According to a survey of 900 e-business executives conducted by Cahners In-Stat Group, large and medium-sized businesses (those with 100 employees or more) plan to nearly double their use of personalization technology over the next year, with about 43% having it in place by 2002. While this percentage might seem low, the number is only growing--global investment in personalization technologies will reach $2.1 billion by 2006, up from $500 million this year, according to a September report from Datamonitor.

With the personalization trend on the upswing, we decided to ask the experts for their opinions and insight about personalization and the best products on the market today.

Barry Schliester, CTO, Ignite Sports, www.ignitesports.com

"The idea that what I bought or did yesterday can help predict what I'll want to buy or do tomorrow is intuitively appealing, and it works very well in certain categories like books and movies. But consumers like being in control, and they get suspicious when you start making too many guesses about what they want. When you talk to people in this industry, they're very dismissive about what they call 'checkbox customization,' in which the user specifies their preferences against just a few variables. To them it seems too literal and old-fashioned…hey, we spent all that money on these fancy algorithms, and you're just checking those silly boxes! But if you can give users a few relevant options, and show that they will receive clear, specific value in exchange, they'll happily volunteer critical information that you can use to market your products and services effectively."

"Media recommendations are the best application of personalization technology. Look at TiVo, which is as good as it gets in personalization these days. TiVo learns from your selections and automatically records similar shows without being asked. This is the logical endgame of personalized media and it's a breathtaking tool: let's say you tell TiVo you liked the movie 'Eight Men Out', about the 1919 Black Sox scandal. On one level it's great to have a machine out there as my intelligent agent, recording other films by John Sayles and documentaries about the scandal. I'll use it. But surprise is one of the joys of learning: maybe I'd like 'High Noon' or 'Modern Times' even better than another baseball movie. I worry that if we're all staring at our personalized screens, rarely experiencing anything new or unexpected, the world will have lost something important."

Hans Peter Brondmo, Netcentives Fellow, Author, The Engaged Customer, www.netcentives.com

"In my opinion ‘personalization’ is not a product, nor a market. Rather it is a capability and a feature. For instance, the Netcentives e-mail platform enables companies to communicate with their customers in a highly individualized manner. It uses a combination of data-driven targeting, timing and content personalization to deliver the right message to the right person at the right time. Is this a "personalization product"? No it is not, it is a communications platform that enables companies to engage customers in a personalized dialogue based on the customers needs and interest.

"Personalization is only relevant if it supports well-defined business goals. Since these goals vary widely, there is no one product that can address all scenarios. While there are a large number of applications of personalization, here are three common ones. The example above illustrates an application of personalized communication. Another application could be personalized product recommendations on a Web site. Depending on the type of recommendations different algorithms and approaches are appropriate. A third application of personalization might be personalized content, delivering relevant information to a visitor based on their stated preferences and viewing habits. Again, based on the type of personalization, no single content management or recommendation applications will work in all cases."

Steven Dworman, president, Digital Media Marketing Organization, www.digitalmediamarketing.org

"Some of today’s leading companies are enjoying incredible success using personalized multimedia for their online marketing messages. The most compelling online personalization tool I’ve seen is Kodak Programmable CD-ROM Technology, which delivers effective 1:1 communications on unique and secure compact discs for uses like e-debit cards, personalized direct marketing and online membership cards."

Louise Wannier, CEO, Enfish, www.enfish.com

"It's important to consider what type of information is being ‘personalized.’ Personalization has to put information in context, so that a user can make better decisions, easier and faster. The Labor Department Reports citing the lowest worker productivity since 1993 means that personalization needs to put information in context so that better decisions can be made--more efficiently and effectively."