Whats more annoying than ads on your smartphone while scrolling through your Facebook news feed? I can think of a few, but I think ads while checking email would take the cake. As this article in The Guardian points out, code for advertising has been discovered in the latest release of Gmail for the Android OS. While its not being utilized currently , it is only a matter of time before its implemented.
This shouldn't come as a surprise to most, as ads on the side of our beloved Gmail interface have been there since day one. As more users increasingly access content via mobile devices, Google would be remiss if they did not capitalize on the potential ad revenue. Google made over $360M in mobile ad revenue from YouTube alone in the first quarter of 2013. While email ads are far less profitable than other types of online advertising, the amount of volume represents huge earning potential for Google.
But how will users react to ads interfering with checking email on their mobile device? Depending on how they are implemented, the reaction could be very negative but what are the alternatives? Users could switch email providers, but that requires notifying every contact of the change. Unfortunately I think we are at the mercy of Google and will just have to learn to live with ads taking over our phone for a few seconds...
This post made me think of an interesting New York Times article published last month about technology and the college generation. The article states that many students rarely check e-mail anymore, and this creates new challenges for professors who need to contact them with important class updates or assignments. According to the article, many students consider e-mail too slow compared to text messaging or too boring compared to social media. Professors resort to making it a requirement that students check e-mail every day. Google shouldn't take it for granted that younger generations will use g-mail at the same level as the one before it. Including more ads might make this an even bigger problem for them.
ReplyDeleteHere is a link to the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/29/fashion/technology-and-the-college-generation.html?pagewanted=all
I'm interested in how the ads would be implemented. Would they be part of a gmail app or integrated into the email content? If part of the app, a user could avoid the ads by using another app to access their account without the switching cost of a new email address.
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