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Wednesday, March 20, 2002 |
 Are you being tracked while online? The first generation of firms that tracked Web usage took a panel-based approach (like Nielsen TV ratings) -- Media Metrix, NetRatings, and PC Data. The people in the panels knew they were being tracked. These next gen firms do it on the sly.
For example: New Boston-based firm Compete gathers data on clickstreams and user behavior. This is how they get their data (I don't see anything about opt-ins):
>>>"With access to over 9 million Internet users, Compete has created the foremost pool of consumers in the industry. Compete partners with multiple browser plug-ins and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to ensure that our panel of consumers accurately represents the Internet population of at-work, at-home, and broadband users."<<<
Another firm comScore uses third party software such as download doublers by shell firms to insert its spyware.
>>>We are currently adding tens of thousands of new members a day to our network by offering a compelling value proposition to entice consumers to join:
- Doubling of download speed
- Attractive sweepstake prizes
- Opportunity to impact and improve the Internet
- Total anonymity of personal information
- No targeted ads or intrusion
- Minimal membership requirements <<<
To date, I haven't seen a deeply researched investigative report in the major media about this. Seems to me that this type of research is exactly what makes major media different than blogging. As a blogger, I can point out a situation like this because I am very familiar with the space (to an extent a domain expert), but to dig up the details, interviews, etc (all the stuff that makes a story in a great newspaper excellent), a pro is going to need to do it. When I read the article in the NYT on Sunday, about the blow by blow behind Andersen's corporate-wide document destruction in order to avoid fines associated with Enron, I was in awe. Granted, not every article is that good, but when it is, it's excellent.
11:07:56 PM 
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News.com Interview with Dale Gass from PhotoPoint. A blow by blow on the events that occur when a centralized service goes poof! It happens fast, the energy of the founders to help their customers is exhausted, and people lose their files.
Explaining their plan to charege people $24.95 to send people their photos: >>>"Pantellic (PhotoPoint's parent company) is not trying to "double bill" people. Pantellic is insolvent, and I am just trying to find ways for people to get their photos back and possibly find a new home for their online photo-sharing experience. "<<< My advice: keep a copy of all of your files and content on your desktop.
5:25:14 PM
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Full news feeds from the NYT for Radio users. Excellent. Now, if your company or organization uses Radio, you can get all the headlines from the NYT delivered to every desktop. Nice. Exactly what every employee needs to keep on top of what is going on in the world.
12:38:01 PM
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The Register and #2. Microsoft pays the strategy tax on Mira. Instead of making it a portable screen that enables a single beefy PC able to server multiple users via XP profiles. It is moving to make Mira more of a stand-alone portable device based on CE. Yuk. I love the concept of an interface anywhere approach to the next generation of PCs.
The Register's take on why this product is mutating: >>>'Good grief,' thinks the Microsoft licensing department when it sees the spec. 'This is a thin client, a Network Computer, we must put a stop to this.' 'Good grief,' thinks the OEM sales department. 'This will cannibalise our PC sales. We must put a stop to it.' So it isn't, and it doesn't. For now, anyway. <<<
12:09:08 PM
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CNN. Killer asteroid comes within 266,000 miles of earth. 70 m long asteroid could have unleashed a 4 Megaton blast. Of course, if it had an iron core, I suspect the blast would be much, much larger.
11:43:34 AM
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© Copyright 2004 John Robb.
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