Author Archives: admin

Why Do You Click?

Everyone who deals with online marketing spends time thinking about “Attribution Analysis” – who actually gets the credit for a sale?  Was it PPC, was it a display ad, was is search?  Affiliates?  The position of Jupiter and Venus?

Actually, in addition to a bunch of online-marketing related drivers (and planetary positioning), there’s a huge list of factors about us as human beings that’s often missed.

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Amazon – 85% irrelevant?

Amazon probably knows more about me than any other online retailer – just due to sheer number of times I’ve shopped there.  Also, they have been in the “personalization” game longer than most, and have pumped serious money behind making their site and product suggestions better. 

So when I log into Amazon, I should be getting “Peak Relevance” (btw,  I just made that term up) - in other words, the state-of-the-art of content that appeals to me.  Hit up the break to see how well I think they’ve done…

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When did you last read the Google Privacy Policy?

I’ve previously written about about my fundamental believe that most people don’t care about privacy – unless we remind them they should care.  I’ve also agreed that doesn’t equate to having a free ride with people’s privacy.  I’d be the first to object.  But every so often, I get a another piece of evidence that tips the scales in favor of my theory…

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I’m not a number!

Alex Kelleher, citizen #5948263917322

The US government is pitching that consumers online will benefit from having secure IDs, to “conduct business safely online”.

Cunningly calling it the “National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace”, the government is at pains to point out that it is a public-private partnership. Oh great, so that means it will be outsourced to Google…

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Browser Wars and Targeting

Browser-based targeting has reached new lows.  It seems Microsoft and Google are now locked in a death-battle to the extent that their best targeting indicator is “he is currently using my browser“.

Microsoft first caught my attention today, with what was a vaguely amusing “Google sucks at HTML 5.0, we however rock” banner, demonstrating that MS is better at animating fish, apparently.  It raised a smile, partly because, full disclosure, I’m reasonably supportive of the turnaround at MS.

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