Google AdWords as a Network of Grey Surveillance

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dc.contributor.authorRoberts, Harold M.en
dc.contributor.committeechairAbbate, Janet E.en
dc.contributor.committeememberWisnioski, Matthewen
dc.contributor.committeememberPalfrey, Johnen
dc.contributor.departmentScience and Technology Studiesen
dc.date.accessioned2014-03-14T20:31:38Zen
dc.date.adate2010-03-11en
dc.date.available2014-03-14T20:31:38Zen
dc.date.issued2010-01-26en
dc.date.rdate2010-03-11en
dc.date.sdate2010-02-08en
dc.description.abstractGoogle's AdWords processes information about what sorts of content users are browsing for about a quarter of all web site visits. The significance of AdWords' use of this vast amount of personal data lies not in its use for such obviously authoritarian purposes but instead as a network of grey surveillance with Google acting as the hub and the various publishers, advertisers, and users watching (and controlling) each other in distinct ways. Google's model of collective intelligence in its search and ad ranking systems has so deeply intertwined itself into user experiences online (and offline) that it acts as a shared nervous system. AdWords' use of specific words to target simple ads directly connects advertising topics with the content supported by the advertising, encouraging the content to do more of the work of assigning social meaning traditionally done by the ads themselves. And the AdWords pay-per-click ad auction system greatly increases the level of mechanization within the advertising and content production system, replacing the historical human bureaucracy of the advertising industry with the mechanical bureaucracy that is much more difficult to predict or understand. That mechanical bureaucracy shapes, in constitutive but unpredictable ways, the relationship between content and ads that drives the what content is published online and how advertisers and users interact with that content.en
dc.description.degreeMaster of Scienceen
dc.identifier.otheretd-02082010-004431en
dc.identifier.sourceurlhttp://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-02082010-004431/en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/31180en
dc.publisherVirginia Techen
dc.relation.haspartRoberts_HM_T_2010.pdfen
dc.rightsIn Copyrighten
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subjectmediaen
dc.subjectadvertisingen
dc.subjectgoogleen
dc.subjectadwordsen
dc.subjectsurveillanceen
dc.subjectprivacyen
dc.titleGoogle AdWords as a Network of Grey Surveillanceen
dc.typeThesisen
thesis.degree.disciplineScience and Technology Studiesen
thesis.degree.grantorVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universityen
thesis.degree.levelmastersen
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Scienceen

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