In an effort to create magazines that can read you, NYC-based Mediamark Research (MRI) announced today that it will begin testing a new technology that can print an interactive microchip on a page, giving advertisers the ability to electronically measure readership of not just magazines, but of individual pages within mags as well. The technology is called radio frequency identification (RFID) and it’s already in place at EZ pass highway tolls in the U.S.
This project is part of a deal with Cambridge, Mass.-based TagSense, a company that has developed the means of relaying data between printed RFID tags and electronic ‘readers’ stationed nearby. Readers can be installed in retail outlets, etc. in an effort to measure when, where and for how long consumers are exposed to pages within a magazine. Though the technology is still years from deployment, MRI said it could begin a large-scale market trial in as little as 18 months.
On Tuesday, Google began its beta testing of ‘AdSense for Feeds,’ a new version of its program that gives access to Web site owners to place AdSense units into their RSS or atom feeds. This allows advertisers that have purchased keywords via Google’s AdWords system to be displayed. The search engine’s entry into this channel is aimed at creating feeds as a medium that can be monetized by publishers.
