7th Level, Net Perceptions Will Integrate Their Technologies

7th Level Inc. formed a new technology agreement with Net Perceptions to integrate and resell Net Perceptions’ personalized recommendation software with 7th Level’s Agent 7 character animation technology.

By integrating with Net Perceptions’ GroupLens Recommendation Engine, Agent 7’s animated characters are designed to react intelligently to individual viewer interests and guide consumers to and through Web sites to make buying, training and service decisions. Financial terms of the arrangement were not disclosed.

Net Perceptions said that more than 50 customers have selected its technology for one-to-one marketing including Amazon.com, ARTUFRAME, Audio Book Club, Billboard Talent Net, CDnow, E!Online, iVillage, Music maker.com, N2K and Planet Direct.

“By combining the strong design capabilities available in Agent 7 with the leading personalization element in GroupLens, sites can literally employ a visual sales person who provides personally tailored recommendations to hundreds of customers at the same time, gets smarter with each interaction and never needs a day off,” said Steven Snyder, president and CEO of Net Perceptions. “This maximizes the capabilities of the Web in a way that can surpass many real life shopping experiences.”

The ability to integrate Agent 7 characters and GroupLens recommendation instructions is made possible only through 7th Level’s core technology–Media Control 7 (MC7). 7th Level demonstrated MC7 at the Internet World show in Chicago.

MC7 is made to control, manipulate and publish multiple sources of media streaming over the Internet and other networks, or multiple sources resident on standalone PCs.

“7th Level has offered Web sites the ultimate flexibility in designing animated characters for their online deployments that are the most effective for their customers,” said Richard Merrick, CEO of 7th Level. “By adding the GroupLens personalization element, our customers will be able to offer their Web visitors an experience that closely emulates the real world with the added advantage of the character understanding and responding based on your individual taste and preferences.”

The GroupLens approach harnesses the collective knowledge of a site’s users to make specific recommendations for each individual, the company said. It learns more and more about the user over time, resulting in increasingly valuable personalized service.

Working behind the scenes, GroupLens helps online businesses foster one-to-one customer relationships by tailoring Web sites to deliver specific and meaningful content and ads based on the preferences of each individual user, the company said.