On Monday, Claria (formerly known as the adware company Gator) released the beta version of its PersonalWeb, which will be an Internet tracking application that uses behavioral targeting to deliver relevant ads and content to their subscribers’ personalized homepages. The application is downloadable, and will offer users the option of choosing e-mail programs, search engines, RSS feeds, and other applications and content they want to see on their PersonalWeb homepage.
PersonalWeb will continually gather information on a user’s online behavior, using that information to continuously tweak the content and contextual ads that are relayed to the user’s computer screen.
The one major difference between PersonalWeb and similar services offered by Google, Yahoo!, and MSN is that the links on a PersonalWeb homepage will move up and down based on what the application’s algorithm deems to be most appropriate. The application also gives users the option of pausing it, which will prevent the application from tracking their online behavior.
According to Scott Eagle, chief marketing officer at Claria, PersonalWeb will not show any ads “if we don’t have a relevant ad to show you.”
Though PersonalWeb faces stiff competition from the Internet giants mentioned above, the one distinct benefit that it has to offer is the elimination of do-it-yourself personalization. In other words, with PersonalWeb’s downloadable application, the personalization is automated, potentially offering users a more seamless and easy experience.
Claria plans on running online ads to promote the application throughout April, and in June they hope to unveil private-label versions of PersonalWeb which will be branded by individual publisher sites and promoted to its readers.
In response to fears that PersonalWeb is just another adware program, Eagle says that unlike adware, PersonalWeb will not display ads outside the bounds of the specific application, regardless of whether or not the ads are targeted.
Related to this, Claria said in a statement that its proprietary algorithm software, RelevancyRank, does not collect and utilize a subscriber’s personal data, but only analyzes it anonymously.
Sources:
http://news.com.com/Claria+releases+
PersonalWeb+beta/2110-1032_3-6056927.html
http://www.clickz.com/news/article.php/
3595996
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