Common Sense --
buddies with Bill?
Ad Networks and Analytics:
- The Travel Ad Network (TAN) added GAP Adventures to its portfolio. The latter is a major travel adventure company.
- Ad network Appssavvy gets $3.1 million in Series A venture funding, led by True Ventures with participation from Scott Kurnit of About.com.
- Behavioral targeting firm Adzilla has gone out of business.
- Symantec, the parent firm of Norton Antivirus, bought rival MessageLabs for $695 million.
- Widgetbox and Yardbarker have joined to launch a sports blog network. YBN — home to over 600 blogs and 10 million monthly uniques — will serve as exclusive provider for the Widgetbox Sports Channel.
- Coremetrics 2009, an analytics platform for digital marketing, just went live.
Agencies and Marketing Execs:
- WPP-owned MindShare purchased media planning shop Michaelides & Bednash.
- Empower MediaMarketing adds Kristyn Pulford, digital strategist, and Ilona Vijnik, digital analytics/search strategist, to its team.
Mobile:
- Research in Motion unveiled the touchscreen BlackBerry. A retail price was not revealed.
- CallerComplaints.com targets phone spammers.
- MailChimp launched an email marketing app for iPhone, toting it as the first such platform for the popular handheld unit.
Music:
- Rapper Common, who is notoriously fickle about brand sponsorships, permitted Microsoft to sponsor his current tourbl. He will also be broadcasting a video podcast series for Zune.
- Clear Channel Radio launched iPhone app iheartradio, a spin-off of its iheartmusic.com site.
Opinion:
- Google CEO Eric Schmidt called the internet a "cesspool" of false content. Brands are integral to that mix, he added, because they help people decide which content can be trusted.
- Disney chairman Michael Eisner believes online video will evolve into "long-form, story-driven content in one form or another […] When it becomes original content, that's when you'll see a flock of advertisers."
Overseas:
- The European Commission launched proposals to provide more rights to consumers shopping online across the borders of its 27 nations.
Publishing:
- The New York Times has shut down IHT.com, the online destination for the International Herald Tribune. Expect layoffs.
User Experience:
