The Googlization of Everything

WSJ.com:

Revenue Science, one of the leading players in the business of targeted advertising, gathers information about consumers and then sells it to marketers. According to the company's "file" on me, I'm a "hip homemaker" who probably trades stocks and buys expensive clothes and boats.

Actually, I'm 24, single and I live in a cramped New York City apartment where my television sits on top of my refrigerator. I sometimes dog-sit for extra spending money and have never bought or sold a single stock. As for luxury boats, the closest I've come to one most recently was during a run past a yacht club in St. Petersburg, Fla., three years ago when I was an intern at a newspaper there.

As a reporter covering the online advertising industry, I hear constantly about the vast promise of targeted marketing. Some big companies that use it report a tripling in the number of clicks on their Web ads, a jump they attribute to having better information about consumers' interests and shopping preferences.

From start-ups to established Internet and telecom giants, companies are pouring resources into new ad-targeting technologies, and behavioral targeting is among the fastest-growing types of online marketing.

But for all the excitement about this emerging field, as I surf the Web I'm struck by how few of the ads that appear along the way are relevant to me. The last one I remember clicking on intentionally was a video ad in the dance section of a magazine's Web site -- promoting a coming performance that I was already interested in seeing. That was last fall. Marketers don't seem to be targeting me very effectively. ...