Chapter 14Extending Search with Behavior

Behavioral targeting (BT) is a broad term that includes several different methods and technologies. The fundamental idea behind BT is to use online behavior to help sufficiently identify individuals to group them within an audience segment. Once a user has been so identified, such an audience segment is sold to advertisers bidding for it. Tracking and ad serving technology let advertisers “follow users around” as they travel the web from site to site. This form of targeting is very different from the targeting contextual advertising uses, which is limited to a particular page or site.

BT lets advertisers buy “buckets” of users whose behavior is similar. Such buckets might include online gamers, frequent ...

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