weeks - 10:56 pm on Apr 9, 2011 (gmt 0)

This is nothing new. The technology has been around for awhile in various forms. What's new is that people are looking at it again because there is finally some interest in this data. I have news for Mr. Yang. They are too late to make money with this, others have beat them.

What's driving this interest now, in large part, is a growing market for targeting. Get ready to hear the typical internet hype that the market for this data has grown by "200 percent" or something. That's from almost nothing, however. But, still, it's a real market.

Much of the interest in geo-location is because all of the lower hanging fruit on the web has been taken, so this is looking more attractive now. And social services such as Facebook as such are making people aware of it as well, but not as much as you might assume. But, mostly it's because web marketing has come, finally, to Main Street. It's a huge ad market, but it's near impossible to sell. Still, people are going to try.

But, from what I see, local as well as national politics are also keen on this now. (You keep hearing now the campaigns are all digital and such. As most people here have likely figured out, that's laughable for 90 percent of the elections.) As you know, there is big money in politics. And, if you haven't heard it before, allow me to tell you: All politics is local. Thus, a market.

As far as this meaning it's time to start getting paranoid...Gimme a break. It has been a long time since there was any meaningful privacy on the web and it has been clear from the beginning that it was going to get worse, not better, as time went on.