A benign demeanor is key

SemantiNet launched Headup, a Firefox plugin that may succeed where larger, more ambitious behavioral targeting efforts have failed.

Behavioral targeting — the process of targeting the most relevant people at the best possible time — is perceived by proponents as an all-around win. Properly executed, it serves ads to highly-qualified individuals instead of vague demographic groups. This means advertisers get higher conversions, publishers don't have to focus on drawing the interest of a favorable but nebulous group, and users see more relevant advertising.

But for behavioral targeting to work optimally, it cannot be confined to a single platform. It must track user activity web-wide, not just within a given website.

Companies like US-based NebuAd and UK-based Phorm have tried cracking the industry with behavioral ad options that work at the ISP level. Privacy advocates fought the models adamantly, and users were skittish about behavioral targeting at the ISP level — a feeling exacerbated when ISPs launched pilot tests of behavioral ad products without explicitly informing customers. (See the examples of BT and Embarq.)

Because Headup is browser based, it can monitor all web activity. Over time, it interprets how other data across the web relates to what you read or watch. And instead of building "standards" to which other sites must conform in order to be "interpreted" by the service, Headup uses Microsoft Silverlight to analyze content as-is, reports Search Engine Land.

Why might Headup succeed where others failed? It operates strictly in the hands of users instead of through ISPs, which cast a dubious "big brother" shadow. It's no less "intrusive" — as NebuAd and Phorm's models were perceived to be — but its user-side approach may change perceptions of the technology, crucial to achieving mainstream acceptance of behavioral targeting.

As customers surf, Headup compares what they're viewing with a meta detabase of similar pages. Sites viewed by friends are also incorporated, when available. And while users must opt in to access Headup, it doesn't make itself too obvious once downloaded: a personified "+" symbol designates relevant content. Clicking on it brings up a separate window with relevant links or other sites.

Search Engine Land illustrates Headup's capabilities with an example:

Say you’re browsing a music CD on Amazon. Headup recognizes that you’re reading about music, so it goes to work and shows you things like:

• How many of your Facebook friends like this band
• A link to hear the band’s latest music streamed via Pandora
• Links to let you see band pictures on Flickr
• How to find tickets for a concert by the band in your city via Zvents
• How many of your friends are using Twitter or Friendfeed to discuss the upcoming concert
• What restaurants near the concert hall are top-rated by Yelp

As demonstrated, the tool is positioned strictly as a service to the user — with incidental, and highly-relevant, windows of opportunity for advertisers.

Headup is currently limited to the above-mentioned partners, as well as Google, Gmail, Yahoo, Wikipedia and digg. SemantiNet will add more partners as the year progresses.

The offering launched in limited beta this week.