01 Apr 2000

Media is getting more and more personal. Emails arrive on my PC unannounced but, usually, targeted to my interests. When I log onto Amazon.com's book site, it greets me by name and suggests some books I might find interesting.

Even the advertising on certain websites is tailored to what will intrigue me (but it's not always correct, I might add). All this personalisation is going to get more, or worse, depending how you feel about being categorised and tagged. For example, the UK technology company Autonomy is refining its pattern recognition software to help filter web content and messages to mobile phones. So, if I walk by Tesco, my profile will mean that I won't be told about a sale on dog food (I don't have a dog) but the phone may ring to tell me about a new shipment of Kiwi fruit, which I love.

So, how does it know all these things? Well, it's all about past performance, the pattern that I leave in my wake. As I surf there are all kinds of tracking and coding technologies following me around, noting what I look at, where I go and how long I stay there. Not to mention what I buy. And most of these silent trackers have not asked my permission first. As off-line retailers like Tesco ups its save, they can easily build a profile of me based on what I bought in their stores in the past, and then target me electronically. It's direct mail on steroids.

The resulting information gathered about me is great news for advertisers and companies trying to target a product or service. It can also be helpful.

I like it when Amazon suggests a book I might not otherwise have known about. And after all, I am not forced to buy it. However, there is a darker side to personal media. The question is, how much information do you want others to know about you? Do I really want the web, in all its various guises - sites, advertisers, creditors, you name it - to know how much I spend on books, or anything else for that matter?

Companies that track this kind of information, such as online ad group DoubleClick, have come under pressure to limit how they use this information and who they sell it on to. When rocker Gary Glitter ended up in jail after his online habit of accessing and storing child pornography came to light - his PC went into a shop for servicing and the trail of web visits was discovered - the technology was applauded. But to privacy experts it raised some questions, namely, where do we draw the privacy line and who should have access to what information?

Another concern is overkill. If my mobile phone constantly sends me messages from various advertisers I won't have time to walk and talk, let alone think. There is a potentially huge market niche emerging for 'filtering out' software!

Personalisation of media becomes even more pertinent as the interactive technology that characterises the web starts to migrate into a much more widely used device, the television. TV's are becoming increasingly interactive, and as they do, all the traditional scenarios change.

Today's satellite and cable systems bring us vast numbers of channels, from 24-hour news to Sci-Fi to cooking. However, programmes are still scheduled and you either have to be there or be smart enough to set your VCR - though not for much longer. Smart video on-demand services are coming.

We've been able to order movies, music and or sports 'on-demand' for a while, usually for a premium fee, but now US company TiVo has married tracking technology with a hard disc and an on-screen guide to navigate your way through. TiVo is coming to the UK later this year in a joint venture with UK satellite company BSkyB.

A TiVo box attached to your TV gives you a super-charged VCR. You can start watching a programme in real-time but pause to answer a phone call and not miss a frame. That's because as the programme is being broadcast, the TiVo box is recording it on its hard disc. You can pause, play and rewind at will. The only thing you can't do is fast-forward beyond the actual broadcast!

But, as the chief executive officer of TiVo Mike Ramsay says, "calling TiVo a souped-up VCR would be like telling Hindenberg he had a nice balloon".

The key feature is the green 'thumbs up' and the red 'thumbs down' buttons on the TiVo remote control. If I am watching a programme that I like, I push the green button and TiVo now knows to record any future broadcasts of any episodes of that show. And I don't need to tell TiVo when the show is scheduled or what channel it might be airing on. It does all the homework, so when I come home I don't have to channel surf at all. I can go to the TiVo on-screen guide and see what is already recorded for me.

Of course, what is good news for the user is a whole new headache for the programmer and the advertiser. If the on-screen programme guide was a threat to all but established channel brands, TiVo is a threat to all channels, full stop. TiVo records programmes, not channels. There are over 30,000 TiVo's in the US (retail price is $400 (£256) plus a $10 (£6.40) a month subscription fee) and what are the owners doing? They are not watching live TV. Why? Because watching through TiVo they can fast-forward through all the advertisements. Hmm.

Ramsay says that the company is having "very constructive discussions" with Proctor & Gamble and General Motors, two of the world's largest advertisers.

The answer for them may be in more targeted advertising, what Ramsay calls "telescoping ads", so a viewer picks his commercials and the whole process becomes "viewer-directed". Sounds a lot like what is happening with targeted advertising on the Net. But the difference is, with TiVo I can stay in play-back mode and avoid any real-time targeted ads that come flying my way. Not quite so easy to do on my online PC. At least not yet.