Recently, I’ve had the opportunity to test a technology and read about a new one dedicated to putting more power in users hands to control the advertising they see on the Internet.  Consumers and privacy watch dogs are getting more and more concerned about information companies have for the purposes of targeting ads more effectively. At the same time, companies want to do a better job of making sure they are showing the right ads to the right audience and the audiences are receptive of the ads they’re being shown. These new technologies have benefits for both the consumers and corporations.  The consumers will be able to have more control over the ads shown to them, and companies will get more feedback about their ads so they are targeted and more effective.

AdMe is a company started by an ex Googler named Matt Ochsner. AdMe is actually an add-on to Firefox, which, once installed, will place a ‘Yes’ or a ‘No’ icon on display ads you see. If you click a ‘Yes’, you’re indicating to AdMe that you like that ad and would like to see ads similar to it. If you select ‘No’, that lets AdMe know that you no longer want to see ads from the company, nor ads similar to it. This easy-to-use, self-policing system puts a lot of power in the hands of consumers, while at the same time saving company’s lots of money by insuring they don’t show ads to uninterested people and allowing them to target ads to people that have indicated they want more.

A startup called Better Advertising, founded by Scott Meyer, a former executive at About.com, is another self-policing advertising technology. Their product is called Power Eye. Companies that employ the Power Eye solution will display a Power Eye icon in their display advertising. When a consumer mouses over the icon, they will see the data that was used to target the ad and have the option to opt-out of future targeting by those companies.

Given that I’m in the industry, I certainly would be curious to see an ad with Power Eye, so that I can discover what information was used to target that ad to me. I am not so sure that Joe Consumer would have as much interest in targeting data as I would. I am also curious about learning how I am perceived on the Internet. I have to imagine there will be many times where people are put into categories which they truly do not fit. I also wonder what affect this will have on the companies that display those ads. For example, I’m a male, age 35, but if Power Eye said I was being targeted in ad because I’m a woman over the age of 65, what would that make me think of the company that displayed that ad? Should I feel insulted or should I be concerned that my online behavior is indicative of a female over the age of 65?

I can certainly see how this type of technology can be a win-win for consumers and companies. Like with all things, adoption is the key. If consumers don’t use it, companies don’t learn anything new. It could be that these new technologies turn out to be just a preemptive strike against pending legislation trying to reduce the impact of online advertisers by limiting the amount of information they can know about consumers.

I encourage you to try AdMe, it’s a Firefox download, which is available at www.admeonline.com, and please let me know your thoughts.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 2nd, 2010 at 9:30 am and is filed under All Blogs, Attribution Management, News, Uncategorized, What's New?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.