Google’s published a blog post last week about “bad apples” in the ad industry. The meaning of the post is now clear: it was intended to rein in shady software, but also to send a message to other advertisers to clean up their act. Read more at paidContent »
Aereo, a service that lets you watch live TV on your phone, is going live in Boston on May 15. Read more at paidContent »
The New York Times is no longer restricting non-subscribers’ access to its video content. The move, which comes as the Times tightens other parts of its paywall, is part of the paper’s plans to expand its brand in the video space. Read more at paidContent »
For The Win wants to take a BuzzFeed-style viral media approach to sports media. The new site, which will compete with rivals like Deadspin, will focus on finding “shareable” content that will be appealing even to people who don’t follow sports. Read more at paidContent »
The long-awaited Digital Public Library of America launched this week — but its collection does not include the digital repositories of many major university libraries. Meanwhile, a much bigger library collection scanned by Google is tied up in court. Read more at paidContent »
YouTube notched a major victory in its long-running copyright suit with Google. A New York judge emphatically rejected Viacom’s theory that YouTube had “red flag” knowledge that made it liable for content uploaded by its users. Read more at paidContent »
Google posted reports that came close to analyst expectations. CEO Larry Page talked up the Google’s more exotic products and dismissed questions about resource allocation and the impact of Facebook’s Home screen on mobile. Read more »
Congress and even some tech companies are promising to get serious about “Do Not Track” legislation, which will let consumers tell companies not to collect their personal information. But any meaningful change is unlikely. Read more at paidContent »
“Native advertising” is on the lips of everyone in publishing and advertising these days. Blogger and skeptic Felix Salmon asked executives from BuzzFeed and Forbes what it really means. Read more at paidContent »
The media elite increasingly belongs to digital only entities. Look under the hood of some of these new power brokers, and you’ll see an unprecedented amount of ordinary people shaping the news. Read more at paidContent »
Fox, PBS and other broadcasters filed for a New York appeals court to revisit a crucial ruling that permitted start-up Aereo to beam their signals. The appeal raises the stakes further in a battle for the future of TV. Read more at paidContent »
News of the Boston bombings spread instantly on Twitter — and do too did scammers and opportunists. Should the company do more to stop these people? Read more »
A new version of Bloomberg’s iPad app reflects a shift to mobile and tablet usage among financial professionals. The pattern mirrors what’s taking place in the consumer realm. Read more at paidContent »
As sites like Facebook work with data companies and advertisers to collect more of our personal information, tools like Disconnect may be our best hope of preserving privacy. The company just put out a major update that stops the data flow and lets you see what companies are tracking you. Read more »
The details of a long-awaited deal between Google and the EU are finally out. The agreement requires Google to list three competitors in certain types of search listings, and to agree to other, wide-ranging conditions. Read more »
Ad.ly is a social media ad agency that provides brands with celebrity endorsements. To come up with a more steady revenue stream, it’s turned to offering analytics. Read more at paidContent »
Major League Baseball is using new data tools to create more detailed profiles of people who visit team and league websites. MLB plans to use the extra data to create profiles of affluent customers, and to let brands target those profiles on private ad exchanges. Read more at paidContent »
Google has a useful new tool to manage your “digital afterlife.” The feature sends passwords to trusted contacts if you have been inactive, and provides a way to send on many aspects of your digital life — except for any media you bought. Read more »
Airline passengers failed to show GoGo has an illegal monopoly on in-flight prices even though the company’s ten-year contracts affect 85% of all wired airplanes. Read more »
Google’s Susan Wojcicki says the viral success of a Pepsi prank video shows how online ad viewing is becoming a voluntary experience where marketers strive to produce content viewers want to watch. Read more at paidContent »
People wondered why Google sold Frommer’s Travel barely nine months after acquiring it in the first place. The answer is that it’s keeping a huge number social media followers from sites like Facebook. Read more at paidContent »
AOL announced Marketplace, an effort to consolidate the stack of tools publishers use to serve ads. AOL is competing with Google in the ad tech field as it tries to diversify its revenues Read more at paidContent »
The process of selling digital ads is notoriously complicated and involves a lengthy list of competing companies and technologies. A recent ad tech conference explored if things will ever change – here’s some highlights. Read more »
Programmatic buying for online video ads — which lets brands buy select audiences in real time — is growing rapidly. The spread of this buying technique may coincide with a drop in prices but the two phenomena are not necessarily connected. Read more at paidContent »
In “The Slow Death of the American Author,” Scott Turow decries the state of the country’s copyright system. He gets it wrong and hurts the Authors Guild’s standing among potential allies. Read more at paidContent »
The Week surprised the publishing industry by carving out a profitable place in the competitive world of magazine news. Now, it is building up its operations for the digital long term. Read more at paidContent »
Many technology enthusiasts have a worldview that sees the government as bungling or evil. This is both unfair and not helpful in deciding hard policy choices. Read more »
The financial company Bloomberg says it will add Twitter to its platforms now that the SEC has given a green light to companies to use social media to announce market moving news. Read more at paidContent »
A new court decision reflects the ongoing difficulties in deciding how old book contracts should address the issue of ebook royalties. In the ruling, a federal judge dismissed a class action brought by writers against Harlequin Romance. Read more at paidContent »
The FT launched a new version of its iPad offering, a move that reinforced the publication’s contrarian web-only mobile strategy, and an FT executive predicts that the problem of collecting mobile payments outside of app stores will soon be solved. Read more at paidContent »
Neil Vogel, an entrepreneur who created the Webby Awards, is the new CEO of About.com. He plans to increase traffic and add more flash to the site while sticking to its advertising-based business model. Read more at paidContent »
Google+ is partnering with two companies, Gigya and Janrain, that provide social sign-in tools to thousands of websites. The move gives publishers and users another log-in option to Facebook Connect. Read more »
A long-running debate over apps has taken a new turn with the rise of the mobile web and the proliferation of tablets. At paidContent Live on April 17, leading publishers will share their thoughts on whether the industry should embrace or abandon them. Read more at paidContent »
A major appeals court ruling says that Aereo — which lets users watch and record live TV to mobile devices — doesn’t violate copyright law. The decision is the biggest blow yet to the existing TV business. Read more »
ReDigi claims to offer a legal way for consumers to buy and sell iTunes tracks through its “music locker.” In a stern court ruling, a judge said the service amounts to widespread copyright infringement. Read more at paidContent »
Aereo is exploring partnerships with internet service providers and pay-TV companies to expand its reach. The company is disrupting conventional TV models by offering a service that lets consumers watch TV on the go for $1 a day. Read more at paidContent »
Amazon’s purchase of Goodreads, an influential and independent social network for book lovers, is drawing fire from the Authors Guild. Read more at paidContent »
FundersClub, a website that lets investors back start-ups for as little as $1000, cleared an important regulatory hurdle when the SEC said its model is legal, in part because it is consistent with the Jobs Act. Read more »
There is a growing battle between content engines — which suggest stories for you to “read next” — over access to publishers’ pages. The outcome will matter for publishers, readers and the future of “native advertising.” Read more at paidContent »
Google announced a “patent pledge” in which it will donate 10 patents related to MapReduce to protect the emerging cloud and big data industry from lawsuits. Read more »
