Retail Decisions reports that about half of all attempts to by gift cards, coupons that can easily be fenced for cash, were fraudulent. The good news: the vast majority of attempts failed due to anti-fraud measures, such as geo location...
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MediaPost listed some of the downsides to blog advertising, including inappropriately-targeted ads (a conservative site dumped AdWords when it showed too many ads for liberals), blog ad networks that create a homogenized cream of blog traffic without distinctive targeting handles,...
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eMarketer reports that paper checks are accounting for a smaller share of non-cash payments, largely replaced by increasing online payments and debit payments. Check use declined between 2000 and 2003 at about a -4.3 percent compound growth rate. In the...
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Internet retailer reports that the percentage of online retailers double-checking the addresses of credit card users rose to 73 percent in 2004, up from 65 percent the previous year. Merchants also are manually inspecting a higher portion of orders -...
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E-Loan picked Hill Holliday for its online media buying and planning account, according to MediaWeek. Hill Holliday's San Francisco office will handle duties, taking over from the Chicago office of Carat....
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In a Wired interview, Amazon chief Jeff Bezos dropped some interesting predictions. Among them were the estimate that online retail sales will top off at about 10 to 15 percent of all retail sales, a figure that has been half-way...
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Mac users will finally get their own desktop search application, thanks to Blinkx, according to CNET. The release comes months before Apple's own operating system upgrade is slated to introduce new search features. The CNET story notes that Google indicated...
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Goldman Sachs raised its estimates for Yahoo and Google due to growth and price increases in paid search advertising, according to DM News. An Anthony Noto research note indicated both firms would likely beat estimates in the fourth quarter because...
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Revenews reports that the new Google policy on affiliates has a gaping loophole. The policy states that Google will allow only one ad per destination URL, rather than domain, which means that affiliate arbitragers could in practice get around it...
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Ad agency Carat released the prediction that online ad growth will exceed 20 percent, according to Revolution. The agency said the medium's share of adspend would increase from its current global rate of three percent. Carat indicated that outdoor advertising...
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Proving the rumors circulating on affiliate discussion boards true, Google will announce on Friday that it will show only one text ad per search query for affiliates and parent companies sharing the same web address. Google said it designed the...
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AdWeek [link unavailable] reports that the $60 million E*Trade account - one of the most unpredictable large accounts in the U.S. - went to BBDO after a review and a fourth quarter test run. Incumbent Martin/Williams, another Omnicom shop, found...
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