Using Technology To Deliver Online Advertising

Have you had the experience of going to a website and seeing an ad on it that is about something you were researching the day or even week before?

You may initially get freaked out by it because it looks like Big Brother is watching you. But it really is just the electrons in your computer noticing the things that you like while you browse the internet and then presenting you with offers that match what you like. It's all done automatically and anonymously by software algorithms and none of your personal information gets stored.

It's like one of the scripts that we offer on JavaFile.com that automatically displays the current date. If you use this script, you're trying to present the best possible experience for your visitors.

The holy grail in advertising is to present the exact product or service at the exact time that a potential buyer is wanting to purchase it. This technology allows them to do that in ways that have never been seen before.

Google has been using this technology for awhile now and the reason it works is because of the wide-spread usage of their Adwords and Adsense programs. When you visit a website that has Google ads running on it, an anonymous cookie is placed on your computer that makes note of your interests based on the web pages you visit.

One British company that is hoping to make this technology available to a wider audience is Phorm, who have an interest-based advertising platform that they're partnering with ISP's on. The idea is that this will give ISP's an additional revenue source (accessing part of the $72.5 Billion online advertising pie) and will greatly enhance their users' experience. Plus, it's completely opt-in, so if anyone is dead-set against getting perfect advertising offers delivered to them automatically, they can just not opt in.

The well-respected technology website, Techcrunch.com, has a sister site named Crunchbase.com which is a free database of technology companies, people, and investors, that, like wikipedia.org, lets anyone edit the content. They have an entry for Phorm at http://www.crunchbase.com/company/phorm

Criticized in the past about privacy concerns, Phorm has taken the bull by the horns and implemented a security component to their product that warns users when they visit a website that have had reports of either running scams or installing malware on unsuspecting visitors' computers.

Online advertising agencies have become extremely sensitive to the fact that while internet users want a good online experience, they are also concerned that their personal information will be transferred to sites they're visiting. The technology that companies like Phorm are implementing hope to allay those fears while also providing the best possible personalized content to their users.

Here's an infographic of their system: