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February 2005
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Spam Blacklists Rendered UselessOne of the major pillars of anti-spam filtering, the blacklist, is rapidly losing effectiveness, according to ZDNet. In the last few weeks spam has been spiking because spammers are sending unsolicited commercial emails not so much through infected zombie computers,... continue reading »OPA Insists on Explicit Legal Exemption for CookiesThe Online Publishers Association (OPA) submitted comments to congressional hearings suggesting that the onrushing anti-spyware "Bono Bill" make explicit its exemption of cookies as one of the illegal mechanisms for tracking site visitors. While some supporters of H.R. 29 have... continue reading »Programmers Fuzzing Out Brands to Protect Product Placement InventoryThe hotting up medium of promotional product placements continues to become more popular, but also can't avoid the silly culture of television production and programming circles. MediaPost reports that some shows are starting to pixelate brands on products that failed... continue reading »Another French Firm Wins Google Trademark SuitGoogle lost yet another French trademark case late last week, according to CNET. Google and its French subsidiary were ordered to pay about a quarter million dollars for having let advertisers use the brand name Louis Vuitton as a means... continue reading »AOL Posts Nice Ad Gains but Hemorrhages SubscribersThe good news is that AOL reported it grew its non-search advertising business to $313 million, a 53 percent increase over the same quarter a year ago. It reported ad sales of greater than $1 billion for all of 2004.... continue reading »Anti-Spyware Firm Wins $108 Million in VC FundsAnti-spyware firm Webroot won $108 million in VC financing. Deals of that size are unusual and typically signify either an oncoming major media campaign or an upcoming IPO in which VCs wish to participate more fully. Since Webroot's stated intent... continue reading »Mitsubishi Pins Rally Car Hopes OnlineMitsubishi, the automaker that has most embraced online marketing, continued its internet reliance, pinning the hopes of a male-oriented competition-standard rally car on an online banner campaign pointing to interactive car models developed by Domino Solutions. Manning Gottlieb OMD managed... continue reading »Superbowl Prices Offered Diminishing Value over YearsReaders wishing to plumb the depths and heights of marketer gullibility and ego can visit AdAge's chart of Superbowl ad prices and exposure. The upshot: buying an ad in 2004 was three times dumber than doing so in 1982 (about... continue reading »Yahoo Moves Closer to HollywoodThe LA Times reports Yahoo signed a lease to take over the old Metro-Goldwin-Mayer headquarters, bringing Yahoo's entertainment division firmly into the sphere of Hollywood's influence and culture. Already headed by a Hollywood executive, Yahoo has been consistently moving closer... continue reading »NYT Makes Move to Take Part of :30 MarketAdWeek reports that the NYTimes.com site is adapting video commercial formats in a brazen attempt to steal share from television's bloated supply of marketing dollars. The site is starting off with Viewpoint's Unicast video ad format. The company's ad operations... continue reading »Researchers: Choppy Online Prices a Natural StateWhile other studies have shown that internet shopping has had a deflationary effect on prices generally, a new study shows that the lack of consistently low prices across the internet shows less the illiquidity of the market and more of... continue reading »High Organic Search Listings Up Transaction Rates, Not Just ClicksOneUpWeb updated its earlier study on optimized search listings and their effects, finding again that higher listings in Google rankings leads not just to additional clicks, but also to a higher transaction rate (see chart).... continue reading »Primedia's Portal About.com to Be SoldThe New York Times reports that About.com has been on the block for weeks, attracting bids from Google, Yahoo, The New York Times, AOL and AskJeeves in an auction process run by Goldman Sachs. Final bids, according to an unnamed... continue reading »Holidays Saw 18 Million New Web ShoppersJupiter Research told AdWeek that the holiday shopping season saw 18 million buyers new to e-commerce, part of the reason internet shopping grew 24 percent over the period. In all, a total of 90.5 million shoppers took advantage of the... continue reading »Local Online Ads to Hit $5 Billion by 2009Local media research firm The Kelsey Group predicts yellow pages-type advertising on the internet will increase to about $5 billion in the U.S. by 2009, with most of that coming in the form of paid search. The firm said the... continue reading »New Starcom CEO Muszynski Not Just a BuyerStarcom USA named John Muszynski its new CEO , a well-respected and extremely well-liked media figure, who grew up in the Leo Burnett media system. Agency consultant Mike Lotito commented to MediaPost that he saw Muszynski's appointment as a somewhat... continue reading »Bloglines Indeed Bought, No Pressure for ProfitsPaidContent confirms that AskJeeves bought Bloglines and provides quite a bit of insider detail into the transaction. The AskJeeves team first got interested in Bloglines mostly because of their own avid use of the service. Bloglines will be run rather... continue reading »Some Superbowl Advertisers Short Shrift Net AspectsTobasco and Honda, both Superbowl advertisers, both saw their website performance dip to page downloads as long as 20 seconds, according to Keynote Systems figures noted in an e-Commerce Times rundown of Superbowl stats and effects. Movie makers Sony Pictures... continue reading »Ogilvy Accused of Duping Trade Pubs, BlogsAdland uncovered a bit of alleged deliberate dishonesty in an Ogilvy effort to publicize a campaign it did for American Express. A polite note sent from a purported student - also received by MarketingVOX and other trade publications - pointed... continue reading »180Solutions Buys Easy Message for Adware PlayMediaPost reports that adware firm 180Solutions bought Easy Message, a meta-IM firm that allows instant messaging applications ranging from AOL's, Yahoo's and MSN's to talk to one another. An executive said the deal closed a few days ago. Users will... continue reading »Word of Mouth Gets Code of ConductThe Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) released an ethics code today, pushing viral marketers and others to ensure that their efforts are above board. The code of conduct includes the provision that marketers should disclose relationships, ruling out fake... continue reading »DoubleClick Keeps Goodies Coming for ExecsOn the heels of a new retention program that pays the very top DoubleClick executives more than $1,000 a day for remembering the way to the office each morning, DoubleClick disclosed the SEC yesterday that its board's compensation committee put... continue reading »Advertising.com to Proffer PointRoll AdsAdvertising.com will serve PointRoll ads on its large network for no additional charge, joining a list of other more than a dozen other sites making the technology available to advertisers for free, according to ClickZ. PointRoll has been striking these... continue reading »Rich Media, Blogs, Games Big Exploration Topics at iMediaIn a couple dispatches sent back to AdAge, the trade publication's correspondent said the hot topics among the iMedia Summit include broadband penetration and rich media, blogs, social networks and mobile gaming devices.... continue reading »Publisher Survey Points to Optimism for 2005Advertising.com's second annual survey of publishers found optimistic revenue projections for 2005, predicting growth especially in text links, large rectangles, small banners, as well as rich media, streaming and behavioral targeting. Publishers expect traditional advertisers to continue to shift dollars... continue reading »Google Blogger Blogger Who Blogged too Much Now Just a BloggerThe Google blogger who apparently blogged too much has left the company, according to reports. Several days after joining Google and making several posts about the new employee process on a personal blog, Mark Jen edited his site when supervisors... continue reading »CooperKatz Makes Blog PR Practice Out of Exec's BlogA CooperKatz PR executive managed to parlay his own blog on PR and blogging issues into a practice division for the firm. CooperKatz announced it is putting Steve Rubel, author of the Micro Persuasion blog, in charge of a new... continue reading »Anti-Spyware Group Splits on StrategySome members of an anti-spyware group resigned after the group, the Consortium of Anti-Spyware Technology vendors (COAST), instituted a certification process that could allow adware vendors to distinguish themselves from the less desirable spyware purveyors. The certification process allowed adware... continue reading »Click Tactics Takes $11 Million in VC FundsDM News reports that direct marketing software and services firm Click Tactics won $11 million in new financing from IDG Ventures and earlier investors TH Lee Putnam Ventures and the Wakefield Group, among others. Click Tactics recently bought email software... continue reading »Falk Adserver to Integrate BillingAd serving firm Falk eSolutions is partnering with a European firm, Fivia, to create an integrated offering of both ad serving and agency media inventory and billing management, according to ClickZ. Integrating existing billing functions at large and mid-sized ad... continue reading »Web Video Use PervasiveMore than a quarter of internet users say they watch an online video feed at least once a week, according to a new Online Publishers Association study. (Findings shown here.) One in twenty said they watch one every day. Seven... continue reading »Microsoft Search Design Very Close to Yahoo'sA blog noted that the new Microsoft search engine adopted many of the interface elements of Yahoo's search product, including words used, fonts, sizes, general interface functionality and even the graphic treatment of tab selections. Surely coincidental, the similarities show... continue reading »Online Account Activity Slows, Traditional UpData compiled by AdForum shows that more and more advertisers are looking for new help for their traditional media buying and planning duties, while online media buying agency relationships have actually become more stable over several quarters. Media account movement... continue reading »Google Touts Weblogs Inc as AdSense SuccessAt a Google analyst event designed to tout the search engine company as a very, very serious company, concerned with profits at least as much as karma, blog network Weblogs Inc. was held up as a shining example of the... continue reading »New York & Nigeria #1 in FraudNew York is the worst - but not far off from Miami - for fraudulent e-commerce transactions in the U.S. The international list of highest fraud origins includes Nigeria (of course), Indonesia, Russia, China and an ignoble tie between the... continue reading »iTraffic Is No MoreiTraffic is no more. According to ClickZ, parent company Agency.com is folding in the venerable brand name, acquired more than five years ago. Agency.com just turned 10.... continue reading »Online Retail Growth SlackenscomScore reported relatively slow online retail sales growth for the week ending January 6, showing only a nine percent increase over last year to $1.36 billion, according to Internet Retailer. Online travel spending grew a healthier 23 percent to hit... continue reading »Levi's Casting for a Blogger-Ridden AdTrying to borrow some hip, Levis appears to be looking for bloggers to cast into a new ad spot titled "A Style for Every Story," according to Adrants. Popular media and celebrity blog Gawker received a forward of an email... continue reading »WebSideStory Buys AtomzWebSideStory bought content management and site search firm Atomz in a cash and equity deal valued at about $39 million, according to ClickZ. The Atomz products will become part of WebSideStory's HBX Analytics and Active Marketing Suite packages. Atomz will... continue reading »Some Affiliate Marketers Could Be on Hook for Abetting SpamWired points to small bits of evidence that marketers may be held accountable for the effects of their own affiliate programs, which - when not properly managed - can provide motive to spammers. The Can-Spam Act gives both prosecutors and... continue reading »Superbowl Boosts Advertisers' Traffic LevelsWeb bandwidth management firm Akamai reported that traffic to Superbowl advertiser sites just about quadrupled during the event, according to Internet Retailer. Bandwidth increased seven-fold, attributed in great part to an unusual amount of downloading of video clips and other... continue reading »Web Dating Growth Slows, Traffic DeclinesJupiter Research analyst Nate Elliott's predictions of online dating market doom seem to be coming true, according to a MediaPost story on the latest Jupiter figures. After seeing 73 percent and 77 percent growth in 2002 and 2003, last year... continue reading »Tech Site Faces Ad Price ID CrisisA BusinessWeek story (via PaidContent.org) on CNET's positive advertising trends shows some clouds around its silver lining. While CNET is an attractive site for business-to-business and technology advertisers, consumer advertisers aren't accustomed to paying the very high rates typically won... continue reading »Rich Media Catching Up to Banners, Long Way to GoAdvertising.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 FirmIt 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 OfferingsGoogle'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 IssuesBecause 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 WOMMAA 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 IssueMediaWeek 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 » |