item they produce. Of course not. That is their business.
Therefore, if you don’t like ads, don’t use Google products. Need a good search engine that doesn’t track you, use Duck Duck Go. Want a good email service that doesn’t track you and read your email, then drop your gmail account and search around and find one. Or better yet, pay a couple bucks a year for a service that does your email and leaves you alone.
We all have choices and free is not always a good price.
Yup, it just amazes me how many business people use a gmail address and think it’s secure.
I have a GMail account but never use the web interface. I use the Apple Mail clients on my desktop and mobile devices and see no ads, so Google gets no revenue from my email account.
They still use it to mine and profile you for targeted ads elsewhere. I have a gmail account I use as a secondary/spam account but they don’t know where I go on the web thanks to LittleSnitch and I dont see ads thanks to glimmerblocker.
I have no problem with ads but I do have a problem with the invasion of privacy google think is ok
There you go, nerds. You got your “Minority Report” future.
Ad supported TV is one thing. Ad supported life is Forget it, I will go live in a cave.
Sidewalks, come on advertisers get advertising on side walks. Adds adds adds everywhere.
Oh a sarcasm tag is needed but where???
Oh, dear God.
I don’t mean to sound like an elitist here (in all things tech I don’t mind admitting I probably am) but I’m beginning to envision a world when people lacking either money or taste — or both — will be housing extremely cheap electronics in their homes that blast them with advertisements while they study all of their habits.
(Google will know that “Bob” likes to drink a Barq’s root beer while reading espn.com and typically eats string cheese after his visit to youporn.com — all at 72 degrees F.)
While the rest of us will have paid enough up front for our hardware services so as not to be bothered.
I miss the wilder Internet. This newer fully commercialized one makes me nauseous. And since I just typed that word, I’ll probably be served up an ad for pepto bismal any second now . . . . Progress?
Commercialization will permeate every facet of society until Earth can no longer support its waste; resources purchased with “profit” (beyond the investment in capital that can more successfully harness resources) and resources spent on “advertising” (where the ads sell an emotional state or lifestyle as opposed to advertise the technical merits of a product for non-biased informational purposes) are a waste of resources that could be utilized to support life. The more capitalistically perverted a society becomes, the more resources must be wasted sustaining the machine which pursues profit.
I agree with your post 100% midwestmac; your frustration (and the frustration of many others) is an indication that the system is ill-suited to a sustainable future. The global system of today is just another empire that will collapse under its own vices (profit, exploitation, etc).
I don’t disagree that we’re probably headed for a planet of depleted resources at some point . . . that does seem to be our trajectory.
But I don’t know that my fears in this instance are so much anti-capitalism as pro-privacy.
Human nature funnels us toward creating technology that makes our lives easier. No doubt computer technology does this, and I’m happy to pay companies for creating that tech. Where I see the problem is that humans also value privacy, and the Google business model asks us to compromise our privacy for comfort — and that to me is the problem. I don’t think people will realize what they’ve given up because it’s happening just slowly enough as to desensitize us.
For the Facebook crowd that chooses to air all of its good, bad and ugly — well, I don’t feel sorry for them.
Seeing as…
‘The Internet of Things’, including all the gadgets mentioned here, have been implicated in a VAST botnet, Google is quite right, if they were nefarious enough they could indeed advertise on this stuff. The current generation of The Internet of Things typically offers NO SECURITY from hacking. NONE. Yes, that’s irresponsible. Complain to the manufacturer.
Seeing as…
The USA offers the ‘Do Not Call List’ to all citizens, it’s highly likely that such a list would be created for all Internet of Things devices, possibly using their individual MAC addresses.
Seeing as…
Visual advertisements would be distractions while driving, that ain’t NEVER happening. They’re already illegal via current law.
Seeing as…
The Internet of Things still has to go through a home router, FIREWALLS would be (can be now!) set up to stop such home marketing intrusions. This alone is enough to kill off Google’s diabolical plans. Not Gonna Happen. Get lost Google!
So basically everyone is up in arms about the possibility of Google doing so based on the article author’s claim “Advertising may be coming to your thermostat and lots of other strange places, courtesy of Google,”.. Reading the article Google made the statement ” It doesn’t make sense to break out mobile revenue since the definition of mobile will ‘continue to evolve’ as more ‘smart’ devices roll out.” in reponse to a request by the SEC. Since ads don’t automagically appear in Apps, (developers have to implement them), complain to the App developers if and when they do appear in your ‘other’ electronics using Android as the underlying OS. btw it already is in a lot of ‘other’ products.. Anyone want to chime in with seeing ads on any of those?