Adam is one of the co-creators of MindSay. He likes to blog and enjoys long walks on the beach.

So I am in the middle of researching a vendor for e-mail marketing software (basically, something that allows you to send out newsletters without bogging down your own servers) while simultaneously checking something out on MySpace (there was good reason I was on MySpace, I swear!).  Specifically, I was looking into a vendor called "Constant Contact" who I used about two years ago when I was in charge of the newsletter for a software company in VA. 

I click off of Constant Contact's site, and what should I see on MySpace no more than 5 minutes later but a banner ad for Constant Contact!  I don't think this a coincidence - maybe about .00001% of MySpace's users have a need for Constant Contact.  This ad was a result of what's known as "Behavioral Advertising" - ads that appear based on your web usage habits.  While I prefer ads that are relevant to me, I think you should be able to "opt in" to this type of advertising, because obviously a cookie or something of that nature was planted on my PC without my knowledge at some point, which allowed MySpace to serve me this ad.  I'm not a big privacy paranoia person, but I think anything that tracks what you do online should be your choice.

FYI, MindSay does not have any behavioral advertising =)