rotests against Google's invasion of privacy are going to be passe. Lead generation technology and search engine marketing firm netFactor (netfactor.com) has launched VisitorTrack, a product that tracks visitors to business-to-business sites and then matches certain visitors' IP addresses to their companies. The product, dubbed the "caller ID for web sites", grew out of netFactor's core business of search engine marketing, which generated traffic to clients' sites, but had no method for converting those visitors into purchasers.

VisitorTrack works by inserting a piece of Javascript code onto the client's website, which records IP information about visitors. The product automatically discards unactionable leads (for example, users who come from an ISP rather than a corporate office). It then links that IP data to a database provided by the Jigsaw Data Corporation, which provides company names and contact information for various executives and department heads within the company. VisitorTrack's aim is not to track down the exact person who conducted the search but the company from where the search was conducted, in order to convert the lead into a sale. ... more