Doubleclick

Company Background:

Double Click is the world’s largest Internet advertising royalty in December 1999. It started as ‘Internet Advertising Network’ (IAN) in Atlanta, Georgia by two software professionals Kevin O’ Connor and Dwight Merriman in 1995. In April 1995, Poppe Tyson created a division named DoubleClick in order to sell ads on the Internet. Operating out of California, DoubleClick created a network of Web sites on which advertisers could purchase banner ads. Member Web sites were required to sign exclusive deals with DoubleClick and allow the broker to coordinate the delivery of ads for the entire network. The goal, as always in advertising, was to reach a maximum number of potential buyers of a particular product while minimizing waste.

It is affiliated with over 11,000 Web publisher and it Specializes in delivering targeted advertising to many of those Web sites.

The company estimates that it sends out over one billion ads a day.

DoubleClick had leave to deliver banner ads to over 1,500 client Web sites and had technology that tracked surfers as they moved from one client's site to another. DoubleClick watched where surfers went, what terms they typed into search boxes, and which ads they clicked. All this was done behind the scenes. The company was unknown to the majority of Web users. Observed data on Web activity was recorded on cookies and stored on the surfers' computers. This was non-personally identifiable information linked to the computer, not to individual users of the hardware. Some call that splitting hairs. After all, how many computers are used by more than a handful of individuals? DoubleClick employed the observed data stored on cookies to deliver banner ads based on unique individual interests, inferred by information contained on the cookie. The company calls this product Intelligent Targeting and offers the following illustration on its Web site:

A unique cookie has, in the past 10 days, searched on women's fashion sites,...