This piece, recently published in The New York Times, examines the extent to which Internet companies such as Yahoo, Google and Microsoft are collecting user information to better gauge what types of advertisements to show them. It’s certainly very enlightening from a consumer standpoint, but it also touches on something that PR people are going to have to start coming to terms with, something deemed "the digital divide".

The rich troves of data at the fingertips of the biggest Internet companies are also creating a new kind of digital divide within the industry. Traditional media companies, which collect far less data about visitors to their sites, are increasingly at a disadvantage when they compete for ad dollars.

Increasingly, advertisers are less concerned with size, which has typically been measured by unique page hits, and more concerned with substance, increasingly being measured by the amount of information these web companies can learn about internet users. This, of course, allows them to better determine the habits and preferences of consumers and therefore tailor ads to specific desires. So, what does this mean for public relations other than to reinforce the perception that traditional media is losing both its ad revenue and its clout? PR can effectively use this data to do the same thing! As PR practitioners are fast becoming content providers for the web, we too can improve our aim and better target our communications to the intended audience. Better demographic information would allow us to identify those who have similar interests as those already consuming our content. If we can find a way to utilize this data, then perhaps the divide won’t seem so great.