(Really) Stunning Pictures and Photos | Monday Inspiration | Smashing Magazine

(Really) Stunning Pictures and Photos | Monday Inspiration | Smashing Magazine

photoshop anyone?

America’s dirty little oil secret: Plastic Bottles and Bags

America’s dirty little oil secret: Plastic Bottles and Bags

thanks Chad for the article and a possible new site addiction

Old Disney Cartoons are Great

Old Disney Cartoons are Great

picked up from Digg

Antwerp’s Discreet Treasury of Art - New York Times

Antwerp’s Discreet Treasury of Art - New York Times

Always good to see Antwerp get its due!

Response to Comments from April 8 Posting

All of the comments posted are really interesting and I am glad people have taken an interest into this topic. Two points brought up from the comments that I wish to elaborate on include your web getting to know you and how effective is advertising.

It is true that the web will get to know you better. When you log into Facebook or Google that you will be seeing will know that you want to see them. Now this isn’t trying to personify ads, but that the algorithms behind them will understand the best-suited ads for you. And this leads into the second point that advertisements will become more effective since they will appeal to your interests. The ad maybe to buy something but the ad can simply be link to a cool news article. The evolution of advertising due to the web are subtly changing from those wish are trying to persuade and push consumers to those that wish to encourage participation with brands and make consumers happy.

The Already Big Thing on the Internet: Spying on Users

This article is from The New York Times.

This articles discusses the online advertising phenomena known as behavioral targeting. What this means is that your internet service provider (ISP) (Verizon, Comcast, etc.) track everything a computer does online and then creates a profile for your IP address (every computer has a unique IP address). This differs from cookies since cookies were tracked by tech companies were only able to track web sites one visited.

The implications of this data is that ISPs are able to gain a great understanding about what type of consumer is using any individual computer. This information can then be turned into profitable information for advertisers who want to reach a particular target market. For example, if your online history indicates that you are a 35 year old married woman with kids, because you visited iVillage, Gerber.com, and Oprah's web site, when you visit the New York Mets web site to find a gift for your husband, advertisements targeted to middle aged women will show and not baseball related ads.

This is a big deal because today advertisements are based on the web sites content. As in the NY Mets example you can see how baseball ads shown to the 35 year old mom would not be effective. There are two big controversies concerning behavioral targeting.

1. Most people do not know that this is the future and is happening in select markets
2. Lots of people find this to be intrusive and a violation of their privacy

What are your feelings about behavioral targeting?

Tighten Your Belt, Strengthen Your Mind - New York Times

Tighten Your Belt, Strengthen Your Mind - New York Times