Google Home Caught Sneaking Ads into Responses
File this one under the “That’s just wrong” category. Google Home, the search giant’s smart speaker, has been caught slipping ads for the new “Beauty and the Beast” movie into its virtual assistant responses. On Twitter, user Bryson Meunier posted a video showing Google Home promoting the movie when he asked what his day was going to be like. Google insists that it wasn’t an ad, but a way to call out “timely content.” It seems as though the ads have stopped running — we strongly hope the backlash has quelled similar future experimentation on Google’s part. Smart speakers and virtual assistants are stupid enough as it stands; they won’t succeed if they’re both clueless and venal.
To be included in an upcoming "Compendium of Alternative Facts".
And you expected Google not to push ads? Ha, ha, ha.... This is Google we're talking about, right? You know, the company that used to have the motto, don't do evil—before they went public and became all about the money.