Wired runs a feature on Claria (a company formerly known as Gator), famous for serving pop-up ads that they called targeted to millions of innocent web surfers:
"At first blush, the news sounds like solid evidence that Claria has emerged from the spyware wars with a new focus. Having taken pop-ups as far as it could, the company has decided to leave the format behind. But this isn't to say it's finished tracking customers and using the information to sell advertising."
In other but related news, CNET writes that "Yahoo aims to boost the effectiveness of its advertising--and rates--by targeting ads to users based on their surfing behavior on its site, the company's advertising sales chief said on Thursday. Yahoo does not give personal information to advertising clients but tracks a few types of behavior by its users, including search queries, movement through Yahoo sites and the specific ads clicked. That lets it decide on the fly what ads are most appropriate for a user."
-- via AdPulp
