MySpace will give users the option of whether they want to participate in a targeted advertising system that mines their profile's information, a senior company official said on Tuesday.
MySpace's HyperTargeting system will look at a person's interests listed on their public profile and then classify the user into particular interest-specific categories, said Travis Katz, senior vice president for MySpace International. Advertisers will then be able to target categories of users that may be most receptive to their campaigns, he said.
But in a nod to the growing concerns over how personal information is handled by social networks for advertising, people will be able to opt out, Katz said. MySpace will also not collect and store other personal information on users, he said.
HyperTargeting will first be rolled out in the U.S. and then likely to the U.K., he said. "We're still pretty early in the process," Katz said during a presentation at Internet World, a Web marketing and technology show, in London.
In preliminary tests, Katz said the HyperTargeting system resulted in a 300 percent increase in the number of click-throughs on an ad, one way that the success of a Web advertisement is measured.
Targeting ads to users based on their behavior and interests is seen as a precise way for advertisers to reach potential consumers, but privacy concerns abound, and advertisers face a potential backlash from users.
MySpace's ad technology comes from Strategic Data Corp. (SDC), a small company acquired by MySpace's parent company, News Corp. in early 2007. SDC specialized in ad placement technology.
Katz said MySpace is also developing a Web-based platform where advertisers can purchase ads without having to interact with a direct sales force, as is done now.
MySpace is making "lucrative" revenue right now, mostly through display and search ads, Katz said, but he did not offer any numbers. Mobile advertising so far is "small today but potentially huge in the future," he said.
With 200 million registered users worldwide, MySpace remains the top social networking site.
This whitepaper explains the terminology and concepts behind Data Replication technologies and establishes some sizing rules through worked examples. Learn the new paradigm in disaster tolerance—protect data anywhere.
Download now »
Server virtualization is a popular option for dealing with mounting datacenter costs. Another equally promising approach is the use of an Application Delivery Controller. Citrix NetScaler provides a low-cost way for organizations to reduce their server count and accrue cost savings from a reduction in space, cooling, power and personnel.
Download now »
The emergence of WLANs has created a new breed of security threats to enterprise networks.
Included in HP ProCurve WLAN solutions is security technology that alleviates threats from WLANs through:
* Monitoring wireless activity inside and out of the enterprise
* Classifying WLAN transmissions into harmful and harmless
* Preventing transmissions that pose a security threat to the enterprise network
* Locating participating devices for physical remediation
Effectively address data protection challenges, implementing solutions that help store and protect business–critical data while cutting costs and improving efficiency and reliability.
Download now »
Sign up to receive InfoWorld Resource Alerts
Recommend This
