By: Staff Reports Recycler.com Also To Use AdaptiveInfo's Technology
Los Angeles Times Interactive released on Thursday two wireless
applications that distribute content and classifieds to Web-
enabled phones, PocketPCs, and pagers.
AdaptiveInfo Inc., based in Irvine, Calif., has provided the
technology that allows latimes.com and Recycler.com, another Los
Angeles Times Interactive property, to deliver personalized
versions of contents or classifieds.
The latimes.com application includes all content from The
Times' Web site, but the order in which stories appear is
determined by how users select stories over a period of time.
Don Schur, vice president of business development at
AdaptiveInfo, said the technology tracks what users skipped over
so they won't be shown similar stories in the future.
AdaptiveInfo develops these profiles by hosting the wireless
version of latimes.com stories on their servers, sending
individual pages out according to how the user requests them.
Users will have at their disposal the entire newspaper Web site's
stories for the day, but only the pages requested will be sent,
hence saving space and power on the hand-held devices as well.
Schur said that usability tests of the personalization feature
showed that 43% more stories were read when content was
personalized. The experiment tested the service with 3,000 users.
Another result, Schur said, was that personalization increased
the probability of users clicking on a story by 60%.
This personalization service applies to Recycler.com's classified
listings as well. If a hiking enthusiast continues to look for
outdoors equipment, then the user will get classified ads
relevant to the outdoors first. Recycler.com is the Web site for
the Recycler print newspaper that features classified ads and is
owned by the Los Angeles Times.
"The enormous size of our advertising inventory and the
functionality we introduce in this new distribution channel make
Recycler.com To Go the most powerful classified wireless venture
of its kind," said Kevin Klein, general manager of Recycler.com.
"The advantages will allow us to monetize the program quickly by
offering advertisers the ability to narrowly target messages to
prospective customers in their immediate area."
Miller Infiniti of Van Nuys, Calif., has signed on as the first
advertiser to purchase keyword inventory on the Recycler.com To
Go service. The wireless option is being offered to advertisers
at Recycler.com as an upsell.
Schur said that with this technology and revenue plan, they
expect clients to see profitability within two quarters. He also
said other Tribune Web properties were currently in discussions
with AdaptiveInfo, but none of them have signed up yet.
AdaptiveInfo Inc. is a start-up that came of University of
California - Irvine's computer science division. Schur said that
during the technology's development, news was quickly identified
and tested as a viable vertical industry for personalization.
Copyright 2001, Editor & Publisher.
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