Personalization: Definition, Status, and Challenges Ahead.

As is often the case with a good marketing buzzword, the term personalization is used rather loosely today. It has come to stand for an ultimate goal of customer relationship management by businesses. It has also come to mean delivery of information of high relevance to an individual. In any case, given the huge and rapidly growing amounts of computerized information, and the unprecedented level of competition for customers, personalization is one of the most important trends in data processing and businesses. This article aims to offer a reasonably encompassing definition of personalization, examine techniques in use today to support personalization, and provide directions for future research and development for realizing the full potential of personalization.