The new tool will allow advertisers to buy not just keywords but also the demographics of the person searching on those keywords.
MSN can do that most effectively when the search is conducted by a registered user who has already provided some personal details to the site. MSN attracts more than 380 million unique users worldwide per month.
This means that MSN, Hotmail and other Microsoft property users search & click data is aggregated, then sold to advertisers.
That’s why she is troubled by a rule that will go into effect at her company next January. Trapp-Dietz and other smokers who work at Northwestern Mutual – regardless of whether they light up at home or outside the building at work – will pay an extra $25 a month for health insurance coverage.
Trapp-Dietz said considers the fee an invasion of her private life.
“I know I have to quit, and I really want to. But I don’t like being told to by my employer,” she said.
These type of disincentives are already in play if one purchases other benefit type products such as life insurance.
Tim Oren: trust, transactions, and the risks to MSM bundling as a business model. Interesting reading. Alan Mutter on the qualitative implications of newspaper profits growing at a faster rate than revenue growth (something is being squeezed).
Fascinating story: Sony dumped a fully completed Fiona Apple album. The music is available via bittorrent.