Business.Microsoft and privacy.Change of track.Data on people's online behaviour are worth both paying for and arguing over.AN OLD saw has it that half of all advertising budgets are wasted-the trouble is, no one knows which half.In the internet age, at least in theory, this fraction can be much reduced.By watching what people search for, click on and say online, companies can aim "behavioural" ads at those most likely to buy.In the past couple of weeks three deals and a quarrel have illustrated the value to advertisers (and their suppliers of software) of such fine-grained information. The first deal came on May 23rd.when Oracle said it was buying Vitrue, which helps firms run their marketing on social media, for a reported $300m.On June 5th it added Collective Intellect, which analyses what people say about companies on Facebook, Twitter and so forth, for an undisclosed sum.A day earlier Salesforce.com, a cloud-computing company mustard-keen on social media, had said it would pay $689m for Buddy Media, a competitor of Vitrue's.Buddy should fit in with Radian 6, which, like Collective Intellect, monitors social media―and for which Salesforce paid $326m last year.
商业。微软与隐私政策。信息追踪环境的变化。记录用户在线行为的数据不仅引来买家，也带来争议。老话说得好，砸向广告的投资中，一半都打了水漂――问题是，无人知晓打水漂的到底是哪一半。在互联网时代，这一比例理论上可被大幅压缩。通过观察用户在线的搜索、点击和评论行为，公司能够向那些最可能买账的用户投放"关于行为的"广告。在过去的几周，三笔生意和一席争吵共同道出了这些精确的信息对于广告商的价值（还有他们的软件供应商）。第一笔生意来自5月23号。当时甲骨文公司宣布正在收购帮助企业在社交媒体上做营销的公司Virtue，媒体公布的报价为3亿美元。在6月5日，它又将用于分析用户在Facebook, Twitter等社媒上用户对公司发表的评论的Collective Intellect软件纳入收购计划，收购金额没有公布。日前，对社交媒体极其感兴趣的云计算公司Salesforce.com公布将以6.89亿美元的价格收购Vitrue的竞争者Buddy Media。Buddy 可以使用Radian 6软件，后者像Collective Intellect一样可以对社媒进行监控，Salesforce去年为这款软件出价3.26亿美元。
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