Remember Google’s interest-based advertising? You know, where they serve you ads based on your browsing history, and allow advertisers to behaviorally target users? It has now rolled out on a mass scale after a two-year beta run. All advertisers can …

Today Microsoft launched a mobile behavioral targeting solution. This means the same behavioral targeting elements used on Microsoft’s online properties are available to buyers of the company’s mobile display ad inventory.

Today a group of key trade groups released comprehensive privacy principles for use and collection of behavioral data in online advertising. These are self-regulatory principles to protect consumer privacy in ad-supported interactive media that will require advertisers and Web sites to clearly inform consumers about data collection practices and enable them to exercise control over that information.

Google has announced the launch of "Interest-based" advertising as a beta test for the company’s partner sites and on YouTube. In other words, Google will be serving ads based on sites users visit.

Truste Has released the findings of a very interesting survey it conducted regarding behavioral targeting. It turns out that consumers’ comfort level with the concept is going up.

British Telecom began some ISP-based behavioral ad targeting testing today. Before privacy enthusiasts freak out, it’s on an opt-in basis…so far.

"Around 10,000 customers will be invited to opt in to the trial when they commence their browsing session. We will issue invitations at random," said British Telecom.

Reaching the right customer with a classifieds placement may be the province of tighter behavioral targeting, rather than waiting for someone to search for what they want.

Any ad server can drop an advertisement in front of an Internet user, but AlmondNet wants that opportunity to be relevant as well as timely.

Google’s behavioral targeting is an inevitability and, in one form, a current practice. People are aware of personalized results when logged into their accounts, and certainly retail sites are aware of what you’re checking out. But a recent forum poster reports Google’s apparent knowledge of what he was doing off-site.

And the thought of that is a little unnerving.

Yahoo has signed a deal with Wal-Mart under which Yahoo will start selling display advertising on Wal-Mart.

Since not every single one gets clicked on, Google’s ads might be considered less than perfect.  A new patent application would make behavioral targeting a central part of improving them.

Privacy is Only Part of the Problem

Behavioral targeting (BT) has been around since the first dotcom days. In late 2007 it rose to fame again thanks to a few big promoters like Facebook; and in early 2008 it ignited a firestorm of debate that continues to unfold before us each day. But what is it, what does it claim to do and why the surrounding debate?

One New York assemblyman, Richard L. Brodsky, has drafted a bill that would make it a crime — punishable by a fine to be determined — for certain Web companies to use personal information about consumers for advertising without their consent.
There are essentially two main things in this bill

Some people know about behavioral targeting, and some people don’t.  To educate this second group (and perhaps make the first feel less threatened), AOL intends to explain the practice with a cartoon penguin.

Just before holidays a colleague of mine asked me if Amazon and Toys"R" Us were involved in behavioral targeting.

He told me that he did a search for Lego on ToysRUs and a few days later when he visited Amazon, he saw Lego featured on the home page. He said that he had never did any search for Lego on Amazon.

I looked at the code on ToysRUs and did not find anything that looked like it is sharing data with Amazon.

I dunno. Lately I’m finding that if I notice that I’m still logged into Google that I rush to sign out. It just creeps me out to know that everywhere I go on the web if I’m signed in, Google is following me.

The two-day town hall meeting being held in Washington DC by the Federal Trade Commission had a common theme: avoiding government regulation.

AOL announced a program that will help Internet users understand behaviorally targeted advertising, along with providing mechanisms for opting out of such targeting.

The two-day town hall meeting about behavioral targeting, announced amid privacy concerns about Google’s proposed acquisition of DoubleClick, begins today in Washington DC.

Behavioral Targeting (BT), as I predicted earlier this year, has become very common term among marketers.

Look at any online marketing events and you will see more than one session on Behavioral Targeting. This was also evident at eMetrics in Washington DC, where a full track was devoted to Optimization and Behavioral Targeting and several other speakers, not in this track, also talked included Behavioral Targeting in their presentations.

Behaviorally targeted ads outperform contextual ads by as much as 22 percent in some categories; according to a new study from Revenue Science conducted by JupiterResearch.

Have you heard of behavioral marketing, but not known exactly what it is? You probably have been exposed to behavioral targeting before at one or more points in your life and not even known it. Behavioral targeting, if done right, can be a very useful tool in your internet marketing tool belt.