Rogers Sportsnet launched its new MySportsnet.ca site today which is a highly personalized site for Sports fans. MySportsnet.ca automatically customizes the content on the website depending on the users behaviour. For example if the user reads a lotabout Hockey they will get more content related to Hockey on their
homepage. The same personalization can also be applied to on-site advertising based on the users interests.
The site reminded me of a conversation last year about the real growth online being in the Implicit Web. For most websites today you need to be explicit setup and you have to
tell the site what you want and how you want to see things going forward. For many users this level of customization is not practical and creates a barrier for them to use the technology. RSS readers and social network sites run into this challenge where users don’t see a real benefit from the site until they invest a lot of time importing
their information. Facebook does a good job of allowing users to find friends from their personal email accounts like Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo.
Where websites can create an Implicit experience it can be very powerful. For example when you buy a Harry Potter book on Amazon.com it automatically suggests other books that you might like. This is based on user behaviour that Amazon.com can aggregate and create a recommendation for the user. The user does not need to
explicitly search for similar books or try to find other titles by the author. This is a great example of the Implicit Web Experience.
The challenge as marketer with the Implicit Web, is user privacy. In many cases its only possible to create an Implicit Experience a lot of user data and this creates a privacy concern. The easiest solution to have a clear privacy policy, avoid capturing personally identifiable information, and allow users to opt-out where practical.
MySportsnet.ca does a good job of handling these concerns. The site is powered by a desktop application ( PC only ) that is used to track the content that you read online. The application privacy policy states it doesn’t capture personal information and the application can be easily turned off and un-installed. After running it this morning and watching the site update as I read more about the Toronto Maple Leafs than the Toronto Blue Jays its easy to see how this can be a powerful experience. My only complaint was the the website wasn’t available at all when I closed the desktop application or if I used a different PC.
MySportsNet.ca is a great example of the experiences that are possible with Implicit Web and the balance with privacy that we’re going to face as we develop these experiences.