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 »
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 »
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 »
Facebook’s ad strategy is rapidly becoming more sophisticated. Marketers and investors are likely to love the results — but will Facebook be able to get it right without alienating users? Read more »
An investigation this week revealed that major brands are paying at least $6 million a month to serve ads to bots on 202 websites. Here are some more names and details. Read more at paidContent »
Video remains the most promising ad format for publishers hoping to improve their ad returns. The industry is still in early stages but here are five winners of a contest to make video ads more interactive. Read more at paidContent »
Google is making big changes to AdWords which is its main money machine and a major engine of online advertising. The company is framing the changes as a benefit — but they may shortchange advertisers and publishers. Read more at paidContent »
Looking for the turnaround story of 2013? Stop looking at Yahoo — it’s AOL that’s the real deal. The company has quietly put in place a powerful strategy based on media, technology and advertising. And investors like what they see. Read more at paidContent »
Some people won’t pay to see online content. But there’s a chance they’re willing to watch an ad or fill out a survey instead. Here’s how one company is bringing such options to mobile devices. Read more at paidContent »
In its 17 years, Slate has distinguished itself as a publishing innovator and a home for well-written news and ideas. But, until recently, it has been hampered by a lack of technology and a business model. Is that about to change? Read more at paidContent »
Interest may be weakening in consumer social media businesses. But social technologies are working their way deeper into enterprise computing, and social media is playing a bigger role across advertising and marketing sectors. Read more »
Oprah Winfrey and sports site Deadspin had two of the year’s biggest stories this week and attracted millions of people to their websites. Too bad they didn’t have an ad plan in place. Read more at paidContent »
The French ISP has been told by French digital economy minister Fleur Pellerin to stop blocking online ads, because she is ‘very attached’ to the open internet. However, she also hinted that she may not be entirely in favor of net neutrality. Read more »
Online video advertising is hot, and attracting some serious venture capital: Video ad platform Tubemogul just closed a $20 million Series C round of funding to pay for more hires and and expand internationally. The round comes after Tubemogul decided to focus exclusively on advertising. Read more »
The “mobile first” philosophy is under way today. That means a new generation of mobile-centric data centers will arise over the next three years, with chips, servers, and power architectures customized for mobile workloads. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Media ratings giant Nielsen is backing Pereg Ventures, a new venture capital firm that plans to invest in U.S. and Tel Aviv startups that help advertisers measure and market to audiences across multiple platforms. Read more »
As voters increasingly spend their leisure time with things other than newspapers and television, political campaigns need new methods of making sure their messages reach those people. Obama for America’s Rayid Ghani took to Facebook to find not just possible voters, but possible campaign workers. Read more »
Media companies are looking for new revenues through selling things. Meanwhile, more commerce sites are starting to publish. Is it easier for content to transform into commerce — or vice versa? Read more »
To a lot of observers, mobile’s ascendence spells inevitable heartache. But Victor Malachard, of Adfonic, says it’s very early days, and, in fact, our best ones are still to come. Read more »
San Francisco-based ad tech firm Triggit announced on Thursday that it had raised $7.4 million in Series B funding, led by Spark Capital and Foundry Group. The funding comes after months of growth driven in large part by its inclusion in Facebook’s ad exchange. Read more »
A study of Black Friday cyber-shopping said that social media advertising was a big bust with few people buying things in response to an ad from Facebook. The story is very different if you use other metrics to define “responded.” Read more »
According to a new report from eMarketer, real-time bidding could account for a quarter of all digital ad spending by 2015. Among other factors, Facebook’s new ad exchange, FBX, is expected to drive much of that growth. Read more »
Tumblr is enjoying explosive traffic growth and jaw-dropping valuations. But so did a similar community site, GeoCities, a decade ago before it quickly imploded. Investor Fred Wilson says this time is different. Read more »
According to a report released Thursday by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, Internet ad revenue reached $17 billion in the first half of the year, but the rate of growth declined from 23 percent between 2010 to 2011 to 14 percent between 2011 and 2012. Read more »
Vibrant Media, the company behind many of the in-text ads on the web, is on Wednesday rolling out a redesign meant to make its advertising more transparent and interactive for users. Read more »
According to a new report from research firm eMarketer, Google is expected to lead the US display ad market in 2012, after losing the top spot to Facebook last year. The search giant also dominates in mobile and search advertising. Read more »
Social news site Buzzfeed has acquired Kingfish Labs, a New York startup that processes natural language on Facebook to determine user interests. Buzzfeed said it plans to apply Kingfish’s technology to optimize ad targeting for its brand clients on social networks. Read more »
On Thursday, Facebook is announcing that its new real-time bidding platform, the Facebook Exchange, is coming out of beta. While it’s still early days, the social network’s advertising partners give the new platform high marks. Read more »
To help advertisers figure out when consumers actually intend to purchase a product and when they’re just making a wish list of fantasy items, mobile ad network Jumptap’s new ad targeting approach links mobile behavior, web behavior and offline data. Read more »
Over the past few months, as the future of Yahoo itself has been unclear, some have speculated that the company might sell its ad exchange Right Media. In a mini media blitz on Thursday, the company said it is sticking with Right Media. Read more »
Smartphones can enable an amazing level of connectivity, but they can also allow that activity to be monitored and used in controversial ways. But for mobile marketing to realize its full potential, consumers may need to sacrifice their privacy to one degree or another. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Facebook’s second quarter earnings report – its first since going public in May – just matched Wall Street analysts’ expectations. The company also said it had 955 million monthly active users as of the end of June. Read more »
The latest hires in the digital media and tech industry. Read more at paidContent »
New York-based 33Across, an ad tech startup that uses vast amounts of social data to target audiences, has raised an additional $13.1 million from Pelion Ventures, Flybridge Capital, Greycroft Partners, First Round Capital and others. Read more »
Tablets featured prominently in the connected consumer space, both as a product category and as a component of broader platform strategies by major OS providers Microsoft, Google and Apple. Meanwhile Facebook began laying the groundwork to add payment processing to its platform. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Chances are, you’ve had an experience like this: you check out a product on a retailer’s site and then an ad for it follows you around the Web. Get ready to see more retargeted ads for gaming, sporting events and movies. Read more »
Between its CEO search and patent war with Facebook, the past few months have been especially rocky for long-beleaguered Yahoo. But, on schedule, the company today announced that it is rolling out its big data ad tool Genome. Read more »
Under the gun to show that it can make big money in mobile, Facebook is reportedly planning to unveil a new product that will target ads based on the apps a consumer has on his phone. Read more »
French media is reporting that Microsoft’s Paris-based subsidiary is being investigated by the country’s tax authorities over its system for avoiding corporate taxes. It marks the latest low point for the business, which wrote down its $6.2bn purchase of aQuantive earlier this week. Read more »
There are write downs — and then there are write downs. Microsoft is wiping the books clean of almost all of the $6.3 billion it paid for interactive ad company aQuantive in 2007 and admitting its Online Services Division will not make big bucks, Read more at paidContent »
