Google Lets You Target Yourself
The latest in targeted online ads is targeting yourself. Google AdSense, like other online ad services, uses user interests, demonstrated by his/her web site browsing history, to target ads on other web pages. Cookies in a consumer’s browser indicate the users’ browsing history and, by inference, his//her interests. Google will place each user into one of 600 subcategories of interests.
Google Lets You Target Yourself
The latest in targeted online ads is targeting yourself. Google AdSense, like other online ad services, uses user interests, demonstrated by his/her web site browsing history, to target ads on other web pages. Cookies in a consumer’s browser indicate the users’ browsing history and, by inference, his//her interests. Google will place each user into one of 600 subcategories of interests.
Google’s new wrinkle is that soon users will be able to go to Google’s Ad Preferences Manager and see how they are categorized. Then, the user can edit these preferences, adding or deleting interests to make the ads more relevant. When a user goes to the trouble of modifying his/her profile that information can then be figured into the algorithm to categorize other people with similar patterns.
Clever? Scary? Efficient? Customized? Targeted? Inevitable? You decide.
DRM Free Comes With Music?
Previously, we’ve discussed Nokia’s “Comes With Music” initiative, a phone that comes with a music subscription. The catch is that the music is DRM-protected and the service is only offered on a limited number of handsets, available so far only in the UK and Singapore. Sales have been underwhelming to this point, so now Nokia is starting to make noise about offering a DRM-free version.
Now the phone maker is reportedly in discussions with the labels to offer a DRM-free version. The problem is that this would open up Pandora’s Box by allowing users to transfer music from their phone and computer onto other devices. However, the proposition is already eroding with music stores like iTunes moving to DRM-free MP#s, as well as the availability of other smartphones that currently allow owners to load their existing music onto their phones.
Time Warner’s “TV Everywhere”
Cable TV giant Time Warner is in talks with content providers to take a big step in its on-demand services, with a new service called “TV Everywhere.” This move would untether the content from the traditional TV set-top box. Time Warner wants to provide on-demand access via the Internet or mobile for customers that subscribe to premium content.
This means that a subscriber who has cable access to HBO, and can receive much of it on demand already through their Time Warner box, would also be able to get hat content on demand over a PC or mobile device. Time Warner is already testing this service in Milwaukee and is looking to expand it later this year.
Growth of Mobile News Access
ComScore, a digital measurement company, released a new study on March 16th that shows that the number of people who access news and information on their mobile device has grown 107% from January '08 to January '09. The weekly growth is up 87% and the monthly increase was 71%.
One of the faster growing categories was social networking via a mobile device which grew 427% from 1,761,000 last January to 9,278,000 this year. People are becoming much more comfortable with their mobile devices doing everything from using it for GPS to performing financial transactions. In fact was a 188% increase in people trading stocks with their mobile devices from year to year. Click here to read the full study.
Radio’s Online Lifeline
Where would radio be without online sales? Even though online sales continue to be a small part of US radio’s total revenue, the segment did grow in 2008, a year when overall revenue fell more than 10%. Leading the way for radio’s off-air revenues are in-stream audio and pre-roll video ads. According to the RAB, radio’s online sales increased 7% in ’08, jumping to a total of $1.8 billion. RAB president/CEO Jeff Haley says that $2 billion for 2009 is a realistic goal for the industry. Growth may even accelerate as radio increasingly reaches mobile platforms.
