It’s been reported that Yahoo is testing a behavioral ad program using targeting technology from Revenue Science which places Yahoo text ads on pages based on user behavior. Two pilot sites, dogster.com and catster.com are running the tests. A third site, photo sharing site tinypic.com, though un-announced, also appears to be part of the program based on a peak at the site’s source code. Intriguingly, while many of the pictures on the site are garden variety, a sizable handful fall into the porn category. We’re talking soft here. Nothing horrific. Just basic nudity.
A tipster wonders what’s going on writing, “There is little relevant context in porn, but behavioral can give them the ability to target ads based on past behavior. Interesting question would be whether they are tracking and retaining the users surfing on the porn for future targeting on other websites.”
TinyPic clearly states no nudity or offensive pictures are allowed but, obviously, a few got through. Likely, they will be quickly removed.
