The Weather Channel Will Soon Start Geotargeting You on Twitter
Everyone jokes that when hurricane season arrives, all you see on The Weather Channel are ads for Home Depot and batteries. Well, they really do target advertising based on the seasons, and now they're going to use your location on Twitter to show you ads tailored to your current weather.
Mashable reports that The Weather Company, the parent company to The Weather Channel, is teaming up with Twitter to use its advertising application programming interface (API) to "gain access to the users' information" to help them target where you are. The process is called "geotargeting," which is where companies show you ads based on the location from which you're accessing their website.
If you're at work and it starts snowing, for instance, you might start seeing Twitter ads for hot chocolate or a big cup of coffee from Starbucks. If you're under the gun for major hail, Nationwide is on your side(bar).
It's markedly less invasive than Facebook's plan to use your browser history to 'enhance' your annoying ad experience, but probably unnerving for privacy-minded Twitterers nonetheless.
While users won't see The Weather Channel's name anywhere in the ads (they're just providing the weather data), the Wall Street Journal notes that the Atlanta-based behemoth stands to make commission off of any deals struck through the partnership.
[Image via AP]