Gmail...why is it free? phenomenal advertising!!

It came as a surprise to me, when in one of my Information Systems class last trimester many people did not know that Gmail "reads" your emails in order to better advertise to you... I know it may sound crazy that a big corporation is reading your emails. 

However don't worry, people are not reading your emails...computers are, why??? because they want to identify potential interests you might have in order to advertise to you better. The better they advertise...the more money they get...the more money they get, the more services they deploy to keep us returning to Google. So lets analyze this from a Gmail user perspective and from an advertiser's perspective. 

As a heavy Google user myself I have to admit that there has been sometimes when I have worried about my privacy, not because I have anything to hide but more because I sometimes read all this privacy advocates talking about how Google will destroy our lives in the future. However, it is important to remember that we (users) still have the power to decide if we want to use Gmail or not. We are just one-click away of protecting our privacy! we don't need privacy advocates protecting us, we can just close our accounts and that's it (Google does keep a copy of your emails in their servers, just for you to know)

So what happens if we stay in Gmail... how will Google use my info?... well its simple! to target me better. To bring me advertising that is relevant to me. Do I care? I personally don't, first of all it is not intrusive, sometimes is useful, and more importantly it lets me use Gmail for free!! in fact it let's me use all the Google Applications for free! Just think about how many times you have used Google Maps... no, even better.. think about how your internet experience would be without the search engine (Back to the Altavista days when the results where far from what you were looking for) 

So in conclusion, the advertisement that we get on the right side and  top of the pages is the price we have to pay to use Gmail, if you have studied economics I am sure you know that "there is no such thing as a free lunch" (nothing is for free!)... and Google needs to pay for all the servers that hold the thousands of gigabytes (A lot of storage capacity) where our emails (with all the pictures, videos and presentations) reside, and they pay with the money they get from the companies that are advertising to us. 

Now, from an advertising point of view, Gmail advertising is great! as you can see in the picture above Gmail "read" my email in which I was talking to some of my classmates about a project on Mobile Marketing. As you can see in the blue circles, I mentioned Mobile Marketing twice, and then, the next time I opened my email (53 minutes later- See Yellow Circle) I had 5 different advertisements from Mobile Marketing Companies (see red circles)... Just Great!! 

Just think about going to a supermarket and getting some Oreo Cookies, after walking around for 53 minutes you go to the cash register and you have 5 different types of milk for you to complement your Oreos with. It benefits you and the type of milk you decide to choose (and of course, if you don't want to, you don't have to get the milk) and what's even better, since you were "exposed" to the 5 different types of milk, you get the cookies for free! it doesn't matter if you buy the milk or not

So to me this is a model in which everybody wins, at least this applies to me because I use a lot of Google services, in fact my blog resides on Google servers since Google owns Blogger. Now if you don't like it, don't get mad, just don't use Gmail anymore... there are plenty of email services nowadays! as for me... I rather stay

If you liked this article I encourage you to check the video from this link:

http://epic.makingithappen.co.uk/new-masterfs1.html

The greatest part is that it was made around 2004/2005... when you see the last minutes think about the recent introduction of Google Latitude (an application that you install in your phone and you can broadcast your location to your  friends using your phone's GPS) will it come to this? you be the judge