Google is closely watching its customers’ internet searches in order to maximise profits, according to new research.

Dr Vivienne Waller, a social researcher at Swinburne University, believes Google is targeting advertisements at internet users based on searches they’ve made.

“In order to sell you stuff, they are tracking what you are searching,” she told a journalism class last week.

If an internet user has Gmail, Google can see what has been written in e-mails, using this to target specific advertisements to users.

According to Dr Waller, Google once kept its customers’ search terms for two years but after pressure from lobbyists Google is only able to keep details for six months.

“If you have (a) Google toolbar no matter what browser it is, they can track what you’re doing,” she said.

Dr Waller said that 99 percent of Google’s revenue is made through advertisements.

Every Google product is a vehicle for target-advertising. This includes Buzz (Google’s new social networking site), Google Books, Google Talk, Google Street View and Google Wave.

Google claims to make the advertisements relevant to each customer to provide a better experience, however Dr Waller urges consumers to be cautious of the implications and risks.

“Google are doing well financially now but there are concerns that if they weren’t doing so well, what they would do with their information in their database,” she said.

Dr Waller believes that people need to be educated about internet advertisements just as people were educated about television advertisements.

It is “unprecedented, people need to be aware of it… advertisements are the funding model of Facebook and Google.”

“Google is about organising information that is useful for advertisers,” she said.

Dr Waller believes that libraries see Google as a threat to reference services because instead of approaching a librarian for help, people may be more inclined to research online.

“Although it may seem that they’re about the same thing… libraries are about organising information and Google is all about searching the needs of advertisers,” she said.

However some librarians believe Google aid what they do.

Dr Waller is currently working on a research project with colleague Ian McShane and in partnership with the Victorian State Library.

The Google search engine started in the late 1990s as a university project at Stanford University and began as a non-profit organisation.

In Australia, Google has more than 80 percent market share, beating America with 75 percent and United Kingdom at 70 percent.

Stephanie Bellassai