In a bid to strengthen its delivery of the right ad to the right person, Google has launched a new feature for its content network, Interest-Based Advertising, that will allow advertisers to reach users who have displayed interest in their vertical or who have visited their website in the past.  Therefore, the ad won’t be shown simply based on the user’s immediate interest.  More ad exposure for the advertiser and delivery of ads of greater interest for the user.  That’s the theory.

In an age where cookies have less stickiness than any time before, it will be interesting to see how well this can be executed.  Advertisers have certainly been clamoring for it for a while.  Amazon makes great use behavioral targeting by thrusting products related to past purchases and searches under the visitor’s nose on their site.  To quell the privacy firestorm that this is likely to spark, users have the ability to remove or add interest categories (600 so far) to tailor the ads they see, or they can completely opt out (through cookies or browser plugin).  That, too, will be interesting to see in action.

For additional, useful information visit these links: Google and Search Engine Land