Thursday, May 24, 2012
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Helping Consumers Buy Products that Reflect their Values; How Google’s Mobile…

Google Tech Talks February, 8 2008 ABSTRACT Internet searching and advertising increasingly plays a role in consumer decisions and purchases, yet pertinent information for making value-judgments is currently awkward to ferret out and certainly not universally accessible or useful. There is rarely a feedback loop aligning vendor or manufacturer’s environmental, social or governance policies with a shopper’s values, so shoppers, over time, rarely cause industries to change their behavior. There needs to be a way for shoppers to aim their purchasing power at achieving social values of highest regional priority. There needs to be a way to accumulate and redeem "social values rewards". What’s missing is timely and impactful analysis of a candidate purchases’ impact on the Shopper’s family, region and planet (expressed according to their values), so that the purchaser can more easily make informed purchasing decisions. With some modifications to Google ads and Google product search, Google could solidify the feedback loop and help consumers, by their actions, build a greener and better world. Speaker: Bruce Cahan Bruce B. Cahan, President Urban Logic, Inc. (a nonprofit organization) Email: bcahan@urbanlogic.org Bruce Cahan is an Ashoka Fellow, a social entrepreneur, a non-residential fellow of Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society, a lawyer, and a banker. In 1989, a steam pipe exploded outside his apartment building, spraying the neighborhood with 220


12 Comments

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  3. Advertising currently sets the criteria for the consumer for motor vehicles – the choice is restricted to “buy this or you will kill your family” “buy this or you wont attract members of the opposite sex” “buy this or you will look poor” These are not the only criteria that consumers may have. When you try to research the characteristics of motor vehicles though, it is quite difficult to discover anything about them except those things which fear based advertising is concerned with.

  4. Oh, I agree with the end goal of enabling consumers to make their purchasing decisions based on criteria which are important to them. I think most providers of goods and services would be interested in getting closer to their consumers through such an approach too. There are some roadblocks of vested interests which will resist this for a while yet. Another example apart from the overpricing of data to mobile devices is the advertising industry which is in a deadlock with existing business.

  5. A classic Catch-22: Put robust, persistent applications on mobile phones, and the price for data services charged for occasional use should drop.

    A clarification: The material I presented at this Google Tech Talk featured a mobile approach. However, the desktop experience would be far more granular and exploratory. In other words, I am pursuing mobile, kiosk and desktop settings for socially-purposeful consumerism.

  6. none of this is anywhere near happening whilst the mobile phone industry continues to overcharge for data. The only way a mobile internet can possibly happen is if independant WiMax network suppliers takes the market out from under the mobile industry. Remember how hard it was to break the telecoms monopoly and get new services onto POTS?

  7. As Mr. Cahan mentioned, there are affordable data devices in the market today. PDA’s, Smart Phones, the AT&T iPhone, just to name a few. The key is to have an unlimited data plan, so not only do you have unlimited access to the internet, you alos will not be bombarded with overages in kilobite charges.

  8. Our family uses ATT’s unlimited data plan for the iPhones in the US. With more entrants into the global market space, UK mobile Web data rates should rise in speed, and drop in price.

  9. [...] Helping Consumers Buy Products that Reflect their Values; How … [...]

  10. sorry but that means nothing to me, what i mean is it costs as much for 1 hour phone web connection (about £7) as i use in a week at home, and i can get 8 meg download speed, and see a whole page at a time no scrolling, why would i want to pay that price, its only for ppl that get it paid by their company, not a normal user of a mobile phone, we are years away from cost effective mobile phone web browsing.

  11. I have a financial model that includes using an ethical bank to enhance financial viability.

    I agree socially-purposeful consumerism should be an option for all Web platforms.

    My point was mobile screen real estate is precious. To be meaningful consumer tools, mobile search can rank choices from multiple perspectives, including the social and ethical impacts resulting from buying a product, as such impacts are felt regionally and globally, and experienced through affinity groups.

  12. too expencive, not financialy viable for most users, screne is too small, and what can i do on a phone i cant wait till i get home and do in comfort with better speed.