Advertising based on the contents of my email

[limoshawn]

I'm sure this is not new but I noticed advertising in the Y! Email interface that was obviously targeted based on the contents of my email.

Now I understand that this is a free, online email and I probably agreed to let them read my email and target the ads based on that, but after actually seeing it I think I will no longer be using Y! mail.

What about the person sending me the email, they didn’t agree to let Y! read their portion of the email?

I'm curious to see what others feel about this.

[weeks]

I'm curious to what kind of ad matching you are seeing with your messages. They don't "read" your email, but filter it looking for keywords and phrases. (It's very sophisticated, but not rocket science.)

Gmail is doing the same thing. I don't hear much about it. But, if you could just buy contextual matching on email, there could be some real marketing opportunities.

[limoshawn]

I understand that they are not actually "reading" the email, however it bothers me on some level that they are showing me ads that are related to the content of my email. Keep in mind that I fully understand that they are within their rights to do so.

In this particular email I was discussing tax information with a business associate and while reading their reply I noticed that the ad block on the right of the email interface with 4 ads for tax related businesses.

I will now be concerned anytime I have to send an email to a client at a Y! email address that another business will be able to market my clients in or around an email I have sent to them.

I'm going to have to "seo" my emails from now on to keep competitors ads from showing up in my emails.

[weeks]

Thanks. Very interesting.

I think your concerns are valid. Private, non-ad email is the way to go, especially for business communications. We're going to see more and more "ad free" services where you pay for the service. Even the weather websites are offering ad free weather.

[limoshawn]

Yes, on my side I can control that as all of my ecommerce sites have their own email servers.

My issue is with the following scenario:

Joe Buyer with an email at Y! visits my widgets website and places an order. My widget website sends Joe buyer an email confirmation of his purchase of 2 red widgets. When Joe Buyer checks his email at Y!.com he sees an ad to the right of my confirmation email that says "Hey! Joe Buyer, Why do you pay too much for your widget? Cancel that order and save 20% when you buy from us!"
Bye-bye Joe Buyer, hello Joe Chargeback!

Now, Like I've said before, They (Y!, G, and whoever else has free email) are completely within their rights to do this. I'm just trying to figure out how to keep it from effecting my business.

[weeks]

Wow, what a good idea....

Uh, er, I'm mean sorry, that's a real concern.

You might avoid keywords in your emails if you think this is a problem. "Thank you for your order #12345678. If you have any questions, call ..."

(Hmm, you use phone numbers as keywords to match ads on competitor's phone numbers?)