Will there be a future to targeted web advertising?

The Federal Trade Commission is considering stronger protections for consumers against targeted web advertising. Such considerations will shape the role of behavioral or targeted web marketing, but we feel it is unlikely, as some have suggested, that targeted marketing will go out of practice.

Certainly, the question of privacy will guide the possibilities for online marketers in the near future, but relevant content, whether ad content or otherwise, is valuable to consumers. Perhaps, one of the changes that we can expect to targeted online advertising, is the way in which online ad content is made relevant to users. Added transparency and increased user-side control may be a good thing for marketers in the near future. Rather than advertising maintaining an adversarial relationship with readers, users and consumers, it may yield greater results to focus on a more interactive and participatory approach to online advertising.