Phorm Blog

The father of the world wide web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee revealed this week that he had fallen victim to online fraud. This kind of crime is far from rare with around one in four UK internet users having their financial details stolen, according to the Daily Telegraph.

Online scams continue to be one of the biggest threats to internet users today. Data from the Anti-Phishing Working Group, of which Phorm is a member, recorded a 258 per cent increase in fraudulent sites in the second quarter of 2008 compared to the same period a year earlier.

12 months, countless meetings, endless coffee and cookies (thanks IAB!), hours in the making… the world’s first standards for behavioural targeting are unveiled!

It seems a long time since a few of us gathered at the IAB’s then new offices in Macklin Street; the smell of fresh paint permeating everything and everywhere, and a faulty alarm ringing in our ears…

The objectives were simple – helping consumers understand behavioural targeting, increasing transparency and promoting user choice. Getting the key players in the industry to agree on a single set of Good Practice Principles was less simple, but now proven to be a surmountable task!

The role of targeted advertising in the future of the online industry is now part of mainstream discussion. It was on the agenda at “Media and Telecom 2009 and Beyond” a conference run last week by analysts Enders and strategy consultants OC&C. This is a top-flight gathering for leaders from the telecoms and Internet industries. Speakers included John Cresswell ITV COO, Blake Chandlee from Facebook, Neil Berkett, Virgin Media CEO and Ed Richards, CEO of Ofcom. All gave quality commentary on the state of the industry and the path forward. Ben Verwaayen, former BT CEO and now CEO of Alcatel Lucent, set the tone by calling for more radical thinking to embrace the opportunities this economic downturn would offer. He said that under pressure everything becomes possible so in recessions companies can try completely different options.

“Would you pay money to see your favorite site ad-free?” asks Mike Vorhaus this week in Advertising Age.

Um, nope.  I didn’t think so.  Although consumers constantly complain that they hate online ads, a whopping 84 percent of consumers in Vorhaus’ new survey would refuse to pay as little as $3 a month to access their favorite site ad-free.

So now that we’ve established that advertising is here to stay as long as we want access to free internet content, I wonder how consumers would feel about fewer ads – and more relevant ones.

Phorm has been called one of the biggest innovations to emerge in 2008 by one of the online travel industry’s best known figures, Kayak managing director, Faisal Galaria. This puts the company up there with the Apple iPhone, open source, online maps and web analytics tools, according to panellists at Travolution’s Industry Question Time event.

When discussing innovation with fellow panellists from Hoseasons and iCrossing, Mr Galaria highlighted the impact that Phorm could have on the digital world. The Kayak managing director said: “Phorm looks at the user journey. You can learn so much and second guess where the user is going next and what they desire and that could change online travel and change the relationship between user and brand.”