Every single action we take online can be monitored, analyzed, and then used to serve us even more targeted information. Online advertisers have been doing this for years by dropping cookies and tracking our web behavior. But many of us don’t realize that every iota of our actions are being tracked. It isn’t just the websites we click on, but whether we scroll a screen, how long we spend on a page, what links we click on, where we track or hover a mouse, and so much more. Amazon and Netflix have been using filtering technologies for quite some time.

The same organizations that have been helping retail sites target information are doing the same for content sites. Services such as Baynote and Loomia track and digest more than a dozen user behaviors on retail and content sites to serve up more personalized and relevant information.

Known as “session psychology,” many companies are working very hard to make information more and more relevant in hopes to lead to the goal of Web 3.0, a.k.a. the semantic web.

But our focus has constantly been specifically on user behavior. There are so many other factors, not measured by personal behavior, that affect our decision and interest.

On Friday, the LA Times reported that NBC.com has announced that they’ve enlisting the services of a British company called Filter to serve up more targeted personalized video content. Those recommendations will be based initially on the digital breadcrumbs we leave behind as we search, click, and browse across the web. NBC.com Communicator, built on the itiBiti communications engine, is a separate effort.

What’s intriguing about the Filter announcement is how they’re taking into account other factors that have nothing to do with individual behavior. Time of day, day of the week, and location are some of the other factors that come into play in the decision making process. For example, people are more interested in news information in the morning, but want to watch comedy at the end of the day. Comedy viewing also shoots up dramatically at the end of the work week, said Will Rogers, CEO of Rooftop Comedy.

Filter is keeping much of their secret sauce hidden, but they are also taking into account what videos your friends on Facebook are watching as well. This is not a new concept either. Social reading for recommendations is a feature that Loomia uses as well.