NONE: Re: ONLINE-ADS>> Infoseek's UltraMatch technology
Re: ONLINE-ADS>> Infoseek's UltraMatch technology
Al Bredenberg (ab_at_copywriter.com)
Mon, 2 Jun 1997 09:59:53 -0700
Richard Hoy wrote:
>InfoSeek officially announced its Ultramatch technology today
>
>Does anybody know if this will be an off-the-shelf product that anyone can
>buy to serve ads with? Or is Ultramatch exclusively a feature of the
>Infoseek web site?
I believe the technology behind Infoseek's new intelligent ad serving
system comes from Aptex Software (http://www.aptex.com), makers of neural
net systems. I interviewed the Aptex folks at _at_d:tech.97 a few weeks ago.
Both they and a presenter from Infoseek alluded to a partnership in the
works.
Interestingly, Aptex's SelectCast software is derived from products
developed for the U.S. military for some hush-hush project (one of those
things that they would have to kill me if they told me about).
Here's an excerpt from my Conference Chronicle #3 from _at_d:tech.97. If
anyone's interested in the whole series I would be glad to forward it.
(It's quite sizable -- four large messages.) This was a report from the
exposition floor:
----------
For me, one of the most fascinating products on the expo floor
is SelectCast, an artificial intelligence software program offered
by Aptex Software Inc. Jane Leonard, marketing communications
manager, and John Gaffney, marketing director, demonstrated the
product for me.
The parent company of Aptex is HNC, makers of neural network
software. SelectCast is derived from products developed under a U.S.
Department of Defense contract.
"We've taken the technology and moved it onto the Internet,"
Gaffney told me. "It's kind of a swords-into-plowshares thing."
One of the challenges in Web advertising is to direct an
advertising message (such as a banner) to an appropriately targeted
Web user. Aptex's "intelligent" software is able to read and analyze
the contents of a Web page, follow the movements of a visitor
throughout a Web site, and automatically make decisions about which
ads to show that visitor, based on the person's behavior at the site.
The longer the program "lives" on the site and analyzes its pages --
and the longer it watches Web users on that site, the better it gets
at targeting ads. It learns -- and makes better decisions based on
that learning.
---------
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Al Bredenberg - consultant, writer, copywriter
COPYWRITER.COM - Internet and Web copy specialists, Web creative
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