Google buys Emu, opening the door to make money off your chats

Google has bought the instant messaging start-up Emu, a move that positions the search giant to begin targeting users with ads in their text conversations. 

|
Emu
Google has purchased the instant messaging start-up Emu, a move that could give the search giant a means to target users directly in their conversations.

Google is looking to become a leader in instant-messaging with its purchase of Emu

The Emu instant-message system, Wired reports, can monitor chats, determine what people are discussing, and then insert links it deems helpful to users. Of course, Google could easily use this feature to get ads in front of users. 

In a blog post, Emu announced that it would be joining the search giant and closing down its app as of August 25. Starting then, Emu will no longer be available in the App Store and current users will no longer be able to send, receive, or download messages using the app. Although the purchase of Emu has been confirmed, it's currently unclear how much Google paid in the deal. 

Emu already bears many similarities to Google's mobile personal assistant, Google Now. Like Google Now, Emu offers tailored advice and information based on users' interests. It can let you share your location, make restaurant reservations, or schedule appointments due to an artificial intelligence engine that scans your messages and then gives you information it deems relevant to let you act on your messages. 

Emu will likely find little difficulty in meshing its product with the goals of its new owner, seeing as Emu co-founder and chief executive Gummi Hafsteinsson previously worked for Google for five years, in addition to spending two years at Apple where he worked on the Siri virtual assistant. 

Large tech companies are increasingly turning to chat as a main focus of business. Last month, Facebook announced that all users of its mobile app would be forced to download the separate Facebook Messenger app in order to use the chat function in the mobile app. That announcement came on the heels of Facebook hiring David Marcus, former president of PayPal, to be vice president of messaging products. Apple has also stepped up its instant-messaging game with improvements to iMessage on its iOS 8 update and new features that let users chat on multiple Apple devices and seamlessly transition from a chat on one device to another.  

And increasingly, as people turn to mobile devices as their primary means for conducting business online, tech companies are seeing an increase in revenue from mobile advertising, particularly in-app advertising. 

But Google's acquisition of Emu demonstrates a more recent phenomenon of tracking people continuously in order to generate profit, Wired reports. For example, Foursquare just released a version of its app that tracks users' location, constantly relaying that information to Foursquare's servers and then giving people recommendations on stores and restaurants to visit, given their location.

Similarly, Google has stated its intention to use "smart devices" – such as the Google-owned Nest digital thermostat – as a means to target users with ads on their smart home devices that are connected to the Internet. 

"A few years from now, we and other companies could be serving ads and other content on refrigerators, car dashboards, thermostats, glasses, and watches, to name just a few possibilities," reads a December letter sent by Google to the Securities and Exchange Commission.  

-CORRECTION: A previous version of this article misstated the action that Facebook has taken with its mobile app. It is making users download the Messenger app in order to use the mobile chat function, not making all users switch to the Messenger app instead of the Facebook app, as was previously stated. 

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Google buys Emu, opening the door to make money off your chats
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/Horizons/2014/0807/Google-buys-Emu-opening-the-door-to-make-money-off-your-chats
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe