Tech Shout!

Advertising software and e-wallet company Claria Corporation, released the beta version of its customised web portal on Monday. This move marks the end of a two-year plan to cleanse the company’s image. The site, which is called PersonalWeb, requires a small download that investigates a user’s surfing routine and then places suggested content on the portal without setup from the user.

Apart form the suggested content, PersonalWeb would also offer links to a customers web e-mail accounts and RSS integration. Claria said that it would continue to include more features over the next several months as well as adding support for other browsers.

At present, the service is only compatible with Windows XP and Windows 2000 using Internet Explorer 6 or newer, according to the site.

News of PersonalWeb’s release follows Claria’s announcement made on March 22 that it planned to drop its adware business. Company executives felt the move was necessary in order for Claria’s new search business to be taken seriously.

The California-based company made it clear in its announcement that any information gathered by the application is completely anonymous. Technology known as RelevancyRank would be used in order to find out what content a user would be most likely fascinated with.

In addition, Claria has plans to resell the technology behind PersonalWeb to third parties to create branded versions of the portal. It can even be customised to include the third party’s content by default. According to Claria the deals through this channel are expected by the summer.