Apple hopes to bridge the gap between these digital and physical worlds. The company just released an update to its Apple Store app for iOS. Using the application, customers can not only purchase Apple products like they can on the Apple website, but they can now opt to pick them up in person at one of the company's many retail locations.

The app can also be used as a sort of self check-out scanner for certain accessories in Apple stores. Need a new case for your iPhone or a power adaptor for your MacBook? Now you can scan the item with your phone's camera, pay for it in the app and be on your way.

This model offers a glimpse of one version of what the future of commerce may look like. E-commerce is infinitely more convenient for certain things, but sometimes consumers still need to see and try a product in person, whether it's a MacBook Air or a pair of jeans.

For retailers, offering a mobile app that alleviates some of the pain of real world, bricks-and-mortar shopping can provide a competitive advantage on digital platforms without cannibalizing physical in-store sales. Mix in location-based offers and coupons and the incentive for consumers to swing by the store is even greater.

What this Means for Advertisers

Advertisers will have access to Facebook's Open Graph, meaning that advertisements will be far more targeted. If a user says they love basketball, a sporting goods store could target ads to that user. Currently advertisers can only target users based on the Pages they Like - and we all know that the act of clicking "Like" doesn't mean very much at all.

Plus, shopping is inherently social, said Facebook's Director of Platform and Mobile Marketing Katie Mitic:

"Integrating Facebook Open Graph technology across EBay's global commerce platforms represents a powerful way to bring people together across an inherently social activity - shopping."

But just because an activity is inherently social, it doesn't mean that people want to do it together online. Or does it?

Facebook's Previous Social Failures

This is not the first time Facebook has jumped into the commerce space. Just last year, Delta Airlines launched a Facebook "ticket window," which many thought would be the future of e-commerce. Instead, people continued buying tickets from the airline's website, or through deal-finding services like Kayak.com. This proved to be a non-social activity - or, at least, Facebook hasn't found a way to make it social online. When it came to social search, Bing tried highlighting pages that user's Facebook friends "liked." This feature did not take off. Facebook's attempt at challenging Groupon through social deals closed after four months later, and Facebook's Time Warner Facebook app for movie streaming also went down as a failed social activity.

Will EBay's Facebook Presence Change the Social Commerce Game?

Facebook has a history of conflating the social graph with the interest graph, and the new EBay integration might fall prey to that very problem.

The social graph charts "who I know" while the interest graph shows "what I like," and the two don't necessarily mix. For example, what if you're a die-hard Jean-Luc Godard film fan but your closest friends dislike French film? Or what if you have a friend that loves baking bread at home while you prefer dining out at gluten-free restaurants? You won't necessarily start disliking Jean-Luc Godard films and loving bread just because that's how your friends feel.

The social graph and the interest graph may overlap completely in a few key friendships with a best friend, or someone who you jokingly claim you "share the same mindscape" with. These are the relationships that Facebook is really looking for. The question is, will there be enough data available for the behemoth social network to actually find them? Or will it lean heavily on recommendations being shared between friends on social networks?

Google decided to launch Google Commerce for mobile after discovering that nearly 80 percent of its biggest customers do not have a mobile-optimized website, according to an article on PCWorld.

This is just another eCommerce move from Google, after the recent launch of Google Wallet, continued expansion in Google Offers and Google AdWords' incentives for good mobile websites.

People have long said that it's in Google's best interest to support performance improvements to the Web, because the better surfing works, the more ads users will see. So too, though, does Google have an interest in improving the reliability of the purchasing experiences that users have when they click through any ads online. The more people trust online stores, the more they will click on online ads. That makes me think that this experimental new service could prove very big for Google and for the rest of the Internet.

The video above had leaked online a month ago, but no further information had been available until the official announcement today.

Google's trusted brand, extensive reach and offerings throughout the supply chain all combine to make this a significant effort. It's also further indication of the company's long-term goal of offering analytics far beyond old-fashioned website visitor numbers.

Just as Google Offers aims to drive traffic, Google Places offers reviews for offline real-world stores and AdSense delivers traffic, now Google Trusted Stores aims to provide reputation insurance that will supercharge online stores.

On the other end of the purchasing cycle, Google just released real-time Google Web Analytics and is making major investments in Google Wallet for offline purchasing. Put it all together and it looks like an end-to-end, cradle-to-grave, high-touch platform that could enable all the better the company's stated goal of being able to offer up recommendations for web and other content before users even know they want to ask for it.

It makes sense and is incredibly ambitious. We'll see how many of those different programs the company can pull off.

The lockers, which come in several sizes, are located on a wall in a 7-11 convenience store in Seattle surrounding an ATM-like device that allows a customer to key in a PIN and pick up their Amazon package.

We don't have Amazon's confirmation, but it is quite possible that by installing these boxes in convenience stores, Amazon will allow customers to pick up anything that Amazon sells, including books or food.

Amazon is the latest online company to offer services usually offered by shrinking government institutions and to create solutions, a trend spotted in the United States and elsewhere.

Email has for years clawed away at real world mail delivered by carriers dressed in blue uniforms. Now, Amazon is jumping into the increasingly large gaps opening in a U.S. Postal Service whose effectiveness continues to be compromised by increased costs and declining tax revenue.

In fact, it is at the brink of default; it is likely the Post Office will miss a payment of $5.5 billion to the U.S. government on Sept. 30, and the Postmaster General has threatened that the service will need to close 3,700 local offices and fire 120,000 employees.

We have put in a request for more information about the locker system in Seattle and what it will mean for the company as a whole. We will update when we know more.

Google Catalogs features the most recent catalogs from retailers like Eddie Bauer, Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie and Crate & Barrel, but every item in each photo is adorned with a small tag icon which, when tapped, reveals details about that product.

Rather than just sticking to the paradigms of print, Google works the remixable characteristics of the Web into this app, allowing consumers to make photo-based "collages" of their favorite products, which can be organized by theme, color, retailer or any other criteria you can imagine. Those collages can be shared via email with anybody. It will attach an image of the collage to the email so they don't necessarily have to have the Google Catalogs app to view it.

The app is only available on the iPad for now, but an Android version is reportedly in the works.

Banks, credit card companies, mobile carriers and tech companies big and small are all clamoring to position themselves to benefit in a cashless, mobile future, but some recent reports suggest that consumers are going to need a little more time.

"Paying by mobile phone won't save them money," Consumer Reports said in a press release. "Google Wallet merchant transaction fees are the same as those charged on plastic payments, and the same is expected to be true for Visa's digital wallet. Square and PayPal Mobile charge merchants even more than the average big bank fee, 2.75 and 2.9 percent of the transaction amount, respectively."

So if they're not saving money why would consumers be compelled to jump onboard with mobile payments? One could argue that convenience is a factor, but at the end of the day, pulling out a wallet and swiping a card may not be seen as an overly laborious task by most consumers.

Perhaps a bigger factor is the adoption of the technology. In most markets, it's still relatively rare to encounter the option of paying for things via NFC or a comparable technology. More importantly, NFC-enabled handsets are only now making their way onto the market, and there's still uncertainty over whether the technology will be included in the next iteration of the iPhone.

There's also the matter of consumer trust. Another survey released today indicated that most consumers trust credit card providers to handle mobile payments far more than they trust tech companies like Google and eBay. Only 12% of respondents said they would trust Facebook with handling their mobile transactions, not a shocking figure given the company's reputation on privacy.

What do you think? Are consumers ready to pay for things by waving their phones? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Amazon's first big venture into Facebook-enabled selling is targeted at Facebook moms, who can also use the store to shop for other P&G products like laundry detergent and shampoo.

The news of Amazon's first Facebook store was first reported by TechFlash, but we've reached out to Amazon.com to confirm whether or not this is, in fact, the actual first, as details were not available in the press release.

Assuming it is, though, the choice makes sense. Those who have opted in to following the Facebook fan page for Pampers are clearly the target market for buying the product.

The store front is made available via a tab at the top of the fan page that simply reads "Shop Now." Click the tab and you're taken to what is essentially a micro-site dedicated to everything P&G, with a big focus on the leading product, the Pampers diapers. However, the left-side navigation also directs you to other products including home care items like laundry soaps and paper products, and "personal care" items like deodorant, hair care and oral care products.

The Facebook store is powered by Amazon's Webstore service, a solution that helps customers build custom, branded e-commerce sites powered by Amazon.com. Facebook-enabled Web stores are not currently listed as one of the options or features of the service. That means this was a custom solution Amazon built for P&G, possibly as an experiment in the area of Facebook e-commerce.

But Wait! This is Bigger Than it Seems

I know what you're thinking: "Big deal, you can buy Pampers on Facebook. Who cares?"

But that's missing the point.

Buying diapers via a P&G-owned Facebook page is only the beginning. Although Amazon spokeswoman Tracy Ogden told TechFlash that the company "wouldn't discuss future plans" when asked if Amazon would be powering more storefronts in the future, we imagine it will. Facebook now has half a billion users, and many of them have opted into relationships with companies, brands and products through the use Facebook likes. These are a company's best customers - the ones who are willing to watch the ads, share their opinions and check out the latest deals and discounts. It only goes to reason that they will buy the products, too.

Or so you would think. Interestingly enough, social commerce hasn't yet led to a large volume of sales, Forrester Research e-commerce analyst Brian Walker told TechFlash.

That broad statement seems to discount the successes some savvy brands have already seen leveraging social networks, though. Take Best Buy, for example. It, too, has an integrated shopping tab on its fan page. Only six weeks after its late 2009 launch, it helped the company grow its fan base from 27,000 users to 900,000 and sent traffic to its official website. 

If this topic interests you, note that Best Buy will be one of the companies presenting at analyst firm Altimeter Group's upcoming conference, "The Rise of Social Commerce." Other companies speaking at the event include Hallmark, Dell, Nielsen, Newell Rubbermaid, Virgin America and Zynga.

Buying diapers on Facebook may not seem exciting to you, but the potential for Amazon stores on Facebook certainly is.

EFAC is essentially an affiliate advertising network that gives a majority (70%) of its profits to charity. With the popularity of social sharing on the Web and the rise of recommendation services, EFAC seems to be a perfect fit for the Web-savvy shopper looking to help raise money for a good cause.

The privately-funded startup is launching with 10 high-profile charities, including the American Red Cross, the Humane Society of the United States and Kiva.org. Other charities will be added to the site over time based on demand from user voting. Users can also earn points, badges and prizes based on their activity - a tenant of today's social Web that has been proven to drive deep engagement.

The company hopes to raise further private equity later this year and intends on using the money to develop mobile applications for both the iPhone and Android devices.

Woot's core service is to offer one highly discounted item for sale each day, until either time or inventory runs out. The items are of variable quality, but are often just good enough to buy, and the whole experience is a lot of fun. It's an unsurprising acquisition by Amazon, but could have an impact on the larger company.
Update: Read this analysis from an ecommerce perspective - Woot + Amazon = Real-Time Social Shopping

If you thought Zappos was a gonzo company acquired by Amazon, Woot probably takes the cake. It's a testimony to the fact that you don't have to be a buttoned-up wonk to succeed online (though we probably all knew that already, right?).

Supply Chain Speed-Up

As we wrote about the Zappos acquisition 11 months ago, Amazon has mastered the art of the scalable supply chain and is in a strong position to drop the costs of any business it acquires substantially.

As we wrote last year:

Lora Cecere, VP of value chain services at AMR Research, says she agrees with Busch. "It's now a multi channel play," she told us. "Zappos deals with quick cycles, Amazon has longer cycles and is warehouse centric. They are really dealing with different supply chains. I wonder if it wasn't a preemptive move to block another competitor from acquiring Zappos."

Much of the same could be said about Woot. It will likely compliment the Zappos team and philosophy and help make Amazon all the more agile. Woot said today that it would operate independently, but it's also safe to assume that the culture of Woot will have an impact on the culture of Amazon. It could even make the mega-retailer a little more fun.

The announcement comes at a time when the mobile-payments market has begun to heat up with competition between startups and large credit card providers. San Francisco-based startup Square has many people excited about its mobile application and dongle that allows credit cards to be scanned by various mobile devices; online payment staple PayPal recently teamed up with Bump Technologies to provide a mobile transaction service as well.

Visa also recently announced its own foray into the mobile payments market. Earlier this month, the MasterCard competitor teamed with DeviceFidelity to launch special cases for iPhones which would allow users to take advantage of Visa's wireless and contact-less payment method, Visa payWave, straight from their phones.

But mobile payments is just one of the platforms MasterCard hopes developers will innovate on using its technology. The company says it has identified 20 other areas in which their APIs could be used, including payroll systems, social networking applications, eWallets, and online games. With the growing popularity of sites like Blippy, which allows users to automatically share their credit card purchases with their friends, MasterCard may be providing a valuable API to developers at a ripe moment for these kinds of platforms and services.

Many have been skeptical about these new services due to apparent security risks that come from mobile payment systems, but MasterCard is taking precautions to make sure their platform is not abused. According to its press release this morning, "all developers will be approved and registered by MasterCard to ensure that MasterCard payment and data services continue to be used appropriately and productively."

With 145 million online shoppers expected by the end of 2010, e-commerce in China has come a long way since it began about a decade ago. What types of business models exist? Who's shopping online and what are they buying? And where do we go from here?

How did it all begin?

Jack Ma and his partners launched Chinese e-commerce in 1998 with Alibaba.com, a business-to-business online platform. Like the Web firms of Silicon Valley, Chinese firms felt the shockwaves of the Internet bubble bursting in early 2000 - but in China the Internet industry continued to grow. 2003 was a turning point for Chinese e-commerce with the release of Alipay, Alibaba's version of PayPal, which provided a secure means for online payment.

2003 also marked the first entry of Western multinationals in the Chinese e-commerce market - first by Ebay taking a controlling stake in Eachnet, and then with Amazon subsequently doing the same with Joyo.com in 2004. Roles reversed in 2005 when Alibaba Group gained control over Yahoo!'s Chinese search platform. A period of explosive growth began in 2008 as China's e-commerce market grew to 100 billion RMB, with 80 million online shoppers.

Where are we today?

In 2009, China's e-commerce market totaled 263 billion RMB (approximately $38.5 billion) with growth equivalent to about 105% increase year-on-year. Currently, consumer-to-consumer (C2C) represents the largest segment of China's e-commerce market; however, business-to-consumer (B2C) is increasingly growing in importance due to two trends.

Traditional Retailer to Online Retailer: Traditional retailers are developing e-commerce platforms as additional channels to get consumers to buy their products. From brand name domestic retailers to state-owned enterprises, there is a major push to go online. It has even been reported that Wal-Mart is set to release its own e-commerce platform for the Chinese and Japanese markets.

Individual Seller to Online Retailer: Due to the extreme success of particular sellers on existing C2C sites like Taobao.com, online shops that began with a single college student or a small family have been forced to seek out additional support to satisfy market demand. As a result, these one-time, single-person operations have been incorporating into formal enterprises stepping into the B2C space.

What types of business models exist?

China's e-commerce platforms can be classified by the following three models: marketplace model, online retail model and traditional retail model.

Marketplace Model: The marketplace model connects buyers and sellers, whether it is business-to-business or C2C. The company provides a platform to facilitate business between two parties but has no products of its own to offer. It maintains a searchable database of information for buyers and seller to connect, and a secure means to facilitate payment between both parties.

• Top B2B players: Alibaba.com, HC360.com, Myekoo.com
• Top C2C players: Taobao.com, Paipai.com, Eachnet.com

Online Retail Model: The online retail model is where a company has no formal real-world storefront. It provides both products and a channel to sell directly to end customers.

• Top B2C Online Retailers: 360buy.com, Joyo.com, Dangdang.com

Traditional Retail Model: The traditional retail model is similar to the online retail model; however, in addition to the online website the company also has real-world retail outlets.

• Top B2C Traditional Retailers: Gome (electronics), COFCO (state-owned: food and beverage), Lining (athletic apparel)

Who's shopping online and what are they buying?

Shanghai-based iResearch estimates that by the end of 2010 there will be 145 million online shoppers in China. Online shoppers are relatively young - the majority are between the ages of 18 and 35. While this number is split roughly evenly, slightly more women shop than men.

In the early days of Chinese e-commerce, products such as software and DVDs were the top purchases. Currently clothing, books and cosmetics are the top sellers. Additionally, as we have seen in the U.S. with sites like Etsy, companies that focus on niche markets are also sprouting up. For example, 21Cake.com is a popular made-to-order online cake company that sells custom-made cakes online and delivers to China's major cities.

Where do we go from here?

China's e-commerce market is yet to fully mature, but it is entering a period of high-speed growth. C2C sellers that are growing more successful will begin to establish more formal companies, leading to an increase in the number of companies in China's B2C space. While many view the Internet as a sensitive area subject to regulation by the Chinese government, the government supports e-commerce due to its economic benefit and potential for job creation.

One example is Xinjiang, a remote province in western China which recently experienced social unrest. Most websites and email there are blocked - but you can still access Alibaba.com and Taobao.com. Of China's e-commerce companies, Alibaba Group will remain the company to watch in this space for many years to come. However, there is still a lot of room for niche operators to capitalize on the growth potential of China's e-commerce market.

Image by Kim2402.

Many mobile developers are planning on monetizing their apps precisely through location-based advertising. There's no clear criteria for how much advertising is too much, and perhaps Apple will exercise discretion in recognizing advertisements as merely supplemental to other features in many apps, but the language used by the company is wholly disconcerting and is another great example of the perils of developing on a closed platform like the iPhone. This is crazy.

If you build your application with features based on a user's location, make sure these features provide beneficial information. If your app uses location-based information primarily to enable mobile advertisers to deliver targeted ads based on a user's location, your app will be returned to you by the App Store Review Team for modification before it can be posted to the App Store.

Some people immediately accused Apple of implementing this policy so that it alone could use location-based advertisements on the platform.

But what's with this language about how location can only be used to "provide beneficial information?" Who makes this decision and where on earth does Apple get off making a policy like this? The company says earlier that location may be used to tell phone owners about "nearby restaurants, ATMs, and other location-based information." What if the restaurants serve unhealthy food, though? What are you going to spend that ATM cash on if this iPhone app helps you find it? How does Apple determine that advertisements, particularly ones for things you could buy in the place where you are, are not beneficial?

What this means for location based social networking, Augmented Reality, mobile eCommerce and other types of applications is unclear. Apple is going to have to do something about this. Location-based advertising has been expected to make economically feasible a universe of new mobile applications. The prospect of Apple taking an anti-advertising stance in selecting which iPhone apps to allow into the App Store is pure insanity.

I've used a number of apps in the past few days that are great apps, but ask for my location so they can serve me up locally-based ads from the recently Google-acquired AdMob ad network and that was just fine by me. Show me ads for businesses in my town, please! Why can't even apps without other location-based features not be monetized by local ads? This seems totally unfair.

Over the past decade, the Internet has evolved at a rapid pace, and if you didn't jump on the bandwagon in years past you may be feeling like it's a bit too late to establish an online business. That's not the case, however, and 2010 is the perfect time to start doing business online. The underlying technologies of Internet architecture are well-established and are more affordable now than ever to end-users.

From an economic perspective, now is also a good time to consider starting or growing your business. The global economy is showing signs of recovery from recession, and catching an economic upswing when growing a small business is always a good thing. Small business loans from banks and other creditors may still be difficult to come by, however, which makes an online business an even better choice due to low start-up costs. In recent history, a great deal of attention has been paid to the massive growth in large social networks, but now the Internet appears to be shifting towards a more local or hyperlocal focus with smaller communities inside bigger networks becoming more common. As a result, small businesses offering local products or services can find a targeted audience of potential customers to engage with.

All these factors make now a great time to start your business online. Follow through on a 2010 resolution to make money from what you enjoy doing by starting a complete business from the ground up, adding an online component to your existing physical business, or just using a website to supplement other income and test the water for your idea. Below are a few steps you can take to get started.

9 Steps to Getting Your Business Online

Find a little cash: It's probably going to cost a lot to get started with a business website, right? Not so much. Don't fool yourself into thinking that you can't afford to start a business online just because you see startups with millions of dollars in venture capital funding featured on ReadWriteWeb or other tech blogs. A huge number of successful online small businesses were started out of a home office or garage workspace. The Internet is massive, and if you can find a good niche, you don't have to be everywhere at once to be successful. Costs for getting started with a domain name, hosting, basic website creation and online marketing can easily be kept under $1,000 in your first year of business if you plan well.

Get a strong domain name: If you're in the early planning stages of your business, always keep potential domain names in mind when choosing a business name. If you move forward with a great business name only to find the domain name is taken, it could mean back to square one on name planning. Instead, keep a domain search handy as you brainstorm and get creative with names to find a great fit. Your domain name will be your website's permanent address on the web, so it's important to get it right the first time.

Get Web hosting: You'd be surprised how many people think the domain name is all they need to build a website. What you need next is a place to store website files online. That could be something as simple as basic web hosting or a more powerful solution such as a virtual private server - both of which we offer at MyDomain. There are many other options as well, including self-hosting on your own server. There's a decent chance you know these basics already, so if that's the case, make sure to share your knowledge with others who are looking to get started online.

Build a website: There are a huge number of options when it comes to creating a website in 2010. Most hosting packages come with some a website builder that will create a decent, if not slightly dated looking website from a template. If you're not experienced in web design but want to create a good-looking site yourself, look into content management systems such as Drupal, Joomla, or even WordPress as viable options that are easy to keep updated. The best - and not-surprisingly most costly option - still remains to hire a Web design company or freelancer. But if you're serious about your online business, your website design and usability should be a top priority.

Create an e-commerce strategy: Now comes the fun part: figuring out how to let other people pay you. If you want to have an integrated shopping cart solution, you'll be able to sell directly through your site and manage complete product listings. However, this type of solution is the most expensive and complex way to sell online, and a simpler solution may be a better fit for a small business just getting started. A great place to start is simply integrating services such as Paypal or Google Checkout into your website to accept payments. Another viable alternative is to use a website as an informational source for your business, but sell through another online vendor like Amazon, eBay, or Etsy. A final option is to choose to not sell online, but instead establish a website to promote and market your physical business.

Secure your site: If you're planning to sell through your website or will even be collecting sensitive information from visitors, you'll want to look into getting an SSL certificate for your website. SSL encrypts data transmissions to and from your website and is most commonly used to protect credit card and financial data. Varying levels of encryption and visible security indicators for your website are available.

Network like crazy: Traditional networking can be crucial to the early success of a business, and social media can enable you to network effectively online. Talk about social media for business use is everywhere, and there are a huge number of resources and articles available to help you get started. Make sure that above all else, you go where your customers are. Utilize the tools that will allow you to most effectively communicate with those customers.

Track like crazy, too: Make sure you're using website analytics to track your website visitors and sales. Part of the beauty of the web versus a traditional storefront is the ability to easily track, sort and analyze all of the data collected from visitors to your website. Analytics can help you improve your website design, track your sales conversion, see where you're ranking in search engines and much more. Google provides some of the best options available with Analytics, Webmaster Tools and Website Optimizer that all provide invaluable data for any online business.

Grow and organize for the future: If you've made it to the point where you have a website set up, sales are coming in and your business is growing, it's the perfect time to make sure you're fully organized online. Use custom email addresses for your business, and make use of powerful collaboration, calendar and task management tools such as Open Xchange, Microsoft Exchange or Google Apps. Stay on top of the latest Internet trends and changes as things will continue to change rapidly for the foreseeable future. From there, carry your 2010 success long into the future as the Web continues to expand as a great place to do business.

What is "intent data"? Broadly speaking, it's data that purports to show the intent of Web users when they browse a website. For example, a recent report from BlueKai collected and analyzed online shopping data over Black Friday week. In this post we look at that report's findings and then ask some questions about the validity of the data.

BlueKai defined the resulting "shopping intent" data as "search and shopping related activities by consumers on retail and price comparison sites." Specifically these "intents" included price search by auto make and model, travel destination search by airport or city, and activity on price comparison sites.

The report analyzed "more than 10 million online shopping intent actions" for PCs and video game consoles through the week ending November 28, 2009.

Here's a chart showing that netbooks, rather than the recently released Windows 7, had the biggest increase in shopping intent actions in the PC category over the Black Friday holiday period.

BlueKai explained:

"Online intent actions by those shopping for Netbooks surged 81% during the week of Black Friday versus the prior week, with Netbooks reaching 7.1% share of total PC online intent actions for the week ending November 28. Just a month prior, Netbooks comprised only 2.7% of PC-related online intent actions on the BlueKai Exchange."

Here's another chart, this time showing that Nintendo game devices, and in particular the Wii, held the most interest amongst online shoppers during Black Friday week.

How it Works

A New York Times article earlier this year profiled both BlueKai and a similar data house called eXelate. The Times explained how they work:

"They both track who is interested in what through a cookie, an invisible bit of code on a Web page. When someone does a search, for example, on Kayak.com for first-class flights to Paris in September, that information can be captured by a cookie, and Kayak.com can sell that cookie using eXelate or BlueKai."

As well as intent data, BlueKai recently announced a new service that gives advertisers access to shopper profiles. BlueKai CEO Omar Tawakol claimed that this gives advertisers insight into "actual shopping patterns," as opposed to merely surveying a user base.

The problem is, BlueKai is inferring things about a consumer that may not be true. Claire Herminjard of the now defunct Lookery, which tried (and failed) to make a business of capturing explicit user data via a piece of javascript in partner sites, put it well: "[we] make no assumptions about users. If we don't have data on a consumer, we don't pretend that we do (or assume what we think it may be)."

Although Herminjard was primarily trying to position Lookery as a better data source, her other point was that BlueKai is essentially a "black box" and its data can't be substantiated when it comes to users - or their intents.

Questions Over Data Reliability, But There's a Big Market For It

What BlueKai is doing is similar to the methods used by the raft of recommendation engines we've profiled this year. We found in that series that each recommendation engine had its own methods and algorithms; and that it was difficult to judge the accuracy of the data and which company's method worked best.

Likewise, I'm somewhat skeptical of BlueKai's data claims, especially given how unreliable web data usually is (Alexa anyone?).

Nevertheless, BlueKai is attempting to mine a large store of data that up till now has been very difficult to gather and analyze on a large scale online: user patterns on commerce sites. Whether or not the data is reliable is an open question for now, but there is a large market for it - and that will continue as long as online advertising is the main business model on the Web.