Corporate Blogger

Over at ReadWriteWeb, there is a post by Lidija Davis about the potential of the Semantic Web to improve advertising. Citing some points in a keynote address delivered by Peer39 CEO Amiad Solomon, Davis then goes on to write:

Successful advertising means showing the right product to the right person at the right time. The semantic Web puts data into semantic formats on the fly, and targets ads based on the meaning of data with a high degree of accuracy.

One of the readers, identified as "DD" takes issue by writing in a comment (emphasis mine):

What it will actually bring is ever more sophisticated ad blocking software. The result will, in a weird way, be more effectively targeted advertising because those who just hate the ads anyway will be blocking the few (allegedly relevant) ones that they would be sent and those who are ad junkies and take any notice of that stuff will, perhaps, get ones they will react to. Face it, advertising is a continual battle for the advertiser to intrude into the attention of the target. One that advertisers are probably losing because modern media give the target the ability to fight back (ad blocking software, speeding through the ads in recorded TV programmes).

I think DD is spot on here. The Semantic Web isn't going to help traditional advertising at all, because people don't go around looking for stuff to grab their attention. They go around looking for things they want. That's why search engines are way more popular than banner ads on the web, and that's why people put more credibility in organic search results than sponsored ad results.

I think the real story of the Semantic Web is that it empowers search engines to provide more relevant results, because the pages the engines crawl have deeper meaning attached to them.

So if you're a business trying to make sense of what this Semantic Web stuff is all about, the takeaway should be not smarter ad delivery it should be that you are going to have to retool the way you get new customers.

You need to be there when they're looking for you, and software for natural search should be part of that equation. Setting up a corporate blog can help you achieve better search placement. Advanced business blogging software from Compendium Blogware helps you do the job well.