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Phorm woos browsers with personalised web

Phorm is aiming to strengthen ties with publishers by allowing them to track and target their visitors' interests as they browse the web.

The web monitoring firm today unveiled "Webwise Discover" in London with the tagline "don't search, just browse". It made the announcement ahead of releasing its annual financial report.

Phorm also hopes that Webwise Discover will encourage ISP subscribers to opt in to have their browsing monitored for advertising targeting. Both systems use the same cookie containing a profile of browsing interests, which excludes sensitive categories.

The new service uses the browsing profile to identify relevant material in publishers' archives and present it in a special widget on the page. Phorm plans further personalisation products based on the same principle.

For example, after browsing travel agent sites for city breaks in Paris, a visitor to a newspaper website might be presented with a list of French holiday articles.

Phorm plans to offer the system to publishers as free embeddable code, claiming it will increase their page views and so revenues. It does not stand to make any money from Webwise Discover, but will use it to build relationships and encourage publishers to join its behaviourally targeted advertising network, OIX.

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