Two Technologies Hope to Personalize Advertising

It is well known that consumers have had it with the incessant delivery of irrelevant ad message. Two new technologies hope to put the consumer in control and offer greater relevance. Really Simple Shopping is based on RSS technology and provides the opportunity to sign up for and receive specific messages from specific marketers to a desktop newsreader program. It's similar to email but, to date, is spam free.

Dotomi lets consumers opt-in to receive specific banner advertising on partner sites. In exchange for providing personal information, the consumer, when visiting a participating website, is delivered a banner based on their personal information rather than the standard banner otherwise delivered.

While both companies are heading in the direction of eliminating ad clutter and providing more value for the consumer, it'll be a while before everyone gets over the "big brother" connotations that go along with this sort of "all knowing" advertising.