Online advertisers go to great lengths to gather information about web users. They glean terabytes of data from web searches, social media profiles, and other sources in an attempt to target certain advertisements to certain audiences.
The problem, according to entrepreneur Aaron Weber, is that a lot of this information is outdated, incomplete, and still dependent on guesswork. For example, are those baby clothes you ordered a gift, or are you a new parent?
Weber's solution: instead of forcing advertisers to cyberstalk and guess what consumers want, why not let consumers just tell advertisers what they're interested in?
Weber is co-founder of
Inveni, an online "taste profile" that lets Internet users consolidate product ratings from various websites and choose to anonymously share them with advertisers. In exchange, users get help finding other products they may like and hopefully get more relevant advertising at sites they visit.
"The whole goal is to align the interests of advertisers and consumers," says Weber.
The service launched in beta last week. For now it only supports movies and television programs, but Weber says Inveni plans to expand to include books, music, video games, and perhaps other products and restaurants after that.
Inveni will be incorporating display advertising on its site in the coming weeks. Users who choose to share information with advertisers will also have their anonymous information stored in a web cookie so advertisers on other sites can match ads to their taste profiles.
Weber previously co-founded W3i, an online software marketing company that he and his co-founders grew from their dorm rooms in St. Cloud to a $30-million-a-year company.
Source: Aaron Weber, Inveni
Writer:
Dan Haugen