Hub spells privacy — at least that’s what Google’s My Account latest feature seems to suggest.
What’s Mine, What’s Yours
On top of new product launches that were announced at the Google I/O 2015 Conference last week in San Francisco, Google’s new hub for privacy and personal data managing has been identified by our team as being one key threat to search engine optimisation (SEO). It plays in favour of paid campaigns, however.
At a first glance, Google’s My Account is a marketing spin that points to a real, deep change for customers, but I am not sure whether the concept is truly revolutionary — or, rather, just a biscuit that keeps the dog quiet.
Whether I am right or wrong, it doesn’t really matter. What matters, though, is Google will gather even more accurate information about you and me in the hub.
It counts a lot, as I recently argued in my RTBF blog.
Privacy, What Privacy?
Google says that through My Account you can easily “safeguard your data, protect your privacy, and decide how your information can make Google tool and services work better for you.”
“Rather than a biscuit therapy, this sounds a lot like noise therapy to me,” a marketing guru argued today.
These services, of course, are limited to Google’s apps and tools. Now its customers even have the opportunity to set their preferences — in different steps, but all in one place.
More Accurate Data
Gmail was launched in 2004. In 2012 the Gmail users were 425 million. According Tech Chrunch on Friday, Sundar Pichai, Google’s Senior VP of Product, said that Gmail users currently amount to over 900 million.
If these numbers are to be trusted, Google’s sign-ups are rapidly growing, and at a faster pace. This should be attributed to operational troubles as well as to appalling feature presented by some of its rivals over the years, including Yahoo.
To sum up, the latest changes will impact SEO strategy because:
- The customer has more control upon some criteria that Google uses to re-target the consumer, and Google will learn more about the customer and his preferences.
- Google will fetch more accurate data about what customers do not wish to add to their preferences, so paid campaigns will be more targeted and will increase ads revenues.
- More friendly tools may attract even more customers.