Jeannette Borzo recently wrote a story for Wired [article] about the rise of Netvibes, and its trend-setting creator, Tariq Krim. Netvibes is web dashboard that incorporates RSS-type tools for a seamless, attractive personalized “homepage”. The article focuses on how Netvibes itself does not show advertisements. In order to have any kind of advertising exposure to a Netvibes user, a company has to create a module, specifically for Netvibes, that is useful for something other than display advertisements.

The article stops just shy of predicting the demise of the online display advertising industry. “Soon,” it supposes, “online advertisers everywhere will have to drop their blinking pop-ups and make themselves useful.”

That’s enough to make a online advertising exchange nervous, until one looks deeper at what’s being offered.

When I open Netvibe’s default homepage, I see an example of what I could configure as a user. Weather forecasts, email notifications, RSS feeds from major newspapers, even a Flickr photo search. I’ve got all the information I could want, right at my fingertips - without having to navigate through the individual pages that actually house the content. If I want to read the latest story at the Times, I click directly on the headline. I don’t bother telling MLB.com which of the 31 teams I follow, I just pump their Spring Training reports directly onto my dashboard and click on what I find noteworthy.

In short, the only pages I view are traditionally three or four clicks deep. This is ad space we typically refer to as “non-premium” – the kind of inventory traded on the Right Media Exchange. If the rise of personalized dashboards actually devalue any online advertising, it will be premium, portal-site ads… the kind served to a user when they walk in the front door (this notion is slightly suspect- the article does address counter-points about the need for distribution of advertising dollars across multiple media). Even with a dashboard, I still click on the stories in which I’m interested, the blog posts that catch my eye, and the newest stupid video. These “non-premium” sites become more valuable than ever, because my dashboard is doing the navigation for me.

The Wired article is heavy on the revolutionary lexicon. Users will get “spoiled” by the services of this “technology bellwether” who could be, “once again, at the vanguard of a coming trend.” Sounds a little scary, but fear not. The real revolution will be in the value assigned to deep-down, non-premium inventory. Tools like Netvibes highlight the need for a system that allows for efficient, profitable trading of this type of ad space.
If you’re a member of the Right Media Exchange, you’re already ahead of this trendy tech curve.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 23rd, 2007 at 3:57 pm and is filed under Right Media Exchange. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.