Search Engine giant Google Inc is now looking at making their online ads show based on the end user’s web browing history.

According to an announcement on Google’s blog, this is now being rolled out on Google’s partner networks including Youtube.com.

(Image Courtesy: Flickr source)

Till now, the only way in which ads were displayed on a webpage was based on the text content on a web page - which is also considered as the life-blood of search engine optimization. Though this method had been highly popular with the Adsense program, Google says that “there are some situations, however, where a keyword or the content of a web page simply doesn’t give us enough information to serve highly relevant ads.”

With the new program, now called “interest based” advertising, Google will be able to consider the web browsing history of an individual, and will be able to throw in more of the type of ads that the individual will be interested in.

United States lawmakers had held hearings last year on behavioral advertising, after concerns arose when a company called NebuAd, in a deal with cable company Charter Communication, disclosed a pilot program to track customers. But Google says that they leave the option to opt out of this with the consumer. Consumer can edit their profile of preferences based on online activity, and also will be able to click on a button to find out how a particular ad was sent to them.

While there has been both positive and negative comments to this news, as quoted by Emily Riley of Forrester Research, with the vast size of Google’s AdSense network of partner Web sites and the company’s technology this new venture could generate valuable data for marketers and advertisers.