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June 2004
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Sued Adware Marketer Sues AgencyIn a piece that otherwise rehashes the white hat adware debate (is it contextual advertising, or is it unfair infringement?), DM News drops in the fact that direct marketer eDiets is suing its ad agency Soho Digital for having conducted... continue reading »ValueClick Upgrades Search123 PPC PlatformValueClick upgraded its Search123 search management interface, adding in features like sub-accounts, integrated tracking and a competitive clickthrough rate meter. The Search123 engine and ad platform was acquired by ValueClick about a year ago for only about $5 million. The... continue reading »Eyeblaster Too Has Video FormatEyeblaster released today its VideoClip format, a rich media creative unit that allows advertisers to slip in video commercials before, after or even in between other video streams. Most of the other video ad units focus on separate units that... continue reading »Yahoo Advertising on GoogleIt was apparently too tempting to pass up. Yahoo started its own AdWords campaign on Google, advertising on the keyword "RSS" with a link that leads to an RSS resource page on its site. There, most of the links, as... continue reading »Marketing Blogs Get HonorsMarketingSherpa's reader poll to determine people's favorite marketing-oriented blogs came out this morning, with AdRants, AdLand, CanuckFlack, Dana's Blog, Duct Tape Marketing, Search Engine Lowdown and Strategic Public Relations winning top honors in the various categories. MarketingVOX managed to nick... continue reading »New Tool Lets Publishers Auction DemosPoindexter launched an inventory management system that allows publishers to create eBay-style auctions for batches of inventory that can be divvied up by time and demographics. The new Progressive Optimization Engine 3.0, already in use by at least one large... continue reading »Advergames Find Surprising Audience: WomenContradicting stereotypes, many women are playing games online, a quarter of them even late at night, between midnight and five a.m. But the games they play are a little different from the most popular among men. According to one research... continue reading »Calls to Compete with ClicksMore and more search and text ad marketers are hoping viewers will give them a ring rather than a click. Companies like Ingenio and eStara are developing businesses selling calls directly to marketers' inbound marketing centers. Ingenio just announced a... continue reading »'Worst Ad Ever' Makes Cyber Lion Top TenMSN is milking its sponsorship of the Cyber Lions by releasing the top ten online ads of the year one at a time. Starting off its top-ten list is "The Worst Ad Ever," a viral spot done for U.K. food... continue reading »Online Retail Sales Up 23 Percent for WeekContinuing the trend, the week ending May 23 racked up double digit online retail spending growth, accounting for $1.08 billion in sales, 23 percent higher than the same week last year, according to comScore. No week in 2004 has yet... continue reading »Moratorium Urged on Tween MarketingA public interest group fired off a public letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FCC) today, asking that it use its subpoena power to get access to marketer research studies to help determine if - heaven forefend - online data... continue reading »Google Finds Itself the More ForeignGoogle faces challenges bringing its signature search services to people internationally, especially in China's not particularly open markets. In many nations, Yahoo and other older portals have locked up the most attractive local media alliances, although Google still seems to... continue reading »LookSmart Tries to Upset Search Loyalty with Affinity MarketingMediaPost: LookSmart/UC Berkeley Bow Affinity Search Go Golden Bears Like credit card companies have done in printing a picture of the old college quad on Visa cards, at least one search engine company is now looking to university boosters and other groups... continue reading »SEO Contest Tests Ability to Game GoogleAn "SEO Challenge" attracted more than 1,000 would-be search optimization hopefuls to a contest to see whose site could become the top Google listing for the nonsense phrase "nigritude ultramarine." SearchGuild, a contest sponsor, said that the contest came about... continue reading »S&P Warns on Google's Growth ProspectsA study by Standard & Poor's Equity Research Services found what everyone else already knew: that Google's share of the search market is nigh on 50 percent, and trouncing Yahoo and Microsoft to embarrassment. But Standard & Poor's drew from... continue reading »Spam Levels OffRobbed of their second favorite past time, spam filter companies can no longer shout to the hills that the proportion of spam in email is growing, as spam levels are essentially remaining the same. Postini and Brightmail may disagree on... continue reading »Business Blogs on CIO RadarCIO published a review of the growing trend of corporate blogging, noting that some blogs are even becoming, dare we say it, money making. Blogging for business remains a slightly fuzzy topic because it consists of several radically different types... continue reading »P&G's Pringles Use Chips as MediumCall them pop-ups ads for food. Procter & Gamble-owned Pringles teamed with Hasbro to spray tasty ad messages on Pringles' signature potato chips, with ads surely to follow. Adland points out that this is by no means new, citing several... continue reading »DoubleClick Shifts European Structure, Girds for CompetitionDoubleClick is rearranging the sales force in Europe to try to stave off new innovations coming on the buy side from Atlas DMT and Bluestreak as well as reinvigorated competition coming from the sell side in the form of Accipiter... continue reading »Ask Jeeves Registers for $400MM OfferingAsk Jeeves plans a very large offering of up to $400 million, proceeds to be used for potential acquisitions, as well as the standard rigmarole of general corporate purposes. Ask Jeeves recently became the fourth "major" in the eyes of... continue reading »Streaming Working Well on News SitesA Keynote Systems study shows that video streaming works much better now than it did a few years ago, with little latency and almost constant uptime. Almost all of the video producers surveyed, including the largest network and cable news... continue reading »Domain Names Again on a TearDomain names have proliferated to the extent that there is a domain name for every 100 people on earth. Lest people think that the heyday of domain prospecting, with speculators registering names in greedy hopes that someone would come along... continue reading »Kia Puts $270MM Account into ReviewKia put the creative portion of its $270 million account into review, although it said it would reserve a spot in the final round for ampersand-challenged incumbent davidandgoliath. The discount carmaker has embraced the web to a greater extent than... continue reading »U.K. Firm Bows Online RatingsA British agency has been producing online rating points data experimentally for the past six months for its own clients and yesterday announced hopes to introduce the metric as a new standard for publishers. The firm, i-Level, said it uses... continue reading »Online Figures Don't Add UpOnline marketers thought in the beginning that all the research numbers would start to converge together eventually, as research panels got larger and more accurate. Different sources were supposed to reveal the same common truth. It ain't so. Nielsen's 8.2... continue reading »Google May Re-Adopt RSSAtom, the syndication format built to improve on and compete with the more ubiquitous RSS standard, may soon suffer a blow to its adoption momentum. In April Google stopped supporting RSS for new users in an effort to boost adoption... continue reading »Metrics Package Makes Sim Game of LogsSoftware creator Robert Savage, taken by sim games like SimCity, got the idea of creating a sim's-eye view of website traffic for log analysis. The more he thought about it, the more it made sense, with branded busses representing the... continue reading »Online Travel Ads Get More LiftThe travel advertising sector is forever changed, now that airlines can post last minute fairs and save money by reaching better targeted people online, rather than running expensive placements in big city newspapers. The human travel agents who once helped... continue reading »News Corp Dumps Google for OvertureNews Corp dumped Google for Overture on its News Interactive sites, the largest Australian online media network. The real blow may come from the comments spinning the switch as a move made necessary by disorganization at Google, with the News... continue reading »Ask Jeeves Buys Search Tool FirmAsk Jeeves, still on an acquisitions tear, said it would buy Tukaroo, a company that makes on off-the-browser search utility and file management application. Ask Jeeves just announced earlier this week that it would be raising about $400 million to... continue reading »Claria Sues Back at L.L. BeanClaria launched a new lawsuit against retailer L.L. Bean, charging that the outdoor gear seller's own suit against Claria's advertisers is a deliberate act of interference with its business. The suit also charges L.L. Bean of disparaging Claria and conspiring... continue reading »Tivo Adds Net Features, Not Turning Back on TVWhile reported as related events in much of the trade press, Tivo's development of Internet connectivity probably remains unlinked to DirecTV's just-announced divestment of its Tivo holdings. DirecTV has been Tivo's biggest business partner, providing distribution for the majority of... continue reading »Gmail Account Value Drops with New SupplyThe calloused, invisible hand of Adam Smith is slapping down the price of a black market Gmail account, as Google starts inviting more free email users. Trades of the service - first limited to about 1,000 users - were fetching... continue reading »Times Online Gains Marketing HeadAs British newspapers only recently embraced websites as a potentially lucrative distribution medium, The Times of London is finally appointing its first marketing manager for Times Online. Simon Christy will take the reigns, coming previously from a web hosting firm,... continue reading »Laying Out the Illegal Search OptimizationsMediaPost interviewed a Range Online Media executive to find out just which search engine optimization strategies are considered forbidden by the big search engines, potentially leading to a company's blacklisting. Director of Search Engine Optimization Anthony Muller laid out five... continue reading »DMA Urges Emailers to Avoid Exploiting ReaganThe Direct Marketing Association (DMA) recommended that telemarketers and email marketers avoid contacting people during Friday's scheduled ceremonies for the late President Ronald Reagan. Probably most worrying to the DMA are the already proliferating Reagan-oriented offers and products, like videos... continue reading »Poll: Ad:Tech Attendees Big Online SpendersAn eMarketer and WebTrends conducted at the recent San Francisco Ad:Tech showed that about a third of those responding said they spent more than 40 percent of their ad budgets online. About a quarter allotted less than six percent. Of... continue reading »Exec from Kerry's Online Firm Hurt, in HospitalMichael Bassik, an executive with a firm that handles presidential contender John Kerry's online campaigns was allegedly stabbed in New York this past weekend and has been in the hospital since, requiring surgery to his spleen and diaphragm. A co-worker... continue reading »Carmakers Making Viral Ads Standard FeatureUh oh. Automakers have gotten the viral bug. Viral marketing, meet Detroit creative sensibilities. AutoWeek covered the now widespread phenomenon of carmakers trying to get free exposure by deliberately leaking out sometimes controversial spots, parodies and mockumentaries. It's becoming institutionalized,... continue reading »Microsoft Sues More SpammersMicrosoft sued a new batch of alleged spammers, claiming they attempted to hide their tracks with false information. This makes for a total of 80 lawsuits lodged worldwide since July, with most of those filed in the U.S. Microsoft said... continue reading »FTC Threatens Privacy ActionHoward Beales, the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC's) director of consumer protection, said that his regulatory group would bring action against an unspecified company doing business on the Internet. He said the company allegedly changed its privacy policy retroactively, opening up... continue reading »FTC to Limit Financial Affiliate MarketingA 2003 law targeting the common banking practice of selling customer information without their permission will finally be implemented by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FTC announced new proposed rules yesterday and is accepting comments through part of July.... continue reading »Disney to Bring Gaming Park OnlineDisney representatives in the U.K. said the company was developing an online "Theme Park" consisting of online games based on the themes from its various successful animated movies. The company said gaming will become a large focus, perhaps eventually eclipsing... continue reading »PR Blogs ReduxPR Week reviewed the state of the PR blog, both those written by PR flacks and corporate blogs that allow reporters the illusion of letting them route around PR flacks. But PR blogs aren't terribly new - they just provide... continue reading »Visa: 2004 E-Commerce Grew 59 PercentVisa reported that e-commerce charges for the year to date grew 59 percent relative to last year, to a whopping $37.6 billion. The rise comes even as alternative forms of online payments are quickly gaining steam as well, including e-checks... continue reading »Credit Card Withholders Fear Spam, Not FraudThose would-be buyers that prove tentative in handing over their credit card information may not be so concerned about fraudulent charges. Half of users, as reported in a study by Jupiter, fear that the information will be used to target... continue reading »Traffix to Buy SendTrafficSearch engine marketing firm Traffix announced it will purchase SendTraffic.com for about $5.4 million. SendTraffic has more than 100 clients and projects $10 million in sales with $1 million in operating income over the next year. The company's founders have... continue reading »WhenU Argues in Utah Anti-Spyware Court HearingAdware firm WhenU made its opening arguments to a federal judge in Utah yesterday. It said the recent Utah law was "arbitrary and Draconian" and not even in the purview of the state, as the U.S. Constitution assigns interstate commerce... continue reading » |