Claria's PersonalWeb brings content (and ads) to you

Claria, the company known for its abandoned Gator pop-up advertising business, has completed work on a new "personalization engine" that serves both Web surfers and advertisers.

The company earlier this week completed work on PersonalWeb, software that generates recommendations for content based on a user's search history and preferences. PersonalWeb was built using the Axon Personalization Platform, which the company said this week is being licensed to partners.

If, for example, a person starts going to Web sites to get news on the Chicago Cubs, the Axon software will create a widget with Cubs news and recommendations of other sites on PersonalWeb. The gathered information is anonymous, according to the company.

PersonalWeb is funded by advertising, which uses that same content preference information. If the person searches for high-definition televisions on Amazon, ads for HD TVs will appear on that person's home page.

Claria has extended this Axon personalization technology to other devices as well. It has worked with GoWare to bring content to mobile devices and is working with Building B, which next week will announce that it will use the Axon software for a video entertainment service it plans to release next year.

Rather than trying to market itself to millions of consumers, Claria plans to partner with other companies, such as PC manufacturers, that want to provide a personalized portal to their customers that includes their own content. The company has exited the pop-up ad business altogether and is focusing on content personalization, said CEO Scott VanDeVelde.

VanDeVelde said that the Axon technology is an improvement over portals like MyYahoo where end users manually have to submit preferences. It also tracks users' activities wherever they go on the Web rather than on just a single portal, he noted.