Google, clearly having given ad supported software much thought, came out with what it defines as proper behavior relative to adware. The principles include very clear installation notification and transparent behavior, as well as easy uninstall features. Google says proper...
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Neiman Marcus lost its trademark appeal to prevent the anti-fur group Fund for Animals from using a similar sounding domain name, neimancarcass.com. The arbitration judge ruled that the names were sufficiently different to prevent consumer confusion, the main test in...
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While their lawyers are getting along, happily targeting and suing spammers together, the technical staff at Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL seem to be communicating largely by press release, the latest one coming from Microsoft announcing that they're submitting an anti-spam...
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Almost two out of three newspaper and local TV sites are profitable, according to Borrell Associates, which compiled figures from 711 outlets. The new study shows that local online ads grew by about a quarter between 2002 and 2003. When...
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It appears the Brightmail IPO may be put on permanent hold, as Symantec announced it will buy the rest of the company for $370 million. The profitable anti-spam technology company received revenues of $26 last year. Symantec already owned 11...
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Finding traffic under cushions
Online promotions, viral marketing and just plain lucky alignments of content drove a bunch of changes in the comScore Media Metrix list of top sites for the month. The Subservient Chicken put Burger King among the top...
Compared to the same week last year, online retail spending went up 19 percent to $1.07 billion for the period ending May 2, according to comScore. This continuation of the unbroken chain of more-than-a-billion-dollar weeks does not include travel spending,...
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In what will likely turn out to be the real battle between big name sites in Utah and adware companies, Overstock.com took advantage of its home state's restrictive anti-spyware law to sue Massachusetts competitor SmartBargains.com. The Utah law has been...
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Yahoo's Overture division is setting its sights on the enormous direct marketing market that exists already, rather than currying additional small business advertising growth, the strategy of arch-competitor Google. Noting that direct marketers spend $48.6 billion on mail and $14...
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Reversing a downward trend, and corroborating research announced just two days ago by another firm, Digital Impact reported that commercial email delivery rates increased to 93.9 percent, the highest level in a quarter. Bounces and blocks fell to about one...
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Anti-spyware bills advanced in both the California Senate and Assembly, amended to remove no-go propositions, such as banning information collection by web software. The process is forming bills that would for the most part force companies to disclose installation and...
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Even as Yahoo's Overture targets direct marketers for its biggest mid-term growth potential, Yahoo's flagship portal brand sees TV advertising as its main honeypot. Chief salesperson Wenda Harris Millard said that the TV buyers, who currently "live in a box,"...
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