The next new industry trend....
 

I see a new trend popping up... I keep telling everyone our industry is no longer about traffic, and all about information. The next step is taking place right now.

In the near future... When you visit a website, they will know who you are - and how to reach you. Everyone is tracking your IP address, information about your PC, your email, your phone number, etc... When you hit their website they know who you are.... And when you didn't make a purchase they can send you an email with a coupon.

Something similar happened to me last night... I was on Facebook and mentioned the word "Dell" and thirty seconds later a Dell Support chat box opened up...

Which is why you are seeing tons of ads for VPN's now. Seems they are getting more and more popular.

For every action there is a reaction.

God bless free markets.

Gee Wiz... that much has been going on for 10 years now.
You should see what the next level that has been going on for several years now.

Just in case you didn't know, when you see those facebook icon's on non-facebook websites, you are being tracked by them even if you are not a facebook account holder.

You may also be tracked by other on the same page by other and similar methods.

Many who do not want to be 'the holder' of this tracking info, use a third party to 'hold' it, and sometime be the collector of it, while having free access to it for their use but ownership of those data farms is not exactly clear.

I have been warning of this for more than 15 years. But, to most, it sounds like a conspiracy theorist talk since they can not fathom how it is done or mainly the implications of it.

I wrote a nice piece about 9 years ago painting a scenario that data is being collected and others are making decisions about you from it and you do not know it exists or if the info is accurate and no method to correct what is wrong. Which you can't do if you don't know who has it or what it is.

So think about that some the next time your insurance goes up, or shall I say, everyone gets a discount on it but you.

I caught google recording mac addresses from wifi while they were making streetview maps. Of course they have a much better idea from when you travel with maps and turn-on your wifi. I could tell you some much better stories but, you probably would not believe me. LOL.
Getting the exact location from your ISP could be possible but not always accurate because of their switching. But add gps to a mac address and you can make it within 100ft (or less) when recorded and logged by enough devices.

Yes those smartphone apps are very sneaky but is only the tip of the iceberg.

That's been the trend for for 15 or more years. It's always been about information, it's just that now it has raised to a very sophisticated level.

Congrats. You've almost figured out why your websites can't get any traffic.

ug.. had facebook open in one browser, typed in 'vpn' in another browser tab, watched facebook display VPN ad in real time :1orglaugh

Since the beginning the key ingredient for traffic has been what it offers to the surfer. Be that on a search engine, blog, porn site, etc. Because if you offer crap you get crap.

There's some creepy shit going on with that. Ok, I can understand search queries, but someone was telling me recently they were TALKING about buying new speakers in the proximity of the phone/laptop and the ads started popping up for new sound systems. I hope it's a coincidence because this BigBrother shit is creepy.

oh here's an experiment on that:

Holy crap!