Ad Research Group Gets Non-research Head

In an attempt to re-focus the Advertising Research Foundation's (ARF) efforts on selling the benefits of advertising to major marketers, the group appointed ad executive Bob Barocci to head the organization. In the past few years, under previous ARF head... continue reading »

Astrazeneca Sees Big Jump from Little Online Increase

In the latest example of the Internet Advertising Bureau's (IAB) serios of Cross Media Optimization Studies (XMOS), Astrazeneca was able to show an increase in purchase intent by increasing the proportion of online advertising relative to broadcast media. How much... continue reading »

National Geographic Wins Site Design Award

National Geographic won the Best of Festival award for its web site design at the 2002 International Web Page Awards (IWPA). The not-for-profit also took two best-of-category awards, in graphic quality and education. Tig Tillinghast reports on press releases.... continue reading »

Anti-Adware Product Routs Out Ad Software

Feeding on publicity from the recent legal ruling giving sanction to adware pop-up advertising, interMute, a Massachusetts software firm, released SpySubtract, a program suspicious Internet downloaders can use to make sure that pop-up generating software never finds refuge on their... continue reading »

China's Spam Blockage Less than Advertised

Silicon.com published a story (repeated by CNET) about China blocking several spam domains, interpreting it as a "major victory in the war on spam." But a careful reading of the information reveals that only eight Chinese sites have been blocked.... continue reading »

Anti-Anti-Spam Group Gets Self in Legal Trouble

EmarketersAmerica.org, a front group for anonymous "marketers" targeting anti-spam groups, got itself into a legal hole when it decided to sue several blacklist providers. Recognizing that their suit was not likely to bring about the desired result, they are now... continue reading »

Barnes & Noble to Stop Selling Ebooks

Barnes & Noble stopped selling ebooks. Purchasers have about three months to download their previous purchases. The country's largest retailer and distributor of books invested a great deal of money in ebook distribution starting in 1999 Microsoft signed a deal... continue reading »

Blogger 'Pro' Version to Be Discontinued

Ev Williams, founder of Blogger, wrote an email to customers of Blogger Pro to say that the Pro version of the software will be discontinued (the advanced features being absorbed into the free version), in light of Blogger's recent acquisition... continue reading »

RSS, 'The Email Killer,' But Maybe for Real

Lockergnome's Chris Pirillo makes the best case yet for why RSS is going to be an essential counterpart to email marketing in the near future. This is required reading for email marketers. Rick Bruner writes an essay of his own... continue reading »

FoxSports Lets Readers IM Stories to Friends

If you can email stories to friends, why not be able to send the links via instant messaging as well? Adrian Holovarty observed that on FoxSports, you can now do exactly that, though only with AOL's AIM messaging service. Rick... continue reading »

The Inktomi Web Expands

For those of you not already doing XML paid inclusion with Inktomi, you now have more reasons to get going, and I'm not just talking about the upcoming holiday season. In an e-mail to advertisers today, Inktomi announced new alliances,... continue reading »

Overture Europe, Many Languages, Many Markets

Overture is expanding into Europe heavily and Jim Hedger provides a revenue analysis of Overture's Continental prospects. However, Hedger doesn't look at the expense side of the expansion equation. When a search engine moves into a new market, editorial staff... continue reading »