More than 25% of contact centers suffer from data overload -- and an even higher percentage of service reps who have access to customer information don't use it to the fullest to support calls, according to a study released by the International Customer Management Institute (ICMI) and WhitePages PRO, "A Wow Customer Journey: Actionable Data in Today's Multichannel Contact Center."

Mobile data represents a next level of behavioral detail for profiling users. As the market matures, mobile DMPs will help marketers personalize both their mobile advertising as well as their in-app experiences.

Some 300,000 servers that hold gosh-knows-how-much data power the back-end of Xbox One, along with the technology supporting the entertainment console: Deep Natural Networks (DNN), inspired by human brain neuron functions, can detect patterns akin to the way biological systems recognize patterns that allow us to better understand natural language, Stefan Weitz, senior director of Bing, explains.

Extending the programmatic ad platform from online display to create addressable TV ads has been one of the industry's pet fantasies since I started covering it back in 2001. Comcast apparently will be taking a big leap in this direction with its first attempt to target ads to specific households within linear programming.

Traditional performance metrics challenges marketers for a variety of reasons. Let's start with the consumers who use multiple browsers and devices to access the Internet. They connect with brands through Web sites and apps, and most major mobile Web browsers don't accept third-party cookies. Then there are those pesky security programs deleting third-party cookies on average every seven days.

The new FAA regulations for using devices during take-offs and landings opens up one of the last remaining no-fly zones for digital media. Resistance is futile. Digital is the environment now.

During the past week, I've provided personal information like phone number and address to renew a driver's license, and make a purchase online. I willingly provided the information because it's required to conduct the transaction, and I think, or at least hope, the organization will keep it private. I'm a little bothered by the idea that companies might use that information to serve me ads, but using self-reported information continues to become more prevalent and, well, accepted.

"Your thingie didn't go off," my wife remarks as we start walking through the mall. A husband can take this phrasing a number of different ways, but with my wife I already know that "thingie" refers almost always to a gadget, any gadget. If I do a quick contextualization of her comment, I get that what she really meant to say was that my usual geo-fenced apps did not give me their customary "ka-ching!" sound as we entered the mall.