Technobabbles I try to sound like I know what I'm talking about. Don't be fooled.

8Jan/080

Gmail Has Built-In Sensitivity

This is a very "Don't be Evil" kind of thing for Google to do. According to one of Gmail's information pages ("More on Gmail and Privacy"), context-sensitive ads are not shown next to the content of messages that may be in reference to a tragedy, catastrophic event, or other questionable sort of thing. The page reads, from the relevant section (currently in the third paragraph): "Gmail's filters also block ads from running next to messages about catastrophic events or tragedies, erring on the side of not displaying an ad if the content is questionable."

Wow, just wow. For better or for worse, I can confirm this from experience. Earlier tonight I received a message about the passing of a very influential person, who in fact was one of the founders of the Southwest Robotics Team. Later, going over the message in Internet Explorer (I have ads blocked in Firefox), I noticed there were no ads next to it. Checking other messages, I saw ads. I performed a search on "Gmail sensitive no ads" (using Google) and was pointed to the above-mentioned page.

So Google is doing its best to be sensitive in its users' times of need. Well done, Google! Absolutely astounding!

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Filed under: Gmail, Google, internet, w00t Leave a comment
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