Fergie's Tech Blog

Advertisers Follow the Traces Left Behind by Internet Users

Saul Hansell writes in The News York Times:

If you use Yahoo’s Web search engine to learn about hybrid cars, the site will quietly note that you fit into a group of users it calls “Consciously Cruising.”

If you click on ads for moving van companies, you will join the “Home Hopping” group. Shop for wedding cakes and reception halls and you might be tagged as a future bride or groom.

Earlier this year, Yahoo introduced a computer system that uses complex models to analyze records of what each of its 500 million users do on its site: what they search for, what pages they read, what ads they click on. It then tries to show them advertisements that speak directly to their interests and the events in their lives.

Yahoo and the many other companies building similar systems say the systems are benign because they typically do not collect personal information like names and addresses.

posted by Fergie @ 8/14/2006 07:20:00 PM