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May 25, 2004
Top Web Behavior #9: Create an account
The BehaviorHave you ever been to a website like kgw.com? You click on an interesting story, but before you can read on, you have to register for an account. But you're not planning to send email or buy something: why do you need an account? The answer is simple: tracking. If you don't have an account, each article you view is just another hit to the site. But if you're logged in, the site owner can track all the articles you read over time. What they gain (and you lose)
When you create an account on a website, you're helping that site in a one-two punch. First, you're boosting their member count, helping them present a strong case to their advertisers: ads on large sites are more expensive than those on smaller sites. Second, now the site knows who they're showing an ad to. They know about your interests from data they've gathered, they probably have some demographics about you, and they even know how often you click on ads. This enables them to carefully target the ads you see, and targeted advertising commands a large premium.
In our research, we've found that nearly all of the top 20 sites on the web ask users to create an account. Here are a few examples:
Amazon.com
AOL
Microsoft
MSN
Yahoo!
AOL
Microsoft
MSN
Yahoo!
Posted by at May 25, 2004 01:30 PM
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Comments
Agreed with Tim. Those examples aren't so great. The newspaper online sites are very frustrating to deal with. You just want to read a bit of an article yet have to fill out a 2 page form. But guess what, the username you want is taken, and they need a phone number too. Thanks for the bugmenot.com link!
Posted by: B. Phelps at June 6, 2005 11:05 AM