Google-BellSouth Deal Focuses on Small Biz Hand Holding

AdAge reports on the making of the Google-BellSouth deal that has armies of the telephone company's salespeople pounding the pavement for Google search ads as well as BellSouth phonebook inventory. The theory behind the cooperation holds that small businesses -... continue reading »

Yahoo Installs TV Exec as Head of Media

Yahoo installed an entertainment executive as head of its media group. Former chairman of ABC Entertainment Television Lloyd Braun will take over the division that includes TV, movies, music, news, games and other content businesses. ClickZ reports.... continue reading »

Brits Prefer Net Search to Phonebooks

Three quarters of British people surveyed said they'd rather search via an online search engine than use a paper directory. Only 18 percent said they still relied on the traditional methods of looking up company information. Separately, another U.K. company... continue reading »

Nike Shoxploitation Site Promotes Unreleased Shoe

Paying homage to blaxploitation culture, Nike launched a Shoxploitation website to promote its new Shox Neo sneakers. The video site content introduces Nike's "playas" as though they were part of a movie. The trailer ad format is appropriate because the... continue reading »

AOL: No Plans for Search Engine, Plenty for Personalization

AOL again confirmed it lacks plans for its own search engine, relying instead on Google's, but it did say it is working on personalization features. "Personalization is on the horizon," said AOL's chief of search Gerry Campbell. "We're very focused... continue reading »

AOL Firing Rumors Persist, Q3 Numbers to Come

CNET went and found its own anonymous source to confirm to it that AOL plans on firing 700 people next month. The cuts are expected across the board, focusing on the Virginia headquarters. This past year the company was criticized... continue reading »

Yahoo CEO on Desktop Search: We're a Comin'

All the rage, the desktop search category got another plug, with Yahoo CEO Terry Semel saying that the online media giant would develop such an application as well, following Google's example, and very likely Microsoft's. He also said he intended... continue reading »

E-Commerce Conversion Rates Increase

DoubleClick reports in a tracking study that conversion rates for e-commerce firms are improving steadily, even as shopping cart abandonment continues to plague online retailing. 57 percent of shoppers abandoned a cart, up from 53 percent last year. And as... continue reading »

CMR Figures May Severely Undercount Net

A TNS Media Intelligence/CMR study showed that about $1.4 billion was spent on political ads in 2004, leading up to last night's see-sawing presidential results that remain this morning somewhat uncertain. Almost nine out of ten of those dollars went... continue reading »

News Sites Buying Traffic on Search Engines

Online news sites, long in a battle for marketshare, are turning to search advertising to up their online circulation. The New York Times, Washington Post, NPR and several other major news sites have campaigns running on Google and Yahoo. The... continue reading »

AdAge to Produce Non-Web Digital Edition

AdAge is launching a new digital edition through Zinio, a company that takes print publications and produces identical-looking digital copies. While this means the company won't likely be producing a freely available site designed for the web, AdAge did say... continue reading »

TW Profits Lower, AOL Accounting Still at Issue

Time Warner revealed a poor third quarter, citing both an eight percent profit drop and the need to sock away $500 million in order to set up a reserve to pay for expected liabilities in an ongoing AOL accounting scandal.... continue reading »