Gossman pulls an Al Gore at OMMA Behavioral
Posted on February 12th, 2008 by Bennett Zucker
Revenue Science CEO Bill Gossman, speaking on a vendors panel at today’s OMMA Behavioral Conference in New York, told the crowd, “I believe that we coined the term ‘behavioral targeting.’” Well, Bill, if you believe that, then undoubtedly you give Al Gore credit for the internet, as well.
In fairness, I suspect he might have been referring to the fact that Revenue Science started talking about “BT” not long after digiMine became RSI in 2003. TACODA was selling behavioral targeting – with all syllables – for more than two years at that point, and of course Engage, Yahoo! and others were doing it in the pre-bubble 90′s. So, we’ll cut you some slack, Bill, but you must admit it was a pretty goofy claim!
Bennett,
Nice jab – I was sure that Al Gore invented the internet
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FWIW, I think I properly attributed the name you guys used in 2002 for “BT” – you called it AMS or “Audience Management System.”
I found this on the wayback machine (no, I didn’t invent that) from Q4 2002.
Audience Management System 1.1
The Tacoda Solution
AMS collects audience data from pre-existing sources, such as ad servers, content servers, and email databases, and merges these with other data sources, such as subscription or registration databases, to provide publishers with a composite view of a site’s audience. By tapping into the various data repositories, AMS presents the online publisher with a cost-effective solution for the management of its audience members.
AMS then delivers this data back in a form that enables audience-based targeting by a site’s ad server.
Find out more about the Audience Management System.
Anyway, wasn’t looking to minimize the work of others.
Hope all is well Bennett.
Bill
Bill, Thanks for writing and taking it in stride. Rev Sci was a thorn in our side at Tacoda in those early days, but we always enjoyed hanging out with Omar and Nick at iMedia Summits. Bennett
ISPs, portals, and ad networks have dropped the ball. They have allowed the behavior targeting debate to spin out of their control, leaving the conversation in the hands of privacy evangelicals that represent only a vocal minority. As a result, most consumers and law-makers have concluded that ad targeting is a consumer protection issue.
My recommendation to ad networks, ISPs and portals is to take back the debate. With a modicum of marketing and consumer-friendly product offering, behavioral targeting can become the hero of its age, instead of the defiling villain.
Read the analysis at http://www.BroodingSavage.com
Fascinating thread…
The click-through-optimization-based-on-specific-user-behavior industry has come a long way since the late 90s. At that time I was pushing a real-time system developed by Neural Applications (1998) out of the research park in Coralville, IA. OptiMatch did not have a slick interface and the reporting was minimal but the core premise of basing ad decision against previous click behavior lived on.
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Neural+Applications+Corporation+Launches+OptiMatch+For+Improving+Ad…-a020531969
We were not the only one’s pursuing this – back then Aptex HNC had a similar tool and so did Nestor Interactive. Both provided a similar real-time clickthrough boost through machine-learning. When I pitched this to Dave and Gil – they got it right away.
In one of those ironies, it was interesting to find myself working with Dave and Gil about a year later on that deal but from the Real Media side! Later, when Neural-NetPerceptions got out of that business, we (RealMedia) partnered with TriVida to provide similar functionality (acquired by BeFree and then CommissionJunction).
In yet another irony, I’ve been working 247Real Media’s BT for the last several months on the retail/ecommerce side of the world. Very interesting!
Dom