Putting Personalization Into Practice
The N24 Web site [6] belongs to a network of sites operated by Kirch Group that complement associated television stations in Germany. The relaunch of the N24 site focuses on tighter integration with the N24 cable news brand, targeting managers in need of accurate real-time information delivery in the areas of investing, business, politics, and sports. The goals of personalization [5] include creating a one-to-one relationship with existing customers; providing direct access to personally relevant news; seamlessly integrating with the existing infrastructure, including content and its classification; and collecting information about user interests for driving cross-channel customer relationship management (CRM) activities.<BR><BR>From the perspective of a registered user, the N24 site offers a "My News" section on the N24 home page (see Figure 1) that provides a personalized selection of "Top Five" news headlines with direct links to the respective full-text versions of news items. This news selection is dynamically updated in real time as users interact with the N24 site.