Named & Shamed
SOFTWARE WARNING!
Gmail’s conveyor belt of adverts
Keumars Afifi-Sabet puts the boot into tech villains, jargon-spouting companies and software trying to trick you
The greatest trick Google ever played was convincing the world it’s a technology company, rather than an advertising giant. And its second greatest trick was introducing adverts so gradually in every corner of the web that most people didn’t seem to care.
But you can bet they’ll notice when their Gmail inboxes become moving billboards. Google is planning to show rows of items that automatically scroll across, dragging your eye away from more important emails. Advertising executives call these ‘carousels’, but they’re just digital conveyor belts of products you probably don’t want.