The “average” Google search user is hard to find. The search engine giant owns around 70 percent of the search market, meaning it’s serving a wide range of demographics. It tends to skew slightly toward younger to middle-aged men, but basically anyone who owns a device with internet access is someone Google is targeting.
Google has a challenge to make Google Glass seem usable for the “average, middle-class” American. Photo source: Johnston, C. (n.d.). ArsTechnica. Ars Technica. Retrieved November 8, 2013, from http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/07/how-google-glass-users-were-saved-from-activation-phrase-hear-me-now/
Google uses cookies to track users’ internet usage to help place relevant ads on other sites they visit. You can check out your Google ad preferences at http://www.google.com/ads/preferences. This allows you to see who Google thinks you are and what you’re interested in. For me, it was pretty accurate. Based on the websites I visit, I’m an 18-24-year-old English speaking female. My interests are Advertising and Marketing, American Football, Arts and Entertainment, Broadcast and Network News, Celebrities and Entertainment News, Computers and Electronics, Dictionaries and Encyclopedias, Fitness, Food and Drink, Iowa, Performing Arts, Politics, Rock Music, Search Engines, Social Networks, Software, Sports, Urban and Hip-Hop, Web Design and Development and Writers Resources.
I’d say Google knows me pretty well. Except the American football interest…that has to be from searching for a Packers shirt for a friend a few years back.
Alas, if I ever noticed a ton of football ticket or merchandise ads following me from site to site, I could tell Google that I’m not interested. I had no idea this was an option, until I read about it in a blog post on About.com. This post was written by a frustrated techy female who Google apparently categorized as a man.
I always knew Google was using my search results to find out more about me, but I didn’t realize I could look through their assessment of me and add or delete preferences for ads. If ads have to follow me around, at least I can customize them and tell Google when they’ve gotten it wrong.
Google’s other branches of business have better defined demographics. According to Non-profit Quarterly, the largest population of males on social media can be found on Google+. Seventy percent of its users are men.
In October 2013, Quantcast reported that Google.com had over 196,000,000 users. These users’ other interests include maps, politics and commentary, magazines, directories/search/guide, regional/local news, baby, consumer electronics, technology, news/information, home décor and design, shopping engines, travel news and information, science and technology, humor and travel agents.
Clearly, Google users are middle to upper class and can afford to search for luxury technology products, home décor and travel opportunities.
One of Google’s challenges for the future is broadening their demographic for high-priced techy products like the new Google Glass. There are Tumblrs dedicated to “White Men Wearing Google Glass,” “Pretty Girls Wearing Google Glass” and “Asians Wearing Google Glass.” These sites play off the idea that Google Glass can only ever be wearable and usable for typical Silicon Valley types.
While Google has been successful in targeting multiple and wide demographics for search, it will need to make its other products more accessible to non-wealthy techies.
Google-ized 