Could Contextual Ads Come To The Cloud?

For many users (and some businesses), web-based email like Gmail has been their first experience with cloud computing, where some of their important files and information are stored online rather than on their computer hard drive.

According to a guest column by Aaron Levie, CEO of Box.net, today on TechCrunch.com, 2010 may be the year that cloud computer reaches mainstream adoption.

If that happens, could that represent a huge opportunity for the kind of keyword-powered ads that already proliferate web search and email? The prospect of contextual advertising inside the cloud is purely speculative at this point, but the prospect is interesting.

Consider: If more companies adopt the cloud, wouldn’t professional users of a spreadsheet program make up a superior audience to sell targeting advertising to? You can even see the possibility of revenue sharing between companies willing to open up their enterprise cloud solutions and the advertising engine, be it Google Adsense or another company. There would have to be assurances that the information would be activated only automated crawls of the words in a message, document and presentation. Google did this when privacy fears were first raised when ads showed up in Gmail based on the text in email messages.

Revenue sharing could dissuade some of these arguments. As more stability reaches the cloud and more companies decide to use it as a cost-saving measure, it will be hard for Google to ignore such fertile advertising ground. This is just another space which should shift significantly in 2010.