Stardate 20010628.1616 (On Screen): ZDNet takes a cheap shot at Yahoo for a perceived inconsistency. While Yahoo claims it can't suppress access to certain material from users in France, it is at the same time adopting a geographically-targeted advertising mechanism. Ha ha.
There isn't actually any contradiction, because the two are not related. The difference is one of efficiency. For the targeted advertising to work, it only has to be mostly correct. The idea is simply to boost the relevance rate for advertising, but it doesn't have to be 100%. If, say, 10% of the ads fly to the wrong places then it will succeed. Among other things, this article claims that the targeted advertising will know where the user is. That's not correct. What it will know is where the licensee of the IP block is. But, for instance, if I were to access an account at Software Tool and Die (world.std.com), then Yahoo's system would think I was in Massachusetts even though I'm in San Diego. (For the first few months after I moved here from Boston, I did exactly that, dialing into STD via long distance. That only ended when I got my RR cable modem.) Most people using a dynamically allocated IP will indeed be geographically near the system which licenses it, but not all. To stop hate material from reaching France, it would require nearly 100% success, and that's not possible; how is Yahoo to know whether someone in France is using a local network access point to use an account on a server in the US? It can't, but it would have to in order to fully comply with the French court order.
Moreover, targeted advertising will be handled by a specific server, and the people purchasing the advertising will do the work of deciding where they want it delivered. But to suppress hate material, Yahoo itself would have to monitor all the things posted on its site (including its auctions) and categorize them, because the people setting the auctions surely won't do it. It's not a comparable situation. So while it makes a great laugh-line, ZDNet is off base here. (discuss)
