Do you like the ads in your Gmail account? No? Unfortunately, it appears that we will receive much more, which is unfortunate. Several internet screenshots demonstrate how users of Gmail for desktop and mobile are seeing far more advertisements than normal.
Gmail has always included ads. However, they are often hidden at the top of the Promotions and Social tabs, where they are simple to ignore. The new placement, however, alters everything by incorporating ads amongst real emails.
As a result, even while each has an emblem designating it as an advertisement, it is considerably more difficult to distinguish between the two at first look.
Obtrusive ads
Twitter users claim that there doesn’t seem to be any special targeting going on behind the ads. All of it seems to be random. One user displayed job postings from the U.S. Border Patrol and ads from Edible Arrangements. Another had KFC and Amazon combined. Moreover, handsets, photos have been shown alongside the ads, taking up more space, and making the intrusiveness even more irritating.
It is important to note that not all users are being impacted by this Zerg Rush of advertising. In our opinion, there have been no modifications to Google Workspace company Gmail for desktops. As usual, everything went as planned. Even though there were no more photos, however, the Promotions section on the mobile version had more advertisements than usual.
Allowance for doubt
It’s conceivable that none of this is being done on purpose, to be fair to Google. The official Workspace Google parent company account on Twitter responded to a disgruntled user by saying the sudden surge of adverts doesn’t “sound good” and requesting feedback through the Gmail Help feature. This year, there have also been cases when malicious actors have taken control of the Google Ads network. They then used it to distribute pornographic content to “unsuspecting victims”. In one incident, hackers were so audacious as to infect someone with malware.
On the other hand, Google isn’t exactly blameless either. According to The Guardian digital advertisements provide 80% of the company’s income. Therefore, the search engine giant has more than enough justification to develop novel means of advertising for companies. In a recent article, The Financial Times “claims to have seen an internal presentation” where the tech giant hopes to employ generative AI to produce creative commercials drawing “from those already created by human hands.”
