However, thanks the ingenuity of some academic types, these fears may be much closer to being reality than some would ever hope.

In a report appearing in NewScientist.com, it is possible to track computers to a much closer physical location than previous methods were capable of. Before the new method was discovered, the closest IP address-based tracking attempts could get was in the neighborhood of 20-plus miles. With the new technique discussed at NS, this distance has been staggeringly lowered.

Instead of miles, we’re talking meters — within 690 meters, if the numbers are to be believed. The technique, developed by a Chinese computer scientist named Yong Wang, uses landmarks, Google Maps, data packet inspection, and IP addresses to complete its task. In order to factor the distance of the computer being targeted, Wang’s method monitors the time it takes to send a data packet to the computer being tracked, and converting this time into the corresponding distance.

The NewScientist article has more details:

Wang and colleagues then send data packets to the known Google Maps landmark servers in this large area to find which routers they pass through. When a landmark machine and the target computer have shared a router, the researchers can compare how long a packet takes to reach each machine from the router; converted into an estimate of distance, this time difference narrows the search down further. “We shrink the size of the area where the target potentially is,” explains Wang.

Finally, they repeat the landmark search at this more fine-grained level: comparing delay times once more, they establish which landmark server is closest to the target.

The report also reveals that, because of the large amount of landmarks being used (greater than 70,000), they can get a much more accurate read on the target’s location, as close as the aforementioned 690 meters.

In fact, the report reveals this technique has been used to get within 100 meters of a target’s physical location. Furthermore, this process works even you don’t want your location being known. Wang says, “This is a client-independent method. The client does not need to approve anything.” The technique’s fearful capability doesn’t stop there either. If the target computer is hiding behind a proxy server, Wang’s process will be able to determine it. While the location will remain unknown, the fact the target computer is using a proxy will not.

While this may not mean much in the way of PC users, who are largely stationary (and no, I’m not including laptops, either), mobile Internet use is increasing at an exponential rate, and as of now, mobile device users aren’t afforded the same privacy consideration as other Internet users are. Combining Wang’s geolocation process with the desire of businesses to use this data for advertising purposes, a melding of the two could quite feasibly lead to Minority Report scenes playing out in real life:

"Locally targeted ads are an increasingly important component of the digital ad landscape because they represent a more efficient allocation of ad dollars," said comScore vice president Brian Jurutka. Here’s a look at some additional numbers:

comScore says that advertisers were deemed to be locally-targeting ads in a particular market if their relative share of display ads was substantially higher than that market’s share of display ads nationally. According to the study, between 9 and 11 percent of display ads in the four markets among all publisher sites were locally targeted. In the regional/local site category, which includes sites like Yahoo Local, CitySearch, and Yelp, the share of display ads that were locally targeted was substantially higher.

"Our research indicates that advertisers understand the value of locally targeted ads and are willing to pay a premium for them – anywhere from 20 to 100 percent – depending on the geography and vertical," said Matt Booth, senior vice president and program director, Interactive Local Media, BIA/Kelsey. "Identifying and quantifying which advertisers are purchasing local ads in particular markets is critical to helping publishers efficiently target potential prospects for these high value ad placements."

Google’s latest local advertising offering is bound to be quite popular among small businesses looking to reach local customers. The company introduced Local Listing Ads earlier this week.

Witness:

So now I’m not able to use my favorite music service at Pandora.com.

Pandora works in the following fashion: You select your favourite artist and the service makes intelligent guesses at what other artistes you might like and plays them. So it’s like an intelligent jukebox.

And I can’t use it now.

I understand copyright and territorial issues, and this is a prime example of geotargeting. In this case, restricting access based on me living in Singapore.

If you’ve been on the Internet for a period of time, you’d know that surfing through country-specific proxy servers can alter your geographical IP origin, so geotargeting can be overcome.

In my earlier days as a blogger I shifted a significant proportion of my traffic through a Singapore-based IP, which severely skewed my traffic. My current Alexa profile provides a more accurate traffic picture, although there’s quite a variation from my actual traffic, which is highly US-skewed.

So what’s to be done about geotracking and geotargeting?

It’s useful to some extent and is one of the ways to visualize your traffic picture.

But if you’re using it to restrict access, it might be as successful as the attempts to “region code” DVDs according to geographical regions.

Eventually China manufacturers released region-free DVD players into the market and mucked up whatever plans the movie studios originally had in mind.

So back to geotargeting.

It’s obvious to be more effective, it needs to be stepped up a notch.

Perhaps proxy services should be IDed and incorporated into a red flagged “proxy zone”. But since it’s so easy to set up a proxy server anyway, is that really a useful exercise?

What do you think?

Comments

A thread had also been started at Search Engine Watch forum which apparently has been pulled, but thanks to Google cache, I was able to grab some of the info.

Basically, ackmnmn from aimclear says that a support person at Yahoo informed him that Yahoo recognized some aspects of geo targeting were not working and that Yahoo would be disabling geo targeting or parts of it.

In the same SEW forum thread, YahooSarah chimed in with:

“We are seeing DMA targeted ads are not showing up in more specific sub-DMA geo-modified (geo-tagged) queries. Example: “Pasadena hotel” will not be matched to Los Angeles DMA targeted keyword, “hotel”. You should start to see improvements the week of January 15.”

She also replied with another comment stating specifically that Yahoo was not disabling or shutting down geo targeting.

Just to be sure, I confirmed this with my contact at Yahoo Search Marketing.

So I guess it’s a matter of interpretation, “making enhancements” vs “shutting down”, but Yahoo was very specific that nothing was being shut down.

I do suspect (my own opinion) that Yahoo is taking a serious look at the detailed feedback provided by ackmnmn in their process of enhancing the geo targeting feature.

When you run into issues with search engines as an advertiser, you have options on how to handle it – rant and complain or provide feedback so they can fix it.

For the most part, I think ackmnmn was trying to provide feedback, but with the edges a little rough due to his frustrations. But then again, maybe it was the rough edges that got Yahoo’s attention?

Comments

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Rumors sheeted down like a downpour in the city. Everyone had fled the web for the safety of their blogs and chatrooms, but not me. I was chasing a rumor, and it led me straight to the source, a ClickZ report.

I was less welcome than Mills at the Google Dance, before she and Schmidt made up. There was my window on the world, calls himself Firefox, casting an eye my way. “We read five times you were killfiled, in five different blogs.”

I told Firefox that, as he could see, it was true every time. Putting aside the urge to click him right smack in the top right corner, I pressed Firefox about the rumor: was Google geo-targeting ads in RSS feeds?

The answer came from Shuman Ghosemajumder, business product manager at Google, who told ClickZ: “AdSense for feeds is part of the Google content network, so if an advertiser’s campaign is opted into the content network, their ads are eligible to show in feeds.”

He also said geo-targeting had been a feature since the launch of AdSense in feeds. They had one up on me at the moment, and I wasn’t happy about it. Firefox seemed to pick up on that, and gave me a little more from ClickZ after the Googler had scrolled away:

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.

Thankfully the local online market has finally started to take off. As more local information becomes available online, people are starting to look at the Internet as something useful instead of a passing fad.

And where people go, advertisers are sure to follow. The amount of money spent on local online advertising has steadily increased in the last few years. According to The Kelsey Group (http://kelseygroup.com), geocommerce, or local advertising revenues, are expected to reach about $50 billion by 2006.

Here’s another reason the local online market is heating up: technology. The ability to target online users by geography -Geotargeting — allows websites to present ads only to consumers who live in certain geographic location. Local advertisers can now be sure that only local eyeballs will see their ad.

Localized advertising is very targeted, and can be used to quickly and cheaply test online campaigns. Local merchants can use a combination of online and offline advertising to drive traffic to their store and website.

Geotargeting has great promise, but it’s not without problems. The main issue is accuracy. There is a big difference in the accuracy of methods used to target based on user location.

COMMON GEOTARGETING METHODS

- I.P. Address

Targeting based on I.P. address (a unique string of numbers that identifies a computer on the Internet) This method works by using the I.P. address to identify a user’s geographical location. It can home in on a user’s city – sometimes even their zip code – within the U.S. and internationally. Many of the major Geotargeting vendors use this method, including www.quova.com, a major player in the geolocation market.

There are a couple of weaknesses in the I.P. method. The biggest problem: for various reasons, not all I.P. addresses can be mapped to a geographic location.

A good example is the AOL user population. Because of the way AOL handles their web requests, all of their users appear to be coming from Virginia. Of course that’s not true.

So when it comes to Geotargeting by I.P. address, all AOL users have to be eliminated. That’s a big chunk of the American population.

– Zip Code

Since all Zip Codes can be easily matched to a location, Geotargeting by zip code works fine – as long as the person is telling the truth. People lie all the time when signing up for free services and filling out survey forms.

Still, what we have now works most of the time, and as the technology improves, so will the results.

GEOTARGETING SOLUTIONS

Geotargeting is done in a number of ways, but they all fall into one or more of the following four basic categories:

1. Localized content – This is advertising or information that applies to a local or regional area. Some providers of localized advertising include online versions newspaper, television, and radio; also includes city guides, yellow pages and directories.

2. Banner advertising – Most banner ads are sold through one of the online ad networks, and all of them provide some sort of geographic targeting and demographic selection. Some ad networks include Doubleclick.com, ValueClick.com, and Commission Junction (www.cj.com).

3. Registration Data – Most sites that provide services such as email or internet access require users to register. That process often includes zip code, which can be used to target by city or even street. These types of sites can also use cookies (small bits of data stored on the user’s computer) to recognize the user each time they return by matching it to their registration data. Examples include aol.com, hotmail.com, yahoo.com, netzero.com, etc.

4. Geographic Data Providers – Providers of geographic specific data, such as phone directories and map services, can easily serve up local ads. That’s because to get the information they need, people have to give either zip code or area code, which is easily mapped to location. Examples include mapquest.com, switchboard.com and weather.com.

New sources for geotargeting are popping up all the time, as traditional postal list owners such as magazines and catalog vendors realize they’re sitting on a goldmine of customer information. As the technology gets better, you can expect geotargeting to become even more widespread.

The bottom line? For local business, geotargeting will help to deliver on the oft-repeated promise of a level playing field. Forget the global economy ….the future of the Internet is local.

Sharon Fling is the author of “How To Promote Your Local Business On the Internet”, and publisher of “Local Business Today”, an ezine that gives business owners tips, tools and resources for targeting local customers. Subscribe today and get a free ebook information, visit http://www.geolocal.com or send any email to: mailto:subscribe@localbizpromo.com