Karen Southwick Dead at 53

CNET executive editor and prolific technology biographer Karen Southwick succumbed to cancer. She was 53. Southwick worked as a writer and editor at many newspapers and magazines, eventually settling into a highly respected role running the software beat in Silicon... continue reading »

Someone Wants to Buy Lycos

Terra Lycos may have found a buyer, after having put itself up for sale at a reported asking price approximately 1.36 percent of the amount Spanish firm Terra paid for it near the height of the Internet bubble. A company... continue reading »

Audit Companies Providing Lame Checks on Digital Circulation

The two main auditors of magazine circulation, Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) and BPA International, have both adopted very loose measures to indicate whether someone is an online subscriber to a magazine. They, in effect, only look at whether or... continue reading »

PointRoll Improves Video Formats

PointRoll, which has offered video formats for the better part of a year, released a formalized standard that incorporates an easier process, better tracking and layers of interactivity. The new video technology is not getting its own name, but rather... continue reading »

Active Web Users Decline in June

Nielsen's Netratings division reprots that about 3.6 million Americans went missing from the rolls of active Internet users between May and June. The decrease represents a 2.5 percent decline, perhaps representing the effect of warmer weather and the absence of... continue reading »

Turf Battles Make Global Company Sites Less Global

A research group reports that major international companies are failing to internationalize their web offerings, falling victim to turf battles, cost savings inefficiencies and stiff competition for homepage access among many different departments. Byte Level Research found that companies reported... continue reading »

iProspect Claims it Invented Aspects of Keyword Portfolios

iProspect rushed a patent application out the door six days ago when word got out that Overture was about to announce yesterday's launch of its Search Optimizer tool. iProspect claims it invented certain ideas pertaining to treating search word campaign... continue reading »

AOL Unit Ad Revs Up 23 Percent; Subscribers Fleeing

Time Warner reported reduced profits for the second quarter, but its AOL unit showed a 13 percent jump in profits before depreciation and amortization, benefiting from a 23 percent rise in ad revenues. The AOL Internet service provision division lost... continue reading »

SEM Firm Gets $6 Million Venture Round

Fathom Online, a search engine marketing (SEM) firm too a $6 million round of venture capital funding. Constellation Ventures led this first round of VC money for Fathom. The company said it would use the proceeds for technology development and... continue reading »

Jupiter: Net Ads to Pass $16 Billion, Magazines

JupiterResearch analysts predict that online ad markets will exceed $16 billion by 2010, about two and a half times what Jupiter says the current market supports and about twice what the Interactive Advertising Bureau says is currently spent. The spending... continue reading »

DoubleClick Ad Servers Dead for Hours

DoubleClick's ad server system partially blacked out yesterday, throwing hundreds to thousands of ad campaigns into darkness and causing many publishers to be unable to fill their media inventory slots. The problem, attributed to a denial of service attack on... continue reading »