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May 2005
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Mozilla: 50 Million Firefox Copies DownloadedCNN reports that downloads of Mozilla's Firefox browser on Friday passed the 50 million mark. With its first full-fledged release last November, Firefox has stirred up the Web browser market, and the market share of Microsoft's Internet Explorer has inched... continue reading »Michael Mayor Leaves NetCreationsMichael Mayor will leave email firm NetCreations this Friday after a seven-year stint - and 10 months after NetCreations' sale to Return Path - reports DM News. Mayor's departure comes a month after Return Path's acquisition of email whitelist Bonded... continue reading »Acxiom Gains Control of Digital ImpactAcxiom said Friday that it took control of online marketing services provider Digital Impact, DM News reports. Acxiom announced its intent to buy Digital Impact on March 28 and made a $140 million tender offer, or $3.50 per share of... continue reading »Gays Book More Travel OnlineGays are more likely than heterosexuals to book travel online, according to a new Harris Interactive study, reports eMarketer. The Harris survey was conducted in mid-March and found that 35 percent of heterosexual respondents said they don't book travel online,... continue reading »Europeans Rally to Counter Google, Digitize Own LitGoogle's plan (known as Google Print) to digitize entire libraries in the U.K. and the U.S. continues to draw European reaction, reports the E-Commerce Times. Apparently, librarians across Europe are rallying around the French in a spirit of continental fraternity,... continue reading »Google News Formula to Weigh Media 'Credibility'Google plans to improve the results of internet news searches by ranking results according to quality rather than date and relevance to search terms, reports NewScientist (via PaidContent), citing patents filed in the U.S. and elsewhere by Google researchers. Apparently,... continue reading »Strange Bedfellows: Papers, Yellow Pages Selling Ads for Search EnginesSearch engines have become so proficient at attracting advertising that, oddly enough, even newspapers and yellow pages publishers are selling ads on their behalf in the small-business market, writes the New York Times. Seemingly, they are "cutting their own throats... continue reading »Fastclick Launches Text AdsAs anticipated, Fastclick announced today that it has introduced text ads to its online lineup. The shape, color and size of "Fastclick Text Ads" are customizable, and publishers will be able to display them as an integrated part of their... continue reading »'Pajamas' Blog Ad Network Being Stitched TogetherWebProNews reports that Roger L. Simon, in an "Open Letter to All Bloggers," has announced a network to sell ads on blogs: "trying to turn blogs into a business...with the intention of working in two areas - aggregating blogs to... continue reading »P&G Tackles Unilever's Successful Sprays with Marketing BlogP&G's is launching a Secret Sparkle Body Spray to counter Unilever's Axe brand, and it's doing so with a deliberately new-marketing bent. In addition to sampling and the giving away of iPods, P&G is introducing its first marketing blog. Aside... continue reading »eMarketer: 2005 to See $13 Billion in Online AdvertisingAdapting its predictions with recently released PricewaterhouseCoopers data, eMarketer is predicting online ad spending growth to jump another 34 percent in 2005. eMarketer pegs the year's adspend to reach $13 billion, with search accounting for $5.4 billion of that (up... continue reading »Online Sales Up 21 Percent for WeekOnline sales were up 21 percent for the week ending April 10 compared with the corresponding week last year, reaching $1.53 billion from $1.26 billion, Internet Retailer reports, citing comScore figures. Total retail sales for the week ending April 2... continue reading »Study: Email Should Target Consumer BehaviorEmail marketers should use behavioral targeting, concludes a recent Jupiter study on promotional messaging, writes MediaPost. Jupiter's "Promotional Email: Driving Sales Through Behavioral Targeting" suggests that factors such as pages viewed, time spent per page, and shopping cart abandonment be... continue reading »Tiger Safari Augurs RSS Feed FrenzyApple's new OS, Tiger, will help publishers syndicate content with its built-in Safari web browser, which features greater integration of RSS, writes NetImperative. If users click the built-in RSS icon, Safari will display - in the browser window - ... continue reading »Nielsen to Form Ad CouncilNielsen Media Research, widely viewed as being indebted to broadcast and cable clients that pay the piper, will be naming a council of nine senior marketers - each from a major advertising category - to advise the research company on... continue reading »MSN Crawling Out of Search HoleSearchEngineLowdown culls from a Seattle Times article on MSN's search venture - failures, successes, ongoing developments: "MSN knew very little about building a search engine...[but] set an ambitious goal of indexing 5 billion Web sites. They unleashed their primitive crawler... continue reading »Viewers Typically Don't Skip VOD AdsErinMedia's Frank Foster indicated that Tivo owners and others who use video on demand do not generally skip commercials. In fact commercial viewing in fast-forwardable content was only about 10 percent less than viewing in the plain old here-it-comes content.... continue reading »NYT.com Studies Subscriptions OptionsPaidContent points to a WSJ.com piece reporting that The New York Times is polling readers to determine whether or not they'll spring $50 annually to have access to its story morgue. In one model, subscribers would pay about $50 for... continue reading »Unidentified Buzzing Objections May Be CNN ViralRumors are flying in the blogosphere about strange sightings of what might be a viral campaign that may be promoting or trashing CNN - or both - reports Wired. It seems blogger Nick Lewis noticed an odd comments post... continue reading »Crystal Semantics Tech Seeks Ad RelevanceCRM Today writes that context-targeting company Crystal Semantics has announced that its Textonomy.advance technology will be incorporated into the Experclick advertising network to deliver more relevant ads to consumers by using patented methods to better recognize the context of a... continue reading »Omnipresent Nielsen/Arbitron Tracking Program Scaled BackMediaWeek reports that Nielsen and Arbitron will scale back their much-feared Project Apollo. The companies will instead launch a smaller pilot program of the service that will combine omnipresent people meters with product purchase scanner data. That test will run... continue reading »Google's Plan to Capture TV ProgressesGoogle plans to add content to its searchable video index run apace, with 14 additional content streams added to the Google Video service. Google has been cagey about which cable channels are a part of the effort and won't release... continue reading »Chevy Sponsors AOL Music SessionsChevrolet will be the exclusive sponsor of AOL Music Sessions, the in-studio performances of AOL Music, MediaPost reports. President of AOL Media Networks Mike Kelly is quoted as saying, "Using our programming as a defining strength, we're creating highly sought-after... continue reading »PSP: Promotion Possibility in HandThe New York Times writes that with advertisers seeking to reach increasingly inundated consumers, Sony is providing yet another ad venue: its handheld game system, PlayStation Portable (PSP), which also plays movies and music. Heavy.com, a Web host of short... continue reading »Survey: Spam, Fraud Reduce Online Buying WorldwideInternet Retailer reports that some 33 percent of U.S. consumers, compared with approximately 20 percent worldwide, shop less online because of spam and internet-based fraud, according to a new poll from market researcher GMIPoll, which surveyed 20,000 online consumers worldwide.... continue reading »Google Impish about Urchin Price ReductionGoogle has reduced the price of its Urchin web analytics software by 60 percent, reports AdWeek. Users will now pay $199 per month, rather than $495. Google bought Urchin a month or so ago. Users can now import the results... continue reading »Four A's Conference Plate FullThe New York Times outlines the themes of this year's American Association of Advertising Agencies annual management conference, kicking off today in Bermuda: searching for more effective ways to reach elusive consumers; more accurately measuring adspend ROI; dealing with new... continue reading »Forbes Upscale Car Site Now UpForbes on Tuesday launched a luxury-car site - forbesautos.com - sponsored by Audi, Acura, BMW, Jaguar, Porsche, among others. Most have committed to deals lasting through the year, MediaPost reports. The site offers Forbes.com content, product reviews, and expert analysis... continue reading »Blogging for Profit as Online Dollars GrowHow to make money with blogs was a hot topic during two consecutive sessions on digital media at American Business Media’s Spring Meeting Tuesday, writes BtoB Online. Joining the discussion was Ethernet inventor Bob Metcalfe and a partner of Polaris... continue reading »Better than Spam: Viral Video Features John CleeseA MarketingProfs article lays out the behind-the-scenes story of a B2B viral video starring funnyman John Cleese of Monty Python fame. Cleese plays the part of Dr. Harold Twain Weck, director of the Institute for Backup Trauma, who guides people... continue reading »Fiber Beginning to Reach PremisesFTTP (fiber to the premises), providing bandwidth above 3 Mbps (twice T1 speeds) is projected to eventually replace traditional copper-wire connections and unleash a wide range of advanced communication services, writes eMarketer, citing In-Stat estimates. Early last year, the Yankee... continue reading »Blinkx to Index London TVNetImperative on a partnership between search engine startup blinkx.tv and a London TV channel to index the channel's video, making it available to web searchers. The move comes after Google added 14 channels to its Google Video service in the... continue reading »Hispanic Advertising Changing Fast as U.S. Itself ChangesAdAge provides an intriguing look at how the rapidly demographics of the U.S. Hispanic population are resulting in a sea change among marketers, media and the $3.5 billion-a-year advertising industry that targets Hispanic consumers. Today, 88 percent of Hispanics under... continue reading »U.K.'s Thomson Signs up with Google AdWordsThomson Directories has become the first European directory publisher to sell advertising through Google AdWords, NetImperative reports. The Google network will include ads from ThomsonLocal.com and WebFinder.com. The new deal gives Thomson advertisers access to the network, which runs across... continue reading »Google Accused of Left-Wing BiasPersonal Democracy Forum reports that Google is again facing accusations of political bias for taking down ads, this time from the right side of the political spectrum. RightMarch.com loudly complained when Google suspended its keyword campaign that parodied an attack... continue reading »Forrester: Search Billings to Beat Display Ads, 2005 to hit $14.7 BillionForrester predicts online advertising billings to reach $14.7 billion in 2005, up 23 percent from last year, according to BtoB Online. The firm predicts that online advertising will account for 8 percent of all ad spending by the end of... continue reading »Spyware Probe Shockwaves SpreadingMore online marketing firms may be in New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's cross-hairs after last week's spyware suit against Intermix as that investigation continues, writes the eCommerce Times. Spitzer's office declined to say which companies might be involved, but... continue reading »Chase Again Predicts Online Marketing TrendsLarry Chase's Web Digest for Marketers, which turned 10 this year, has issued predictions on the likely trends in online marketing for the next 10 years, NetImperative reports. WDFM points, inter alia, to podcasting, which it says will come to... continue reading »IAC/InterActiveCorp Reports Strong ResultsIAC/InterActiveCorp reported an 80 percent quarterly profit increase, reaching $69.4 million on revenues of $1.6 billion in the first quarter, and 14 percent revenue growth from 1Q04, writes ClickZ. IAC's LendingTree and RealEstate.com accounted for $105.8 million in revenue, a... continue reading »aQuantive Growth ExplosiveEven accounting for its large acquisitions, aQuantive yesterday announced very rapid revenue growth for 2005's first quarter. Revenue rose to $65 million, up 187 percent from the same period last year, according to AdWeek. Net income rose 55 percent to... continue reading »AOL Ad Revs Up, Subscribers Flee (Again)AOL announced it continued its pattern of increasing ad revenues this quarter, as subscribers rush out the back door. Online ad sales grew 45 percent from a year ago to $311 million - just below last quarter's $313 million. But... continue reading »Google Web Accelerator Launched into BetaGoogle launched a software application that it says speeds up internet use for broadband web users, according to SearchEngineWatch. The Google Web Accelerator (Windows only) uses a bag of tricks, including pre-loading material; caching popular pages on Googles own, faster,... continue reading »BMW Film Racy, Risque, Alluring - Like MotorcycleBMW has launched a mini-film to promote its K1200 R motorcycle, as it did a few years ago to promote a new car, AdRants writes. Showcasing naked showgirls, looming danger, hints of violence, gratuitous sex - and the K1200R -... continue reading »Google Local Gets InfoUSA Business InfoData provider infoUSA on Tuesday announced that it has signed an agreement to license its business database to Google, BtoB Online reports. InfoUSA said the data would be available in Google Local. The move helps Google fill in business-listings gaps... continue reading »Experian Buys LowerMyBills.com, Folds It into New Interactive UnitWith its purchase of LowerMyBills.com - the largest online financial services advertiser in the U.S. - Experian is becoming a serious consumer channel for online transactions, reports DM News. The deal coincided with the launch of Experian Interactive, which... continue reading »Supremes: MPAA's Ignorance a Good DefenseThe U.S. Supreme Court rejected the appeal of the man whose website was shut down by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which threatened his internet service provider with legal action. The MPAA issued an order to the ISP... continue reading »GlobalSpec Search to Access Distributor CatalogsGlobalSpec, an engineering vertical search engine, on Wednesday announced a new marketing service for distributors - it has enabled searchable distributor catalogs. BtoB Online writes that the service gives distributors access to about 2.3 million registered users of GlobalSpec, which... continue reading »Video Search Wars Heat Up with Yahoo AnnouncementYahoo is today releasing a finalized version of its video search engine, after five months of beta, report CNET and NetImperative. It will also be announcing alliances with CBS News, MTV, Reuters, music videos from Country Music Television, MTV.com... continue reading »Advertisers Gripe about GoogleGoogle has customer issues. While it continues to win the battle for the hearts of search engine users, many advertising clients are turned off by the search giant perceived as inattentive to marketers - its main client base - and... continue reading » |