RE: FW: Claria releases PersonalWeb

["Jonathan Poon" <Jonathan.Poon () microsoft com>]

I thought this was yet another remake of the Police's classic Every
Breath You Take. 8)
 

________________________________

From: funsec-bounces () linuxbox org [mailto:funsec-bounces () linuxbox org]
On Behalf Of Richard M. Smith
Sent: Monday, April 03, 2006 8:21 AM
To: funsec () linuxbox org
Subject: [funsec] FW: Claria releases PersonalWeb


http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/03/business/03ecom.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&;
pagewanted=print&oref=slogin
 
April 3, 2006
E-Commerce Report

Every Click You Make, They'll Be Watching You 

By BOB TEDESCHI

WOULD you trust a company enough to let it follow your every click
online?

Claria, a company once vilified for raining pop-up advertisements across
the Internet through its Gator software, is betting its business that
the answer is yes. Claria said it would announce Monday the release of
PersonalWeb, a service that will let people download a piece of tracking
software and receive a home page filled with news stories and other
information tailored to their interests.

If a man, for example, downloaded the software and surfed through
stories about the N.C.A.A.
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/nat
ional_collegiate_athletic_assn/index.html?inline=nyt-org>  basketball
tournament and car reviews, his PersonalWeb home page would reflect
those interests the next time he clicked to it. In addition to showing
newer headlines about cars and college basketball, the page might also
feature ads from car companies or for jerseys from the man's favorite
team.

Claria says that because those ads are so closely aligned to the user's
interests and recent behavior, marketers will be willing to pay more
than they might on other sites for the ability to reach PersonalWeb
users. 

That part of Claria's plan is convincing enough for some analysts, and
privacy advocates appear satisfied that Claria will stand by its pledge
to track only the computer (whose owner it does not identify), not the
personal information of the user. Whether many consumers will use the
service anyway - and give marketers an audience worth pursuing - is the
big question.

"I'm not convinced that consumers will place enough of a value on
personalization that they'll be willing to download a piece of software
and change their home page just to try it," said Kenneth Cassar, an
analyst with Nielsen/NetRatings, an Internet consultancy. "And it
remains to be seen whether Claria's personalization will yield something
that much better than the typical home page of today."

...

 

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