> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On
> Behalf Of The Fool
...
> http://whitedot.org/issue/iss_story.asp?slug=shortSpyTV
>
> Found this longish article about spyware (in particular set top boxes),
> and how they are used to monitor your behavior. I find that most of what
> the article talked about can be equally applied to the Internet.
Such capabilities were touted as a reason that advertisers would pay more
for Internet advertising, but to the surprise of most, it hasn't happened.
Despite the fact that Internet services tend to know far more about their
customers than passive media, that information doesn't seem to have made
advertising any more efficient. All it really seems to have done is taken
*some* of the mystery out of who's reading your ads, but unless that results
in more sales per advertising dollar (which it generally hasn't), no one
cares.
This supports the idea that most advertising creates demand, rather than
responding to existing wants and needs. I wonder if the enormous trend
toward ever more vertical publications over the last few decades has had any
real impact on advertising efficiency.
If there's anything very disturbing about this capability, it's that it
might drive the evolution of information systems in a direction that favors
established market leaders by marginalizing truly different points of view.
On the other hand, it's hard to imagine a worse situation than the mass
media before the Internet (with the possible exception of Europe in the 16th
century).
Nick
