Grapeshot calls itself a ‘contextual intelligence platform’, which could mean just about anything. What they really do is analyze and classify Web page content. The main application these days is brand safety – that is, avoiding placing ads on pages with objectionable messages. Oracle just bought them for an undisclosed amount.
Ok, Dear Reader, I know you’re not always interested in surveys but here are some that are exceptionally deep. First, Evergage dives into personalization and finds that 88% of marketers think their customers expect it but just 31% think marketers get it right. A solid 87% report personalization has generated a measureable lift in results. Good detail here on channels, data sources, obstacles, and such. Best factoid: the proportion thinking personalization should be a high priority has grown from 64% in 2016 to 77% in 2018.
And here’s IDenTV, which uses AI to identify faces, objects, logos, scenes, and activities within videos. It stores them as metadata so the videos can be searched, analyzed and used to train other AIs. You read that right: the machines are making other machines smarter.
The U.S. Senate has passed a bill that could potentially ban TikTok in the U.S. if its Chinese owner, ByteDance, does not sell its holdings within a year. The bill now goes to the President Biden, who has said he will sign it. Court challenges are likely to follow.