Engage built anonymous profiles of what people did online, so it could show each visitor ads more likely to match their interests. It was one of the companies in CMGI's sprawling internet empire. When it filed to go public in the summer of 1999, online advertising was growing fast. Targeting was the idea everyone wanted to own. Four years later, Engage was in bankruptcy court.

Interest Groups for Advertisers

Engage bet that the web could make advertising far more precise than print or television. It collected anonymous behavior data across many sites and sorted visitors into interest groups. Advertisers could buy an audience instead of a page. Engage paired that data with ad networks and ad-serving software, including AdKnowledge and Flycast, which CMGI folded into it. The goal was a full system for online marketing.

CMGI Walks Away

Engage priced at $15 a share in July 1999 and became a high-flying CMGI stock. When the online ad market collapsed in 2000 and 2001, revenue fell hard and losses mounted. Engage sold AdKnowledge in 2001. CMGI gave up its stake in 2002. In 2003 Engage filed for Chapter 11 and agreed to sell its remaining assets to Scene7 for $1.2 million.

Cover: Lady Tamamushi raising a fan target, Sugimura Jihei. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a fan raised as a target (aiming at the audience).