Briefs

ClickZ, by David Rittenhouse, January 25, 2006

... A week and a half ago, Microsoft demonstrated a host of new digital advertising technologies being developed in its adCenter Incubation Lab, or adLab, in Redmond, WA, and Beijing. AdLab is focused on applied research and prototyping the next generation of paid search, contextual targeting, social networking, and, yes, behavioral targeting, among other things.

According to Microsoft, 40 different technologies are in varying stages of development at the adLab. The company has assembled a formidable group of researchers and experts in data mining, information retrieval, statistical analysis, artificial intelligence, auction theory, visual computing, and digital media.

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Behavioral targeting of this sort is already quite available on the market. What's unique about adCenter's approach is it will allow advertisers to build custom segments, something that could allow more accurate targeting than the current approach, which is based on prebuilt and sometimes broad and inflexible segment definitions.

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