Rich Media Catching Up to Banners, Long Way to Go

Advertising.com found that banners remain the online advertising form of choice, but rich media is hard on its heels. Five out of six sites support banners, and about seven out of ten support some form or rich media, even if... continue reading »

French Courts May Face Resistance by U.S. Internet Firm

It turns out the U.S. federal judiciary isn't so sure that it doesn't have jurisdiction over two French concerns that won decisions against Yahoo in French courts, forcing the online giant to change its policy on restricting sales of Nazi... continue reading »

Google: Firm Must Improve Small and Large Marketer Offerings

Google's outreach effort to analysts, designed to show that the firm takes making money very seriously, didn't reveal terribly much, but a few nuggets were gleaned. Reuters reported that CEO Eric Schmidt said that the company's current search offerings did... continue reading »

Can-Spam Used by Pfizer to Address Trademark, Drug Importing, Other Issues

Because Pfizer isn't an internet service provider, it isn't allowed under the Can-Spam Act legislation to sue spammers, so it hooked up with Microsoft to do battle with 17 floggers of fake Viagra, according to ClickZ. Pfizer has standing already... continue reading »

Family Institute Razzes WOMMA

A watchdog group set its sites on WOMMA's newly-announced guidelines for proper word of mouth marketing. In particular, it attacked the lack of a provision for preventing teens from being involved in word of mouth campaigns, according to a MediaPost... continue reading »

URL Typo in Print Ad Forces Destruction of Issue

MediaWeek reports that 800,000 copies of the latest issue of YM Your Prom will be destroyed after it was found that one of the ads contained a URL typo that leads to a child pornography site. Parent company Fairchild Publications... continue reading »

Did-It Hires New CEO from Ask Jeeves

Search engine marketing firm Did-It hired Ask Jeeves executive Bill Wise as its new CEO, replacing founder and current executive chairman Kevin Lee, according to ClickZ. Prior to Ask Jeeves, Wise was COO for MaxOnline, a 2004 acquisition of Ask... continue reading »

FTC: Undisclosed Product Placements OK

The FTC, pressured by anti-commercial groups to rule against non-disclosed product placements on television, announced marketers would not have to explicitly disclose their sponsorships when one of their products appeared in programming, according to AdWeek. A Commission executive said, "A... continue reading »

Click Price Inflation to Continue

BusinessWeek covered the rising costs of clicks in search advertising. The words media buyers don't want to hear coming from Google's CEO: "There does not seem to be price resistance." With prices up by two fifths in the last year... continue reading »

Integrated Shop Mediasmith Expands Rapidly

Mediasmith, a San Francisco integrated media shop, has been on a hiring binge to sate its recent run of new business wins, according to MediaPost. It hired Hal Riney executive Angelique Vega as media director, Decide Interactive's Ward Flock as... continue reading »