I’m not entirely convinced the current trend of mixing up news and advertising, content and ads, is something I like; I mean, the New York Times does it well enough though:

I was working on a client’s project yesterday focusing on Google Video Ads and also read information on making ads and text integrate so visitors see the advertising as part of the story on the web page.

In the same vein, some TV / Cable broadcast commericals are almost indistinguishable from the regular programming they are placed around making it harder to filter the “noise” out.

Mixing it all up as other implications - since we’ve all experienced the hazy lines between work life and home life - between what you say in person and what you say or write on line, and what you say about yourself vs what others say about you.

The “Editorial” ad about “Stop Switching to Mac!”, while entertaining, is an example of an effective ad, but it lowers the quality of the news around it.  I can understand the economic pressures the New York Times, and other Newspapers, are experiencing at this time, though I question how much tolerance a person looking for news is going to have for a continual assault of  video advertising interfering with reading the news stories.

I don’t know, but do you think the New York Times will end up looking like your own personal MySpace.com page - but for everyone?

I’m sure all the best analytics is being used to figure out just what ads to show, and the best advertisers are lining up for an opportunity to run their ads on the home page of the New York Times, but this new development of making the ads become part of the news is probably going to make me visit the site less, not more.

While I would not call comScore software "SpyWare", exactly, the way that Sears and KMart decided to use it - and how they didn't inform visitors to their site they wre being tracked (by installing the comScore tracking software without realizing it) does constitute an invasion of privacy.  Big mistake.

According to Ars Technica's Jacqui Cheng - Sears: Come see the softer side of spyware:

 "…late last year, Sears.com and Kmart.com began asking users if they wanted to participate in a "community" online (presumably a community made up of Sears and Kmart aficionados). In late December, security researcher Benjamin Googins at Computer Associates noticed, however, that the "community" actually installed software from comScore, a market research firm, in order to track the web activities of the sites' visitors.

Googins stated on his company's blog that Sears had installed spyware which transmitted everything—"including banking logins, email, and all other forms of Internet usage"—to comScore for analysis. This was all allegedly done with no notice that anything was being installed, and it ran contrary to documentation about the community that said any data collected would stay within Sears' hands at all times.

"

The funny thing is …. all of this would have OK if people opted in - if that, indeed, was what they chose to do (be tracked) - but that's not what they thought they were doing when the opted in to a online community (that apparently never really materialized… all they ended up opting into was comScore tracking their every move).

Someone at Sears / K-Mart ought to go to jail for this - it just takes a couple of bad apples to give the whole Web Measurement field a bad reputation - and that's what this situation does - make people even more reactive to getting rid of all cookies (they see cookies as spyware … it's not) - but given the way some sites like Sears and K-Mart are acting - I can almost agree that one can't be too careful, or make any assumptions that sites that collect information are doing it in a way that's non-harmful to you (that helps you).   Most of the time, I would think, the opposite - even though it's not true - most of the time, tracking is just to find out how to make the site better, give the customer what they want faster and better.

Too bad some people use measurement tools the wrong way. 

Plus One Analytics has an excellent post on something I totally missed out hearing at last month's Emetrics Summit in DC or this week's Ad-Tech NYC 07 where behavioral targeted ads are now using data from ISPs to track users and server ads wherever they go on the web, not just in an Advertisers' network.

"..NebuAd, on the other hand, partners with ISPs so it can observe consumers no matter where they travel across the web. It collects that data and uses it to serve targeted advertising based on where else the consumer has shown interest."

I always suspected this could be done.

If 2007 is the year when everyone starts their own Social Networks (major corporations, that is - but also organizations like our very own Web Analytics Association - that will still be starting one of our own) than 2008 will be the year when everyone has their own Ad Network.

For example - Techcrunch just posted that MySpace will Announce Self-Serve Hyper Targeted Advertising Network at Ad-Tech today:

"…MySpace will announce plans to introduce a new advertising platform, “SelfServe by MySpace,” at Ad:Tech Monday. The service itself will launch to a limited set of advertisers in the next sixty days.

The nearly $1 billion Google search deal signed last year is not affected by this product. Google handles search and text ads only; the new MySpace platform is for display ads on profile pages.

SelfServe by MySpace will allow advertisers to directly purchase, create (see screen shot below) and analyze the performance of ads throughout the MySpace network, in a similar fashion to Google AdWords (although the MySpace platform is for building display ads, not text ads). MySpace will be the first of the big social networking sites to announce an advertising product such as this, with Facebook said to be announcing a similar service Tuesday.

The new tool will enable users to select from a number of ad targeting factors such as geographic, demographic, and various user interest categories. The service will be ready for use by early 2008. The minimum advertisement purchase size is $10; pricing will be based on a click to the advertiser’s profile and will be auction based once it gets going (to start things off, MySpace will charge a fixed CPC based on the category)."

"….MySpace uses proprietary technology to build a detailed profile of each user and their friends, including age, gender, location and interests. Much of this information is pulled contextually from the profile itself (that’s where the secret sauce is). So, for example, MySpace may have a very good idea that a user is not only a sports fan, but the specific sport the user loves as well as the teams and even players he or she follows closely. There are over 300 subcategories for movie lovers alone. "

And Facebook is about to launch a very similar type of service - just aimed at Facebook users and announced two weeks ago - is supposed to be launched this Tuesday (tomorrow) according to Mashable  in Facebook Ad Network Coming November 6th? where the Facebook Ad Network Might Look Like

"….Microsoft and Facebook collaboration on advertising that extends outside of Facebook’s walled garden. As Nick O’Neill speculates, this would entail Facebook utilizing cookies to feed up advertisements around the Web based on a user’s profile data. For example, if you’ve listed in your profile that one of your favorite bands is Coldplay, you might see an ad for their CD or concert tickets when browsing a random web site like ESPN. And who might sell these ads? Microsoft, who already has access to tens of thousands of advertisers through a variety of online advertising initiatives within the software giant’s online offerings. "

And it's pointed out the marketshare for third party ad networks is HUGH …

"…the market for third-party ad networks is huge. In its most recent quarter, 29% of Google’s revenue ($1.22 billion) came from ads placed on third-party sites. Meanwhile, the potential Facebook model of ads based on a user’s profile data could offer significantly better ads than the algorithm approach of AdSense, which matches ads based on the content of a given Web page. Thus, Facebook’s network could feature higher CPMs, and thus lure publishers away from AdSense. "

So now we're seeing the real reason for Google's OpenSocial initiative - Social Networks, by their nature - have much better information on users than Search Engines do (unless you want to tap into Google 18 month Search and Web History - but if that's done - it will significantly alter the AdWords / AdSense pricing model - though I will argue - taking the plunge into fully targeted ads is  one of the next logical steps for Google and therefore, increase the relevancy and accuracy of their advertising by introducing it's own behavioral targeting based on what it already has - your history - including the DoubleClick data).

Ok, so who else is building, or has built their own Ad Networks lately - we know Microsoft already has with AdCenter and Yahoo redid their Ad Network and called it Panama (with mixed results) - what other Ad Networks launched recently or will launch?

RockYou launches Facebook ad network - this was announced last summer while on Friday, November 2nd, TechCrunch announced - Ok Here’s At Least Part Of What Facebook Is Announcing On Tuesday: Project Beacon while Mobile Social Ad Networks will also become more common in 2008.  Already Gofresh Launched World’s First Mobile Social Ad-Network in September 2007.

Meanwhile, today, BuzzLogic Launches Dynamic Targeted Ad Network 

"…BuzzLogic is launching a new Ad Targeting feature today at the ad:tech Interactive Marketing Conference in New York.

The new ad targeting lets advertisers isolate blogs and social media conversations that are going on around specific conversations about products, brands and issues. This offers a way of presented targeted ads towards the audiences and users involved in these online conversations."

Actually, I knew about BuzzLogic's new Ad platform last week (but not all the details of it that will be disclosed today) - I think the way it works is that you target a conversation via Buzzlogic with now has a backend to Google AdWords - BuzzLogic determines which blogs are the most relevant for your ad, which blogs are the most "influential" and then automatically streams your ads to those blogs - which a much higher click-through and conversion rate (so they say)  - but we'll see more once it's unv
eiled to the world.

But here's the point of all of this - the world is now ready for go for behavioral targeting - particularly with Social Networks - and every major Social Network, including Mobile Social Networks - will want to roll their on Ad Network based on this - and that is part of what is going to be remembered in 2008 - that everyone wants their own targeted Ad Network and most will launch theirs between now and sometime next year.

Perhaps we should just call the new Ad Networks "Social Targeting" with Behavioral Targeting's Role Broadens in Social Networking with Social network profiles containing a wealth of information about individual members that informs and predicts actual purchasing behaviors.

How the Do Not Track List for Behavioral Ads - Feedback from the FTC plays into all of the new behavioral Ad Networks based around Social Networks - remains to be seen - and that will continue to be a hot topic in Washington though next year.

Turns out the FCC wants behavioral advertisers to police themselves or else the FTC will do it for them - and I don't think any advertiser really wants that - according to FTC to Web Advertisers: Police Yourselves, or We’ll Do it For You in TechCrunch today.

According to an article on Reuters published on November 2nd about FTC says Internet ad self-regulation falling short

…"People should have dominion over their computers," he said. "We really mean it."

He left open the possibility of a "do not track" list, similar to the FTC's "do not call" registry which requires telemarketers to refrain from phoning anyone on the list. Such a "do not track" list was proposed this week by several consumer and privacy groups.

"I am concerned … when my personal information is sold to third parties and when my online (research) is tracked across several Web sites," said Leibowitz, one of two Democrats on the five-member commission.

But several other speakers at the FTC conference cautioned against any government regulation.

Randall Rothenberg, president of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, warned against inadvertently stifling one of the most dynamic sectors of the U.S. economy."

I think the last thing anyone wants to have government policing behavioral advertising though there's a need for some kind of standards to be put in place - probably because the government will have problems keeping up with the technology to make the right decisions.

On one hand, better targeting of ads and content to what we're interested in based on our behavior is what we want - what everyone should really want - and yet, it's also an issue of privacy and of opting out that has not really been dealt with.  Ideally, you want to send the message the industry will come up with a good solution and police themselves - but in practice, that's often hard to do. 

On the other hand, when the government gets involved, the results might be draconian - and no one really wants that - so hopefully, well get a Do Not Track list easily that is provided by Behavioral Targeting firms.

But we'll see what happens in the next year or two.

Yesterday I heard about the "Do Not Track List" being the First Shot in the Behavioral Targeting Wars from Steve Rubel:

"…Right now, the marketers can really dabble a lot and perhaps even blur the line with what's ethical. I am not saying they are nor am I condoning it. However, since this level of behavioral targeting is relatively new, the unwritten ethics rules - in theory - could be bent since a lot of consumers aren't paying a lot of attention - yet. Plus, of course, they benefit from more relevant ads.

That's all about to change. It's clear the FTC is concerned about user privacy. That's why they're hosting hearings next week."

AOL, being proactive, and also stealing some Thunder from the FTC will allow you To Opt Out Of Behavioral Ads? AOL Says It Is Your Choice. 

"…AOL Will Let Consumers Opt Out of Targeted Ads from the Wall Street Journal reports that AOL will announce today a new tool that will enable AOL users to opt out of targeted or personalized ads. (NOTE: The AOL announcement is now live).

AOL has behavioral ad technology that stores consumer's preferences and then tailors ads based on the sites users visits. AOL is expected to announce a system that will give these users the ability to opt out of those ads. "

The AOL announcement, titled - AOL Launches Innovative Privacy Education Program For Behaviorally Targeted Advertising claims it can get it's educational message about opting out of behavioral targeting to up to 91% of the US online audience:

"…the program will deliver millions of public service banner ads across AOL's owned-and-operated and third-party networks, which together reach more than 91% of the U.S. online audience. AOL also announced a substantial improvement to the current opt-out process by expanding the use of patent-pending technology developed by TACODA, a leading behavioral targeting solutions company that AOL acquired earlier this year.

“Our goal with this program is to engender greater trust for targeted advertising by communicating with consumers in a more visible way, and by providing them more information about their choices,” said Curt Viebranz, President of Platform-A. “AOL believes that doing more to explain to users the choices they have over the way their data is used, and helping them exercise those preferences will help them feel more in control.”

I'm told that now, if you opt out of any behavioral targeting your being monitored for, your opt-out is often lost and tracking is reapplied at a later date; that won;t be as likely with the new AOL system:

"…Today, users who opt-out of behavioral targeting by using an opt-out cookie risk having their preference lost if they later delete their cookies.  TACODA leverages a Web cache technique to preserve a consumers' opt-out choice even if they delete their browser cookies, something other opt-out systems cannot currently do. AOL is also exploring opportunities to license this technology on a royalty-free basis for use exclusively in consumer privacy protection programs. "

Whaa….. AOL Buys Tacoda Behavioral Targeting Network took be by surprise today!  Not that it should surprise me that AOL would buy a Behavioral Targeting Network, as reported by Conversionrater, but that it would buy something similar to what it already had in the Behavioral Targeting at Advertising.com:

"..AOL just made the next move in the chess match with the acquisition of behavioral targeting display network Tacoda.

It’s definitely and interesting move as AOL already owns the largest display ad network in Advertising.com, which is also known to have behavioral targeting capabilities. This would lead me to believe that Tacoda’s behavioral targeting is superior than Advertising.com’s, or that AOL was simply after more advertisers, publishers, and people. Most likely it’s a combination of both."

It must be inventory related - as noted in Conversionrater:

"… As venture capitalist Brad Burnham says on the Union Square Ventures blog:

That said, the combination of TACODA’s seasoned management, technology, database, and experience with behavioral targeting and AOL Time Warner’s reach as a media company and (through Advertising.com) as an ad network, could become the foundation for creating the dominant display ad network on the Internet."

My guess is that all the independent behavioral display ad networks will end up being bought up by bigger companies fairly quickly.  Read/Write Web also has a writeup about AOL Acquires Behavioral Targeting Firm Tacoda by Josh Catone which has a little more information about the purchase.  Also, GigaOM suggests that there is a massive consolidation of the ad-network market going on just now - TACODA, AOL’s Buzzword Buyout.