Continuing its bid to rely more on advertising as Internet access subscriptions plummet, AOL said Tuesday it was buying a company that delivers targeted ads based on a visitor's browsing habits.
AOL, the online unit of Time Warner Inc., said the acquisition of Tacoda Inc. would help advertisers run more relevant pitches. Visitors who read a lot on new car models, for instance, might suddenly find automotive ads follow them to Web pages on baseball.
Tacoda uses data files called cookies to track the topics of interest to a specific visitor, be it a sport, a make of car or a geographic location.
Behavioral targeting has become increasingly common, even if many users aren't aware of it. Targeting has long been a holy grail for Web sites, though until recently neither the technology was well enough developed nor the audiences particularly defined.
The research company eMarketer projects that spending on behavioral targeting will nearly double to $1 billion next year and hit $3.8 billion by 2011.
Source: MercuryNews
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