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:
