Google Not Reading Your Personal Email Cause It’s Boring; Hard To Advertise Against

Google has a funny little blog post today on the Gmail Blog. Apparently, they've decided to change the way they're serving advertisements in Gmail. Why? They say it's in the name of serving ads that are more relevant to users. But really, it's fairly obvious that it's about serving ads that will bring in more money. In the example they give, Google says that if you previously read an email confirming a hotel in Chicago, and were served an ad about flights to Chicago in Gmail, you might see that same ad when you're reading an email wishing you a happy birthday. The thought is that there wouldn't be a good ad to serve you related to this birthday message. That's probably not true — instead, it's probably an ad with much lower click rates (and CPC rates) that makes Google less money.