If I were Acxiom I’d be going on a social media buying spree. Companies like Bit.ly or FriendFeed. Match what they know with real time behavior data. The great thing about URL shorteners like Bit.ly is they permeate the walled gardens like Facebook and the great thing about FriendFeed is it aggregates all that great data.

For decades, data companies like Experian and Acxiom have compiled reams of information on every American: Acxiom estimates it has 1,500 pieces of data on every American, based on information from warranty cards, bridal and birth registries, magazine subscriptions, public records and even dog registrations with the American Kennel Club.

I’ve been doing some thinking on this recently; it’s one thing to collect data on people without them realizing it (most people don’t understand what browser cookies are or exactly what they do) it’s quite another to be able to collect data that users are actively sharing, in realtime.

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