Loading ...Pop! Goes the Weasel
By Joaquim P. Menezes -
Remember those nasty little things called pop up ads?
Remember how they could ruin your online browsing experience (especially the serial pops), destroy your trend of thought as you tried to get some online research done, raise your blood pressure, and lead to other sundry hazards.
Then came the pop up blockers –now standard with most mainstream browsers – and beleaguered PC users got some respite. But if you thought you’ve see the last of the ol’ pops – think again! How does that Bryan Adams song go?: Wherever you go, whatever you do, I will be right here, waiting for you Guess what. The pop ups will be waiting for you any day now – on your mobile phone.
What’s more, this mode of mobile phone advertising is apparently being pushed by some real big names – including Google, Microsoft Yahoo, AOL and other online giants, all salivating at the prospect of cashing in on a very promising revenue stream.
And get this – while in the case of PC pop ups, the ads appear only when you use your browser, withmobile devices, they can pop up on the phone’s idle screen any time.
Of course, those pushing the technology are doing their best to convince everybody that they’ll be God’s gift to humankind. Companies, such as Mobile Posse Inc. and Acuity Mobile are saying the ads will be so useful to customers that they won’t be annoying.
For now, apparently these ads will only be delivered to mobile phone users who want them. For instance, Mobile Posse offers “idle screen ad insertion” – a “service” whereby users who download a small application onto a phone start getting ads that often include discount coupons on their devices.
The service also initially collects some information such as age, gender and zip code from users in order to effectively target the ads. Mobile Posse says its system learns from the type of ads that users click on – and don’t click on – so that it only push the sought after ads – and thereby avoid annoying phone users.
Very decent of them, but it would be interesting to see how this actually works in practice.
As they say, the proof of the pudding….
Posted on August 9th, 2007 by Joaquim Menezes and filed under Computer Science, Software, cell, messaging, mobile, wireless |
August 10th, 2007 at 3:41 pm
It wasn’t Bryan Adams–it was Doug (Bennett) and the Slugs.