Internet Advertisement

The internet is the newest and the most effective medium advertisers. For advertisers, it’s the ultimate accountability: Your ad only appears in front of those people who are interested in your type of goods and services, and you only pay for the ad if the user is interested enough in your product to click on it. To make it all work, Google has turned the sale of keywords into an auction wherein advertisers bid on terms. The more you're willing to pay when a user finally clicks, the more likely you are to appear higher up in a search. It’s a highly effective system.

Microsoft, on the other hand, has struggled to gain a following for its search services and has had a tough time building an Internet brand, with a confusing collection of offerings under the MSN service. In addition, Microsoft is still faced with the prospect of another technology giant creating services that compete with core products such as Microsoft Office, then giving them away for free. Microsoft sees that most software is trending toward a cloud-computing model, where data and processing power are shifted off the personal computer and onto the Internet. Given enough time, Microsoft may not have much of a product to sell. So, for Microsoft, buying Yahoo is a hedge against the future.

It’s worth pausing for a moment to consider what that future may look like. Regardless of whether Google or Microsoft emerges as the dominant technology superpower, we are likely to see highly targeted advertising creep into all aspects of our technology. Late last year, Google announced the formation of a new mobile operating system, Android, which could be advertiser-supported. Android, which is still in development, may lower the overall cost of cellular phones and service, but it will almost definitely bring targeted, location-aware advertising that follows you everywhere you go. Consumers would get the benefit of getting expanded usable sources from the advertisements; however the elite ruling class would control consumers’ perspectives of the emerging products.

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