Poll shows risk to Google on privacy
Source: Agencies |
March 10, 2012, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
GOOGLE is almost everyone's favorite search engine, despite misgivings about data-collection and advertising practices that are widely seen as intrusive.
A survey released today by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found 83 percent of the respondents rated Google as their preferred search engine. That was up from 47 percent in 2004, the last time Pew gauged attitudes about search engines.
Yahoo's search engine ranked a distant second at 6 percent, down from 26 percent in 2004.
Google Inc has turned its dominant position in Internet search into a gold mine. The company's search engine is the hub of an advertising system that generated US$36.5 billion in revenue last year, up from US$3 billion in 2004.
But the Pew findings also indicate Google may be risking its popularity by trying to learn more about users in a quest to sell more advertising. Nearly three-fourths of the survey participants said they don't want search engines to sift through their personal information to deliver results tailored to their individual interests. Google has been doing this more frequently since January when its search engine began to include personal information pulled from Google's social networking service, Plus.
More than two-thirds of those polled said they don't want to be targeted by customized ads because they don't want their Web surfing to be tracked and analyzed.
Pew took its survey of 2,253 adults mostly after Google announced a change in its privacy policy.
A survey released today by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found 83 percent of the respondents rated Google as their preferred search engine. That was up from 47 percent in 2004, the last time Pew gauged attitudes about search engines.
Yahoo's search engine ranked a distant second at 6 percent, down from 26 percent in 2004.
Google Inc has turned its dominant position in Internet search into a gold mine. The company's search engine is the hub of an advertising system that generated US$36.5 billion in revenue last year, up from US$3 billion in 2004.
But the Pew findings also indicate Google may be risking its popularity by trying to learn more about users in a quest to sell more advertising. Nearly three-fourths of the survey participants said they don't want search engines to sift through their personal information to deliver results tailored to their individual interests. Google has been doing this more frequently since January when its search engine began to include personal information pulled from Google's social networking service, Plus.
More than two-thirds of those polled said they don't want to be targeted by customized ads because they don't want their Web surfing to be tracked and analyzed.
Pew took its survey of 2,253 adults mostly after Google announced a change in its privacy policy.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
