How Google Classifies You
Share TweetGoogle AdWords has a very useful targeting feature for delivering ads to users within its display network called interest categories. Interest categories are buckets of users who have been classified as interested in a category based on their browsing behavior. There are over a thousand of these categories and some 500 million users classified. If you browse the Web, you’ve been classified.
From an advertiser perspective interest categories are awesome. We use them here at SEO Inc to deliver outstanding results both for client branding and direct response initiatives. We like interest categories because they expand the targeted audience available to an advertiser and provide a layer of control when combined with other display targeting options such as contextual or remarketing.
On the other side of the coin are the internet users who are being classified. Their perspective is not always so rosy because for some it seems like a violation of privacy. Personally I think that behavioral targeting is a great thing. I want to be shown ads that are highly relevant to my interests. I don’t want to see ads for senior living or baby toys – I want to see ads for solutions to my particular wants and needs. If an advertiser can figure out what I need based on my browsing history they have saved me time and made my life more efficient. 
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