February 11, 2006
Paying by choosing — learning user interests to enhance site value
In his blog EconoMeta Adam Marsh examines the “deal” between websites and readers — content is free and advertising funds the site. Marsh points out that selling advertising depends on accurately targeting an audience, and an audience forms when content serves the interests of readers. Thus advertising and serving content to readers have a tight bidirectional relationship. That relationship depends, in both directions, upon knowing audience interest.
Audience interest can be approached from two ends: group and individual. Google starts with the group; it sorts search hits by aggregating everyones’ opinions (as expressed by their links). At Peerworks we are working from the opposite end, developing technology to help each individual teach the system what he or she is personally interested in. We do this by aggregating information about what a reader has found interesting in the past.
Knowing a reader’s preferences lets a site show them interesting content, but it also lets the site show them more precisely targeted ads, presumably generating more income and quite possibly making the user happier.
A more profitable site can offer better content. But for this circle to be virtuous, a website must provide readers with ways to understand and control the information that is collected about their interests, and must assure them that information cannot be shared or sold without their permission.
Filed by Jed Harris at 3:54 pm under Web ecology