Alexa's Banner Space April 28, 1999 Wired News posted a story that did some digging into the latest Amazon acquisitions. Polly Sprenger, the author of the Wired News story, also noticed the terse wording of Alexa's role in Amazon's press release announcing the deals. While profiling and other privacy issues were covered, it seems that another aspect of Alexa's services could also be in play.

A page displaying Alexa's advertising options shows the implications with a screenshot of BarnesandNoble.Com's site with an Amazon.Com banner displayed in Alexa's toolbar. Mining Alexa's database for usage patterns and habits was probably the main reason for purchasing Alexa, however, I wouldn't be surprised to see Amazon notice the banner space in Alexa's toolabars. The usage levels of Alexa's navigation services still slot it in the niche service category, but if Amazon ever plans to distribute Alexa's software at Amazon.Com it might scale up the value (and related privacy issues) of Alexa's database and advertising space.

Related links [1] Inside Amazon's Shopping Cart; Wired News [2] Amazon makes Net triple play; News.Com [3] Alexa'a Demographics; Alexa [4] Alexa First Quarter Newsletter; Alexa [5] The Alexa Effect; Feed Magazine