Air Force Announces Predator’s New Role,
Orders More Aircraft
As the grandson of a small-town newspaper publisher, Zach Britton knows the money to be had in selling advertising. Specifically, advertising targeted to highly specific markets.
But while his grandfather dealt in metal type and ink as publisher of the Sonora, Calif., Union Democrat, Britton is firmly grounded in the new media.
Britton and fellow UCSD grad Matt Hamson are co-founders of Front Porch Communications, a company that routes electronic advertising to clients who, in the company’s estimation, will be most receptive to them.
Do you point your browser to Yahoo Finance every other click? You’re a good candidate for broker ads.
Front Porch teams up with Internet service providers to monitor clients’ Web surfing habits , confidentially, according to company officials.
The company does not place “cookie” files on user computers. What’s more, user histories are “washed of identity,” according to CEO Britton and Dan Shahbazi, the company’s director of marketing.
Front Porch then uses that data to target its clients’ messages.
The ads are not the little 1-by-4-inch banners typical of Web sites. The “omnistitial” ads pop onto a user’s screen in their own Internet Explorer box.
Making the service confidential was one of the tougher parts of developing the technology, said Britton.
Front Porch places its electronics in the racks of Internet service providers , about 100 so far , which get a percentage of revenues for their trouble. The company claims to reach more than 1 million Internet users in several countries.
Some 40 of Front Porch’s 70 employees work in a suite in Scripps Ranch, which the company calls its international headquarters. Its main office is in Sonora, about an hour outside of Yosemite. The company also has an office in London.
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Shades Of Yesterday:
The town that produced World War II’s B-24 bomber and the more recent cruise missile has produced a 21st-century variant.
The Air Force announced it has successfully launched air-to-ground missiles from the Predator unmanned aircraft, produced by San Diego-based General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc.
Three tests in Nevada culminated Feb. 21 when a Predator-launched Hellfire-C laser-guided missile hit an unmanned Army tank, according to an Air Force news release.
Roughly a month later, on March 26, the Air Force announced an unspecified number of Predators would be deployed in the Balkans at an unspecified date.
The day after that, General Atomics announced it will deliver additional Predators to the Air Force under a new, $39 million contract. Depending on Air Force specifications, the Aeronautical Systems unit will deliver 11 to 14 aircraft for that price, said a company spokeswoman. Delivery will begin in September 2002.
General Atomics reports it has sold a total of 79 Predators. The military also uses the aircraft to gather target information and other intelligence.
Columnar Components:
The emerging business center of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce designated QThink, Inc. as its emerging business for March. The 2-year-old chip design company, based in Sorrento Mesa, has grown from 12 employees at the end of 1999 to 45 today. Akbar Shokouhi is the company’s president. QThink is actually shorthand for QuantumThink Group. San Diego-based Leap Wireless International, Inc. recently rolled out its localized, all-you-can-talk Cricket wireless service in Pueblo, Colo. It is market No. 13 for Leap. The company also has announced new regional vice presidents. Richard A. Meston will oversee the introduction of service in the northwestern United States from an office in Spokane, Wash., while Fred Fonseca will oversee the introduction of service in the Northeast from an office in Pittsburgh.
Send high-tech news to Graves via e-mail at bgraves@sdbj.com.
