Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com describes the perfect online shopping experience as launching your browser and finding on the screen the exact item you want--which you may not have even known you wanted until that very moment. "One product," he says, "with one button. And you click on it, and it is sent to you and improves the quality of your life."
Retailers aren't there yet. That perfect calibration of consumer desire and selling proficiency will require more information--privacy advocates say too much information--about you.
Marketers know plenty right now. Advertising networks like DoubleClick and MatchLogic, content sites like...