Google.
We all know and depend on the search engine to help us in our day to day life, and sometime as the lazy individuals we are, having a personal assistant sounds like a dream.
Introducing Google Home: a voice-activated speaker powered by Google Assistant. You ask it questions and tell it what to do. Its basically Google in your home. All you have to do is say “Ok, Google” and give it your command.
While this new technology sounds cool and all, some early adopters are finding that it provides more information than they wanted.
“Good Morning Sir. The time is 7:21 am. The weather in Melbourne is 26 degrees and sunny. You may want some sunscreen. Today at 9:00am you have a 3K run … By the way, Disney’s live-action Beauty and the Beast opens today.”
Ummm. Ok.
For a device that is supposed to be your personal assistant, the last thing you want over your morning coffee is some unsolicited advertising. I don’t know about you, but Youtube Ads are bad enough.
It’s unknown if this is a permanent feature of the Google Home or a one off trial of paid advertising. This brings me to the idea of forced advertising.
Google are very creative in their wording. “This isn’t an ad,” a Google spokesperson told Search Engine Land, “the beauty in the Assistant is that it invites our partners to be our guest and share their tales.”
Smoke and Mirrors 
Great post Alex!
I think it is possible for marketers to utilise this kind of tech given that the content provided is relevant to me specifically. The google Home is a personal assistant after all.
Given Google’s access to large quantities of data compared to other virtual assistants (like Siri, Cortana and Alexa), how important do you think this is in determining what content is being marketed through Google Home?
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Hi Ivan!
I agree. I think the content should be geared directly to an individual user. Perhaps if they ask if the user wants to hear about the ad first it would be less invasive?
Google should defiantly reach into their large database to help the Google Home recognise the individual users likes and dislikes. This way the content is relevant to the user and not just some aimless ad.
Thanks for the comment!
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Nice article! I think that there is a real issue here, I mean, we can’t say we are not exposed to enough advertisement already.
But for sure companies are going to use this as another way to create awareness for their products or services. I think that if the customer has clearly stated his interest in knowing the release of movies this would be okay, but if it’s just random ads that pop-out, this could really quickly become an issue.
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Do you think that because we are exposed to so much advertising, something like this would be quickly ignored? After you receive what you asked for would you begin to ignore the following ad or would it annoy you to the point you would get rid of Google Home?
I agree. If users do ask for information on an ad I think this is fair game. Perhaps if the Google Home asked the users if they would like to hear the information first?
Thanks for your comment!
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