It's happened before and it will happen again---the inappropriate pairing of an ad and content---in this case an ad for two upscale communities at website "PutYourFeetUp.com", inadvertently paired with a grisly story of severed human feet washing up on a beach in British Columbia.

Contextual advertising is the analysis of keywords and page content to match a page with relevant ads. Unfortunately, the algorithms that govern the placement of advertising versus page content can only filter out so much, and the result is the occasional creepy pairing seen above.

The companies offering contextual advertising, among them Google AdSense, Overture's ContentMatch, and Adsdaq as well as news and information sites and others are surely trying to find away to avoid these unfortunate placements. It's not an easy problem to solve.

So---does this mean you shouldn't use contextual advertising. Not at all. Just be aware that sometimes s**t happens.

Just 6% of consumers nationally are considered “Digital Savvy,” but Scarborough Research says this influential group predicts digital behaviors that will become the norm.

B-to-B marketers, particularly of computer hardware, software and information technology need to be aware that the Digital Savvy are disproportionately represented among corporate decision-makers.

Source: Understanding the Digital Savvy Consumer, Scarborough Research, May, 2008

"Unique Audience" is the total number of visitors who visit a website or use an application at least once in a given period. Multiple visits to the website or application within the same time frame are only counted once.

Unique Audience helps provide a picture of the reach of a particular website, whereas 'visits' help provide a picture of frequency and engagement.

Also referred to as "Unique Visitors."

Source: Nielsen/Net Ratings, Hitwise

The Composition Index compares the composition of a demographic segment that is found within the audience of particular medium---online, application, magazine, newspaper, radio, TV, etc.---to the composition of that demographic segment within U.S. population.

If the index was less than 100, it would mean that the composition of women 18-34 on the QRS.com website is lower than the composition of women 18-34 in the U.S. population.

See also Composition %.

Sugar Inc. is an online media company of blogs and websites that seeks to be “the definitive online media company for trendsetting, passionate women ages 18-44. Sites and communities include Shopstyle and the Sugar Network which includes PopSugar, SugarLoving, BuzzSugar, BellaSugar, FabSugar, CasaSugar, YumSugar, FitSugar, GeekSugar, GiggleSugar and DearSugar.

via Techcrunch

GoFish Network is a media distribution and ad network focusing on 17.4 million U.S. online users, mostly between the ages of 6-17. Websites include Miniclip.com (http://www.miniclip.com), Cartoon Doll Emporium (http://www.cartoondollemporium.com), Cookie Jar Entertainment (http://www.thecookiejarcompany.com), GameGecko.com (http://www.gamegecko.com), and Hallpass.com (http://www.hallpass.com.)

 Source: Adotas.com

iVillage Inc., a division of NBC Universal, is a media company and ad network dedicated to connecting women at every stage of their lives, from health, parenting, pregnancy, beauty, style, fitness, to relationships, food and entertainment. Brand extensions include iVillage
UK , iVillage Total Health and owned sites Astrology.com, GardenWeb and gURL.com, in addition to the Newborn Channel.

The BET Digital Media Group is an online publisher which offers a vertical advertising network to advertisers to provide exposure to African-American Internet users. The network features focuses on music, entertainment and lifestyle content across 30 sites.

Break Media operates branded Internet entertainment communities for men (Break.com, Cage Potato, Chickipedia, and Holy Taco) as well as the Break Men's Ad Network which targets a young, male demographic.

Babelgum a global Internet TV network operated by Babel Networks. They utilize peer-to-peer technology to provide the immersive viewing and high resolution quality of traditional TV with the interactive capabilities of the Internet. 

Babelgum allows users to enjoy free, on-demand, personalized channels. Choosing from niche and mainstream content, users create their own TV channels.  Instead of user-generated clips, Babelgum features professional video material on a broad range of topics from lifestyle to sports.