More Small Firms Online Marketing

It's not just the big e-commerce firms marketing online anymore. Smaller online outfits are now starting to do both search engine and website advertising, according to LaGarde, a shopping cart technology company. Where previously outbound marketing campaigns were the purview... continue reading »

Market Sees Orbitz as Takeover Target

Several newspapers reported yesterday that Orbitz, the travel site created by several major airlines, may be acquired by Cendant for $1.2 billion. Orbitz is a major online marketer. Its stock jumped by more than a quarter in yesterday's trading, to... continue reading »

Dotomi to Ramp Marketing after VC Infusion

Dotomi, a company that allows for the targeting of banner ads to specific individuals, will ramp up its U.S. marketing efforts after getting a cash infusion of $10.5 million from venture capitalists. It will push its Dotomi Direct Messaging product,... continue reading »

Google: Our Censorship is China's Fault

Google responded officially to the accusations that it was censoring its Google News product in China so as to prevent controversial topics, such as democracy and certain religions, from popping up inconveniently. Citing the fact that these links wouldn't be... continue reading »

Fathom Founders: Search & Context Ads to Even Out

John Battelle interviewed Fathom Online founders in a wide-ranging discussion. They seem to believe that the huge difference in effficiency between search ads and contextual placements will even out over time, as the search media becomes more expensive. Asked if... continue reading »

Toyota Launches New Campaign Site

As part of Toyota's huge new ad campaign, it launched a "Planet Kaizen" site that, according to the automaker's PR staff, gives viewers information previously available only to journalists and dealers. A quick look at the site indicated that previously... continue reading »

Online Dominates Used Car Decisions

For the first time ever, more people find their used car online than they do in the newspaper classifieds, according to a J.D. Power & Associates study. More than half of used car buyers use the internet to help search,... continue reading »

Study: Calls to Action Key for Ad Efficiency (but Colors Matter)

Advertising.com released a study this morning showing that small changes in visual qualities like color and size, in addition to calls to action, significantly affect online ad performance. Calls to action, not surprisingly, turned out to be the biggest factor... continue reading »

PointRoll Tech Links Banners to Viewers' Email, Calendar

PointRoll released new technology that allows advertisers using its various forms of rich media formats to give viewers the options of getting email reminders, adding bookmarks and even adding items to their Outlook calendars without leaving the web page. The... continue reading »

Nielsen, Arbitron to Combine Media, Product Usage Tracking

Bitter rivals Arbitron and Nielsen will team together to offer a media research service pegged to both the Portable People Meter (PPM) service that is rapidly rolling out, along with Nielsen's Homescan service that monitors household product usage. The combination... continue reading »

WhenU Hires New CEO

WhenU named former About.com CEO Bill Day its new chief executive, displacing Avi Naider, who will become the adware firm's president. Several months ago, the company hired investment bank Perseus Group to help explore several options, reportedly among them the... continue reading »