By now we all know how our movements online can be monitored in order to display targeted advertising on our screens. But did you know that this practice has migrated from our desktops into our bedrooms?
New York Times article, “Ads Made by You, in a Click“, by Louise Story, chronicles the new wave in marketing: customizing advertisements according to location, local events, weather, and demographics, where the companies themselves can set up amorphous ads in minutes. It seems though, that some of the tactics used to gather information about customers has gone too far. One company can already stake people out through their remote control clicks. Got cable or satellite? What you watch, when, and for how long, becomes marketing data, which is so advanced that these companies can send spanish ads to latinos, toys and game commercials to kids, and so on.
So, is this good or bad? On the one hand, we, as customers, may get exposed to more relevant commercials, learning about products we may actually want, but on the other hand, our privacy is being compromised, and we play no part in choosing the ads interrupting our tv shows. If it was up to me, I’d opt for watching only the funny commercials…
UPDATE: (4/15/07)
And now that all U.S. households will have to be equipped with digital TV’s (no more old-school antennas after the digital switchover!), this issue will be even more crucial. I’m surprised Google hasn’t already advanced in that (the television) area…or have they?

…and so does satellite. I even get sick of my mp3 player, and now it’s broken anyways… In my car I still have a tape player. With no way of taping anything anymore, I can only listen to old, old “mixtapes” I made years ago. These amateur tapes have songs that are temporarily refreshing, since I haven’t heard them in years, but still annoying as soon as the tape replays.
I have tried internet radio, and find the same problem. Lukewarm songs chosen by someone else? Not much better than regular radio, but at least there are (almost)no commercials.
     I have tried Pandora, and now last.fm. Both websites have the same problem, for me: they are both just not big enough yet to really understand what I like, which is a mixture of somewhat-random music such as hip-hop, latin, persian, and RnB. Of course, I am picky within each of these categories, where the only common ‘thread’ would be a sort of ‘passion’ in the music or “mambo.”
     The only time I find myself truly listening to a bunch of great songs in a row would be either during certain radio lunch-hour mixes or weekend pre-night-out dj ensembles. There’s always energy in their choice of songs then, and they typically choose great songs, independent of recent billboard chart hitlists.
     I’m still waiting for the internet custom-tailored mixes to work for me - in the meantime, check out these helpful sites:

• last.fm - helps you listen & find your favorite music based on social data
• pandora - tailors your listening based on ‘music genome project’s’ categories
• Steve Krause’s blog - with a well thought-out breakdown of last.fm vs. pandora
• datawhat? blog - compares various ways of discovering new music
• MusicIP - another music-matching website
• tapestry - finds music playlists for you based on style, theme, & tone
• finetune [via Lifehacker] - first music site I’ve found that actually knew old-school reggaeton (i.e. underground) artists existed…also offers html links of your playlists!

Good luck to you in finding music that works for you. One thing I noticed is that most of these systems work better when you input a specific song or artist rather than a genre or tag…
If you’ve been in my situation and found a solution, please let me know how!!!!