---
title: "Innovation, Imagination, Creativity – Google VP of Search Products Tells Story of Gmail"
date: 2007-10-26
description: "$( document ).ready(function() { // Handler for .ready() called. $("
canonical_url: https://idratherbewriting.com/2007/10/26/innovation-imagination-creativity-google-vp-of-search-products-talks-to-iinovate-podcasters/
---
# Innovation, Imagination, Creativity – Google VP of Search Products Tells Story of Gmail
What's most interesting is the story behind Gmail, specifically how Marissa almost killed its ad integration. Apparently one of the coders -- despite the request from Marissa to stop trying to integrate ads -- stayed up all night (literally until 7 a.m.) finishing the ad integration.

He downloaded an open source semantic analyzer from the web that extracted one or two keywords from an email message; he then ran those keywords against ads in Google's ad database. The ads with matching keyword criteria then appear in the sidebar of your email.

Below is a screenshot from my Gmail showing this ad integration.

![Gmail ad integration](https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/idbwmedia.com/images/gmail21.png)

At first Marissa felt the integration of context-sensitive ads with Gmail was invasive and a bit creepy in terms of privacy. She told the coder to stop working on the ad integration and almost told him to remove what he'd spent all night integrating.