14 DAY TRIAL // BT, TalkTalk and Virgin Media are just a few of the UK companies that are considering introducing a new advertising system online, meant to cash in on the surfing habits of approximately 11 million Britons. The new website will basically create a private profile for each and every user, which will contain information about his or her browsing habits. Based on that list, only relevant ads will be generated on the Web pages they visit, in a move the companies hope will bring them more money.
The new service, hosted by some of Britain's largest Internet companies, could go online as soon as this year. Proponents say that the new method of surveying shopping tastes will be far less intrusive into people's online actions than those currently employed, which involve the search engines (such as Google and Yahoo!) creating their own lists of what users are looking for.
They also say that only certain websites will display the relevant ads, and that the system will not affect all the Internet addresses the 11 million people visit on a regular basis.
Representatives from Phorm, the US company behind the initiative and the design of the new system, say that the real names and locations of individuals influenced by this advertising method will not be linked in any way to their anonymous online shopping profile. Furthermore, they maintain, the names of the Web surfers will not be centralized into some database to later be sold to third-party advertisers.
The Webwise advertising technique will ensure that ISPs also get a piece of the online market, which is currently estimated to be at £28 billion (roughly $40 billion). At the same time, the privacy of the users will be respected, as the relevant data is collected anonymously, just like in a scientific survey.
But the most important thing is that individuals will have the chance to decline being a part of the new system. Those who would like having relevant ads displayed to them when they visit certain sites could surely welcome Webwise, while those valuing their privacy over anything else will most likely turn down the service.
Maybe the new system will put an end to practices such as those employed by Google's Gmail, which scans the content of clients' e-mails in order to provide advertisers with much-needed keywords. Thus, ads are generated on the Web page where the e-mail is displayed even before the message is sent or received. Many people find this to be a real nuisance, and fear the anonymity of their messages.