BT announced on Tuesday that the BT Webwise trials have started again and not surprisingly the reception has been mixed. There is a huge amount of negativity towards Phorm from certain parties; some justified and some not. There is no point entering the debate myself, suffice to say there are some big and trusted technology companies out there that have worse privacy policies than Phorm.

I would rather focus on what they are hoping to achieve now that they have got the backing from the government. Can anyone monetise behavioural advertising in the same way Google has monetised search?

Google started life looking to solve a problem, which is admirable but let’s not forget that they are now a well monetised machine, and as close to corporate as you can get with their structure. Monetisation of the search results is what gave them the budget to advance their technology further than that of their rivals.

Adsense (Google’s 3^rd party ad network) was launched because they wanted to control advertising on 3^rd party sites; not to enhance the experience but to make more money. Again, their acquisition of Double-click (don’t get me started on their cookies) has nothing to do with improving the web experience but is rather another money making venture.

Google is out to make money. Is there anything wrong with that? No, but then don’t paint them with the saintly brush and trust everything they do just because you like their search results.

I see Phorm as fairly similar to Google. Their business model is very revenue orientated but it also contains elements of problem solving. I’m not going to focus on the anti-phishing tool side of it today, there area bigger fish to fry. Phorm is a company that can solve a really massive problem in the world of online advertising. Relevance.

Let’s face it, Google would be nothing without relevance. Relevance is what FD’s demand and marketers need and until now they couldn’t have it unless they were targeting search. Enter Webwise.

So what is Webwise? Phorm says: “Webwise reduces the amount of irrelevant advertisements that users see, making browsing more relevant and enjoyable.”….ummm ok, that’s a big claim from an advertising platform, isn’t there something that has already attempted this? Adsense spring to mind? Probably not.

IMHO, the reason Adsense doesn’t work as well as it could is that the page content is not the best content to base advertising on. Just because I’m researching the latest SEO trends doesn’t mean I’m going to buy SEO from an agency. (I have my own agency thanks so stop sending me spam about Indian link building companies already.)

So what’s more relevant? What I searched for this morning in my coffee break is massively relevant, (a family holiday in Oahu, or snow-kiting this winter is good too…hint hint), so if I were watching the latest cricket scores on Cricinfo and along came an ad about snow-kiting I would be all over it.

And so I should; I already have a mobile phone, don’t need laser eye treatment, don’t bet, really don’t need another credit card and I’ve got Setanta Sports already, thanks. Conversely, that money spent by Betfair, Setanta,and Ultralase, etc is completely wasted on me. Granted they don’t pay that much for it but who is the loser in that one? Well, Cricinfo is because their ad real estate is worth less than Google. Why? Because of the lack of relevance. Spot the problem?

Webwise would track me anonymously at an ISP level and actually serve me that snow-kiting ad, and because it’s relevant the advertiser would want to pay more, the content provider earns more and I get relevant ads. What’s the problem again? Google and DoubleClick already have massive cookies tracking me, why do I care if Phorm does too?

BTW, they don’t track adult searching (thank god) and I’m hoping that there is no embarrassing medical channel too, (not that I have any I swear). None of the data apparently can be reverse engineered to identify me or my bank details, so job done in my view.

I for one would opt in to get better advertising online. Advertising would become more interesting and actually provoke a response. You never know my terminal banner blindness may just be close to its end. For online advertising I certainly hope so.

i.e. we wont pitch up to force your hand because we know youre a bunch of gutless cowards and would prefer not to act

“The ICC should just write out a cheque for $10m to Mugabe.”
A disgruntled but unnamed cricket administrator in Dubai as quoted in the Australian

Jul 4, 2008

my thoughts exactly!!!!

“What happened in Dubai was little more than a charade, an elaborately contrived game of cricket politics that ended with England (World Twenty20 championships), India (more leverage to twist ECB arms on the ICL-player situation), Pakistan (Oval forfeit reversal) and Zimbabwe (money) all getting their way.

Perhaps it’s best to end with Achebe, who observed that “one of the truest tests of integrity is its blunt refusal to be compromised”. If this week is any indicator, cricket has failed miserably.”

if the governing body does this, what is the point in having one????

]]> http://www.louis-venter.com/cricket/what-the-hell/feed/ http://www.louis-venter.com/cricket/its-time-to-actsurely/ http://www.louis-venter.com/cricket/its-time-to-actsurely/#comments Sat, 28 Jun 2008 16:39:32 +0000 Louis Venter http://www.louis-venter.com/?p=8 As most people have, i have been monitoring the Zimbabwe situation very closely hoping that we would see the end of the murderous dictator. That seems to be a false dawn and since the situation has developed into the completely farcical its time for all bodies to act and make sure that the sanctions imposed hurt him.

The ICC at the moment have another vote on whether to revoke Zimbabwes ICC test playing status and thus removing them from the elite sector of international cricket. As someone who has experienced sporting sanctions as a small boy i can honestly say that was my ownly real experience of apartheid, the one area they couldnt propaganda away, foreign countries would simply not play against us and as proud sportmen that really hurt.

The argument that Zimbabwe people will lose out in this is preposterous. What people need to realise is that the foreign currency that Zimbabwe cricket is clinging onto is being siphened into Mugabe’s coffers and a vote not to expel Zimbabwe is a vote to support the regime. I am all for splitting sport and politics but when the sporting board is completely run by the state and has been found to have serious financial irregularities at the last audit its time to ignore that rule.

The only cricket board in the way of this decision seems to be the BCCI which is clinging onto Zimbabwe as a political ally in its fight to dominate the running of the game. Surely even the BCCI greed cannot support Mugabe, if they decide not to expel Zim they might as well make a USD donation to ZANU-PF.

The official launch should happen tomorrow if a few weird IE issues are resolved by the design team.

holding thumbs

on a side note i took the kids on an upstream paddle up the thames on saturday which was epic.

With any luck the website will be live tomorrow and it will go from strength to strength from here. There is so much research and news that we gather as a company and it has been a real frustration not to be able to share that through our site.

The idea from here is to add new modules on a monthly basis starting with news while we refine the content for the knowledge  base.

Anyway a big thanks to all who worked tirelessly to make this a reality and to Loomis and Jones who created the new site design.

If you know anyone getting married a personal wedding website is really something they should do. It will help people find all the information they need from google directions to the hen party to accommodation details for hotels nearby for guests from out of town.

Im really excited about it not least because the software took me so long to write. Yes my wife is very patient and no i dont have any scars where she “motivated” me to finish it

without further ado the site url is ,drum roll please, www.theblossomstudio.com

There is still a lot of user testing to do so if you pop across and think something needs to change just mail me , i would really appreciate it

Bank holiday weekends are normally good but the weather really played ball. Chilled on saturday and made the best fort , had a good game of cricket on Sunday which we won and Monday had a great picnic in Richmond park with the family in the SUN!!!

So yeah long and short of it , really looking forward to the week, no more credit crunch blues

anyhow still working on the project, getting really excited but also a little apprehensive about it.

its going to be a great week

Welcome to my personal blog. Im already blogging (although not as much as I’d like to) on the MediaVision and HR-SEO Blogs.

I really want to use this Blog to dabble more in other online marketing areas apart from search marketing so if you like to ask me anything in particular please dont hesitate to contact me.

Alternatively add me on linked in here : Louis Venter LinkedIn

Really looking forward to a few new challenges which i cant go into now but will do shortly

Cheers

Louis