Gmail NOT geo-targeting?

[Shak]

is it me, or does Gmail not offer geo targeting when ads are shown.

about 50% of all my inbound emails have ads showing for related/semi-related topics, however NONE are from the UK.

so either certain adwords advertisers know something which I dont, or Google is not offering Geo targeting based on my location when reading email etc etc

anyone?

Shak

[vibgyor79]

Download and install the AdSense Preview Tool from
[google.com...]

Now go back to Gmail, right click on the page and select "Google AdSense Preview Tool". Make sure you select UK under the Options link. Now compare the Gmail ads with the ads displayed by the Preview tool.

Are they identical?

>>> however NONE are from the UK.

Now are you absolutely sure that you are in UK? Sometimes, you will never know where you are after a few pegs.

[eWhisper]

I'm in the U.S. - this morning when I opened my BBC Newsletter - I received ads for the U.K..

When I pop open my AdSense preview tool - I see a totally different set of ads for the U.S.

Maybe I should ask G where I live?

[encyclo]

Gmail is currently only available in US English, with no sign yet of any customization for different region or language locales. Perhaps that's why you only get non-targeted ads?

I suppose that the long-term plan would be to have regionalized versions of Gmail, which would allow such targeting.

[vibgyor79]

encyclo: Are you saying Gmail never had geo-targeting? Now that would be really unfair to the advertisers.

This is what Google Gmail website has to say -

Ads are matched using the same technology that powers the Google AdSense program

[encyclo]

vibgyor79, no I'm saying that if I try to visit google.com, I get redirected to google.ca and get served results and ads for Canada. For Gmail, there is no checking of IP addresses etc. to determine location, and the service is just in US English - so I would assume that there is no geo-targeting of ads either for that reason.

That's not to say it won't happen before launch - as things are still in beta, that feature may simply not have been enabled yet (along with other languages for the interface and the rest of it).