Interest-based advertising beta announced for the content network

Google announced it would let a limited group of advertisers reach content network users based on their interests or past interactions with the advertiser's site, independent of the page they were reading. Interest categories such as sports enthusiasts were offered, with wider availability planned later in 2009.

Alongside the beta Google introduced the Ads Preferences Manager so users could view and edit the interest categories assigned to them. This trial led to the remarketing launch in March 2010.