Personalization Vs. Customization

Website personalization and customization offer Internet users a sense of familiarity.

Being an interactive network, the Internet spawns a diversity of personalities in the online community. These personalities show uniqueness by the way they use the Internet, and also by the various features and applications on websites that are continuously being added and modified. Examples of evolving Internet features are personalization and customization, which are website applications that make each user's visit tailored to information known about him from his online identity.

Personalization

The Personalization Consortium, an international advocacy group promoting the advancement of personalization technology on the Web, defines personalization as the combination of technology and customer information tailoring e-commerce interactions between a business and each customer, according to the Internet Encyclopedia. The desired result from this is increased customer satisfaction and loyalty, as the customer sees her needs being anticipated, fostering a perceived justification for a long-term business relationship.

Customization

While customization is also a Web application that conveys information to customers based on gathered information about them, the Internet Encyclopedia cites reasons why personalization and customization are significantly different. While Amazon's personalization features are delivered to the customer without any intentional prompt by the customer, customization is a manual operation done on the website by each Internet user. Examples of this are email service providers like Google or Yahoo!, as any of their users user can tailor what they see on their computer screen to their liking.

Profiling

Personalization requires two types of information about each user: factual and behavioral. Factual information entails transactional details, such as age, income, educational level and favorite brands, says the Internet Encyclopedia. Behavioral information involves information about a user's online activities, like a digital version of a paper trail. Customization doesn't require this information because the act of customization depends entirely on prompts from the user.

Conclusion

The differences and similarities between personalization and customization work together toward the same goal: making the Internet experience more pleasant for each user. These technologies are justified in that they benefit the Internet user and the company or organization managing the website, as the user will more than likely return after sensing the advantages of personalization and customization technologies.

References

• "The Internet Encyclopedia, Vol. 3"; Hossein Bidgoli; 2004

Resources

• Amazon