Categories: advertising

Rocket Fuel Aims for 2012 IPO to Boost Online Ad Sales

Posted by: Rachael King on December 14

By Brian Womack Rocket Fuel Inc., an online advertising company, may join what's becoming a long parade of technology companies. If market conditions allow, Rocket Fuel is aiming for an...

Draper Fisher Jurvetson Sees More Digital Ad Opportunities

Posted by: Olga Kharif on November 16

Draper Fisher Jurvetson, the venture-capital firm that invested in AdMob, an online ad network later bought by Google Inc., continues to pour funds into new advertising startups, said Mark Bailey,...

Google Buys Teracent to Boost Display Ad Push

Posted by: Rob Hof on November 23

If anyone doubted Google was serious about online display advertising, those doubts surely were quashed today. This morning, Google announced the acquisition of Teracent, a startup that helps advertisers format...

What's on the Web Tonight? Clicker Debuts Video Guide

Posted by: Rob Hof on November 12

How do you find what to watch online? Sites for finding and watching video abound, from search engines such as Blinkx and Truveo to hosted video sites such as YouTube...

Google Buys AdMob in Bid to Boost Mobile Ads

Posted by: Rob Hof on November 09

In its third-largest acquisition to date, Google announced it's buying AdMob, a provider of mobile ad technologies, for $750 million in stock. The purchase, announced this morning, could give the...

LIVE: Yahoo Beats Q3 Earnings Forecasts; Q4 Outlook Up

Posted by: Rob Hof on October 20

Yahoo managed to beat third-quarter profit forecasts easily on slightly higher-than-expected revenues. Shares rallied in after-hours trading by about 3% 6% (the higher number coming as the conference call proceeds)....

LIVE: Google Beats Q3 Earnings Expectations

Posted by: Rob Hof on October 15

Google beat third-quarter earnings expectations easily, posting a 7% rise in net revenues excluding payments to advertising partners, to $4.38 billion. Profit was $5.89 a share, handily beating forecasts. Google...

Search Ad Spending Improves--and Boosts Google Shares

Posted by: Rob Hof on October 12

Hit by the economy early this year, search advertising looks to be on the mend. For the second quarter in a row, two search marketing firms say U.S. spending on...

Matt Cutts: How Google Deals With Web Spam

Posted by: Rob Hof on October 04

It’s up to Matt Cutts and his team at Google to keep search results as free as possible from Web spam, those pages full of Viagra ads or even malware....

Rubicon Project Buys Others Online in Audience Data Play

Posted by: Rob Hof on September 15

There's an emerging trend in online advertising that I only flicked at in an article last February on ad networks: As data about people's online activities grows, it's allowing advertisers...

Reinventing Print Media: IDG's Online Ad Network Gains Traction

Posted by: Spencer Ante on September 08

Everyone knows the print media is in a world of hurt. The more difficult question is this: What do publishers do about it? Technology publishing giant IDG just may have...

Consumer Groups Call for Online Privacy Guarantees

Posted by: Rob Hof on September 01

A group of 10 consumer and privacy watchdog groups this morning called for Congress to clamp down on online tracking of people's behavior to target advertising to them as they...

One-Off Viral Videos Now Can Make Money on YouTube

Posted by: Rob Hof on August 25

Ever since Google's YouTube video sharing unit started trying to make some serious money in late 2007, it has mainly tried to place ads on videos produced by people who...

"No Bull----": Ballmer & Bartz on Microsoft-Yahoo Search Deal

Posted by: Rob Hof on July 29

Soon after announcing their deal to combine forces on Internet search and search advertising, Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer talked with BusinessWeek about how the deal...

Microsoft and Yahoo Announce 10-Year Search Deal

Posted by: Rob Hof on July 29

And so the deal is finally done: Microsoft and Yahoo early this morning announced a 10-year deal that provides a united front against search giant Google. As we wrote last...

Microsoft Search Deal With Yahoo Finally Here?

Posted by: Rob Hof on July 28

At long last, Microsoft and Yahoo appear to be very close to a long-awaited deal on Internet search. According to reports in the Wall Street Journal and the Boomtown blog,...

A Sign of Hope for Online Ad Prices

Posted by: Rob Hof on July 23

Prices for display ads have been dropping for some time. The suspects are easy to identify: the poor economy, which is not only reducing ad budgets but also driving...

LIVE: Yahoo's Q2 Earnings, Q3 Outlook Disappoint

Posted by: Rob Hof on July 21

Yahoo's second-quarter earnings are out now amid muted expectations. Its profit rose to $141 million, or 10 cents a share, from $131 million, or 9 cents a share a year...

Will Yahoo's Q2 Earnings Report Defy Low Expectations?

Posted by: Rob Hof on July 21

Yahoo will report its second-quarter earnings today, and few investors are looking for much cheer in the results. Yahoo is expected to report a profit before special charges of 8...

Google Beats Earnings Forecast But Investors Unimpressed

Posted by: Rob Hof on July 16

Google managed to beat expectations for its second-quarter results. Here's the release, but on first glance, it looks like Google met expectations on revenues but beat handily on profits. All...

All Eyes on Google As Second-Quarter Earnings Report Looms

Posted by: Rob Hof on July 16

Search giant Google will report its second-quarter earnings shortly after 1 p.m. Pacific time today, at a time when investors will be wondering which way online advertising is going. While...

LIVE: Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz's First Annual Meeting

Posted by: Rob Hof on June 25

I'll be liveblogging the Yahoo annual meeting this morning at the Santa Clara Marriott in Silicon Valley, network willing. This year's meeting is sure to have less drama than the...

Measuring Display Advertising Beyond the Click

Posted by: Rob Hof on June 18

For years, Web publishers have had a love-hate relationship with what has become the standard metric for online ad effectiveness: the click. It's certainly an indication that a prospective customer...

Google + Wolfram?

Posted by: Rob Hof on May 06

Here's a post from my colleague and editor Peter Elstrom, who spoke with British mathematician and entrepreneur Stephen Wolfram two days ago about his new search technology effort, called WolframAlpha:...

Another Google Ad Exec Leaves; Tidbits from an Interview with David Rosenblatt

Posted by: Rob Hof on April 29

Google has lost yet another top ad executive. David Rosenblatt, president of global display advertising for the search giant, emailed friends and colleagues to say he's leaving the company a...

LIVE: Yahoo Second-Quarter Earnings Just OK, Q2 Guidance Light; 5% Layoff Announced

Posted by: Rob Hof on April 21

Yahoo managed to hit earnings expectations on slightly lower-than-expected first-quarter revenues. It also announced it expects to lay off about 5% of its staff. Based on the 13,600 employees as...

LIVE: Google's First-Quarter Earnings: Revenues Down, Profits Beat Forecasts, Investors Yawn

Posted by: Rob Hof on April 16

Google's first-quarter earnings are out, and while it managed to beat profit expectations thanks to cost-cutting, revenues were down 3% from the fourth quarter, about what analysts had forecast. From...

OpenX Launches Online Advertising Exchange

Posted by: Rob Hof on April 16

Online ad exchanges, which work like the Nasdaq stock exchange to match buyers and sellers of ads, are nothing new but they're starting to heat up again. In the past...

Marketers Cut Search Ad Spending But Reap Higher Returns

Posted by: Rob Hof on April 14

As investors look ahead to Google's first-quarter earnings report Thursday, they'll be looking for further signs of how much search advertising has been hit by the tanking economy. Here's an...

Yahoo and Microsoft CEOs Finally Talking About a Search Deal; Maybe More?

Posted by: Rob Hof on April 10

In a development that can't be too surprising but may help revamp the Internet landscape, Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer have started talking about forging Internet...

A Sign of Slowing Search Ad Spending

Posted by: Rob Hof on April 02

Search advertising is finally feeling the full impact of the weak economy, according to a new report out this morning from online marketing analytics firm Covario. In fact, search spending...

Pixazza "Product in the Picture" Service: AdSense for Images

Posted by: Rob Hof on March 25

Pixazza is looking to turn Web photos into money. It might just work. The startup, staffed by Netscape veterans with a $5.75 million Series A venture capital round, on Wednesday...

Google To Start Behavioral Ad Targeting

Posted by: Rob Hof on March 11

Google today will step into an emerging but controversial method of targeting ads to people's interests and online behaviors. This morning, the company announced it will begin offering these ads...

Will Fewer But Bigger Ads Rejuvenate Display Advertising?

Posted by: Rob Hof on March 10

With the ascendancy in recent years of search advertisements, the little snippets of commercial text that appear next to search results, display ads don't get much respect these days. While...

LIVE: Mark Zuckerberg Lays Out Facebook's Next Moves

Posted by: Rob Hof on March 04

I'm heading to Facebook this morning for a briefing with CEO Mark Zuckerberg and others on the company's latest product developments. One of them will be the next step for...

LIVE: Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz Speaks

Posted by: Rob Hof on March 03

At the Morgan Stanley technology conference, analyst Mary Meeker is interviewing Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz. I'm listening on the Web, since media wasn't invited to the conference. I think it's...

Carol Bartz Prepares to Revamp Yahoo Management

Posted by: Rob Hof on February 22

Even if it's a spectacularly obvious thing for a new CEO to do, Carol Bartz's reorganization of Yahoo's management ranks as early as this week will be a pivotal development....

Will Ad Networks Usher in a New Media Order?

Posted by: Rob Hof on February 19

When I proposed the story on how the economy is hitting online advertising, which appears in this week's BusinessWeek, I had hoped to take it a little further than I...

Antitrust Suit Filed Against Google

Posted by: Rob Hof on February 17

Google is fast replacing Microsoft as everybody's favorite antitrust target. Even the U.S. Justice Department last fall indicated it was ready to file an antitrust lawsuit against the search giant...

LIVE: Yahoo's Fourth-Quarter Earnings Beat Forecasts; Bartz Says "Not for Sale"

Posted by: Rob Hof on January 27

Yahoo managed to outpace dour expectations for its fourth quarter, beating profit expectations handily. Despite showing a net loss of $303 million thanks to the costs of layoffs and office...

LIVE: Google's Fourth-Quarter Earnings Beat Expectations

Posted by: Rob Hof on January 22

Google's much-anticipated fourth-quarter earnings are out, and it appears to have beat expectations that were muted thanks to the struggling economy and Google's own recent cost-cutting moves. Google earned a...

Coming Shortly: Economic Acid Test for Google and Search Advertising

Posted by: Rob Hof on January 22

Now that Microsoft has an early answer to its fourth-quarter earnings--bad--tech investors turn their attention to the other behemoth that will report its earnings today: Google. Thanks to a flurry...

Google Drops Print Ads Program

Posted by: Rob Hof on January 20

Not having heard much at all in the past year about Google's Print Ads program, which let advertisers bid to place ads on hundreds of newspapers using a Google auction...

What New Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz Really Told the Troops

Posted by: Rob Hof on January 15

Yahoo's stock fell more than 6% today as investors digested reports on what new CEO Carol Bartz told employees during an all-hands meeting yesterday. Some reports indicated she said her...

Another Year, Another Round of Microsoft-Yahoo Deal Scenarios

Posted by: Rob Hof on January 07

A group of Silicon Valley executives and investment bankers is ginning up a new proposal to buy Yahoo, according to TechCrunch: Under the terms of the proposed deal, the investment...

Facebook Announces Top Applications

Posted by: Rob Hof on December 09

Facebook has just announced the first five winners of $225,000 each in cash grants from the $10 million fbFund. The list was narrowed down from a list of 25 finalists...

Kosmix, "Your Guide to the Web," Gets $20 Million, Launches Beta

Posted by: Rob Hof on December 08

Armed with an additional $20 million in funding, Kosmix is looking to expand its vision of how best to provide people a map to the World Wide Web. No, Kosmix...

Google's Search Advertising Going Mobile on iPhone, T-Mobile G1

Posted by: Rob Hof on December 08

Well, if Google's revenues are going to come in a little light this quarter, as many people are speculating, it won't be for lack of Google trying. Today, the search...

Former AOL Chief Jonathan Miller Eyeing Yahoo Buy? Maybe, But ...

Posted by: Rob Hof on December 02

And the rumors around Yahoo keep swirling. A few days after supposed news of a Microsoft deal to buy Yahoo's search operation proved to be complete fiction, the Wall Street...

Power.com: One Ring to Rule All Social Networks?

Posted by: Rob Hof on December 01

With what looks to be a fair amount of fanfare, a company virtually unknown in the U.S. is aiming to disrupt the fast-growing social networking business. Tonight, Rio de Janeiro-based...

Hmm, Could Search (Meaning Google) Actually Buck the Economy?

Posted by: Rob Hof on November 25

Two new reports appear to indicate that search--and by extension Google--might do better despite the tanking economy than investors may think. And investors are bearish indeed. Google's stock fell again...

Jerry Yang to Step Down As Yahoo CEO; Will Microsoft Return?

Posted by: Rob Hof on November 17

Yahoo co-founder and CEO Jerry Yang will step down as CEO as soon as a successor is found, the embattled Internet company just announced. The release (quoted in full after...

What the Failure of the Google-Yahoo Deal Means

Posted by: Spencer Ante on November 05

So the Google-Yahoo search deal finally fell apart. It's not terribly surprising. From the beginning, I said that this deal was very problematic, probably anti-competitive, and would raise the ire...

Searching for a New President: Obama Wins on Search Engine Optimization

Posted by: Rob Hof on November 04

If Barack Obama wins the election today, will it be because his Web geeks know how to do search engine optimization, commonly known as SEO? Of course not, but apparently...

Report: Google, Yahoo Revise Search Advertising Deal

Posted by: Rob Hof on November 03

Google and Yahoo have made major concessions in their proposed search advertising deal in hopes of getting the Justice Department to go along with it, according to a Wall Street...

Microsoft and Yahoo Duel Over Who Can Lose the Most Media Executives

Posted by: Rob Hof on November 03

When they aren't letting each other know how little they think of each other, Microsoft and Yahoo seem to be engaged in another contest: Who can lose the most Internet...

Will the Google-Yahoo Deal Happen? Who Knows?

Posted by: Rob Hof on October 30

According to a just-posted story in the Journal, the likelihood that Google and Yahoo will walk away from their controversial search advertising deal has risen, as talks with the Justice...

For Web 2.0 Startups, What's Next Beyond Ads?

Posted by: Rob Hof on October 23

If online advertising is headed for a fall, as many people are assuming, what are all those hundreds of Web 2.0 startups doing to contend with the possible loss of...

LIVE: Yahoo Earnings Not As Bad As Feared, But Layoffs to Begin

Posted by: Rob Hof on October 21

Not surprisingly, Yahoo just reported third-quarter earnings that were weak but not as awful as some might have expected. However, the company said layoffs of at least 10% of the...

LIVE: Surprise! Google Beats Third-Quarter Profit Forecasts

Posted by: Rob Hof on October 16

UPDATE: More from the call after the jump, which I'll keep updating as it proceeds... Google just reported third-quarter results, and it managed to defy skeptics who thought it might...

YouTube Debuts Click-to-Buy: E-Commerce for Video

Posted by: Rob Hof on October 07

When even Google CEO Eric Schmidt and cofounder Larry Page admit their YouTube video sharing site might take awhile to make more money than the sub-$200 million in revenues...

Yahoo's Display Ad Platform APT Launches; Will It Matter?

Posted by: Rob Hof on September 24

Yahoo just launched its long-awaited display-advertising system, now called APT. As I wrote in a story last week, the system, known more recently as AMP, is Yahoo's latest (maybe...

Google's Sergey, Larry and Eric Talk Yahoo, Energy, Android, and Floating Data Centers

Posted by: Rob Hof on September 17

A week after Yahoo executives defended their controversial search advertising deal with Google, the search giant joined the fray today with its own rationale. The deal, announced in mid-June, faces...

Brand Marketers Keep Spending Online

Posted by: Catherine Holahan on September 15

With Wall Street in crisis and a recession looming, it follows that marketers would slash budgets--particularly for newer forms of brand promotion such as social network advertising. Not so,...

Yahoo Defends Google Deal

Posted by: Rob Hof on September 11

As part of a three-hour media day today, a Yahoo executive offered an interesting defense of the company's pending search deal with Google. That deal, which was supposed to start...

VIDEO: Marissa Mayer on Newspaper Archives, Future of Google Search

Posted by: Rob Hof on September 09

Marissa Mayer, Google's vice president of search products & user experience, introduced a new Google feature Monday, a project to bring historical print newspaper archives online. Using the scanning technology...

Is Justice Planning to Go After Google?

Posted by: Rob Hof on September 08

So it sounds like in a story in the Wall Street Journal, which says the Justice Dept. has just hired a hotshot litigator to look into Google's power in online...

Is the Google-Yahoo Deal Really a Bad Thing?

Posted by: Rob Hof on September 08

That's what advertisers think, according to the trade group Association of National Advertisers. The ANA on Sunday filed a letter to the Justice Dept., recommending against the deal under which...

Show of Hands: Love or Hate the New Microsoft Ad?

Posted by: Rob Hof on September 05

The new Microsoft ad with Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates has sure stirred up a blogstorm today. People either sort of like it or hate it. Mostly the latter,...

LIVE from Yahoo's Annual Meeting

Posted by: Rob Hof on August 01

Yahoo's long-awaited (or long-dreaded) annual shareholders meeting is about to begin, and wireless gods willing, I'll be liveblogging the proceedings--even if they aren't expected to be very exciting. You can...

Yahoo (YHOO) Second-Quarter Earnings Fall Short

Posted by: Rob Hof on July 22

Most people had expected Yahoo to pull out all the stops to make its second quarter, but if it did, the pulling didn't work. In its just-released report, Yahoo said...

Yahoo Settles Proxy Fight With Icahn; What's Next?

Posted by: Rob Hof on July 21

After months of battle with activist shareholder Carl Icahn, Yahoo has finally settled the proxy battle that had roiled the company for months. (Full text of the release and the...

Bolstered by Major Shareholder's Support, Yahoo Comes Out Swinging

Posted by: Rob Hof on July 18

With its annual meeting looming in just two weeks, Yahoo is ratcheting up its defense against Carl Icahn's proxy fight with an energy critics wish they'd seen for the...

A Rare Miss for Google (GOOG) on Second-Quarter Earnings

Posted by: Rob Hof on July 17

My quick take on Google's second-quarter earnings (full release after the jump and updates from conference call below): It's a miss, though not a huge one. My full story is...

Google Second-Quarter Earnings Coming Up

Posted by: Rob Hof on July 17

I'll have a quick take on Google's second quarter earnings as soon as they're released shortly after 1 p.m. Pacific time. I'll add key comments from the conference call and...

Microsoft: We Might Buy Yahoo If Shareholders Fire Board

Posted by: Rob Hof on July 07

The pressure for Yahoo to knuckle under and do a deal with Microsoft just keeps rising. This morning, Microsoft said in a statement that it's willing to return to the...

Yahoo's Reorg Goes Down: Less of the Same?

Posted by: Rob Hof on June 26

Despite advance criticisms involving the words "deck chairs" and "Titanic," Yahoo today announced the reorganization of its management ranks that had been expected for more than a week. Rising to...

Yahoo to Stockholders: We Know What We're Doing, Really!

Posted by: Rob Hof on June 25

As Yahoo's top management prepares for a last-ditch roadshow to persuade big investors they should reject Carl Icahn's slate and vote for Yahoo's existing board, the company has released a...

Has Microsoft Really Given Up On Yahoo As Google Search Deal Looms?

Posted by: Rob Hof on June 12

UPDATE 2: After the jump, below, is a draft of a story that will run later tonight. The key takeaway: Google wins big again. The other takeaway: Yahoo's not getting...

Microsoft Tries to Get Search Traffic by Paying Users

Posted by: Rob Hof on May 21

Microsoft on Wednesday is launching its latest attempt to make a dent in Google's dominant market share in search and raise its currently single-digit percentage of search queries: Live Search...

Microsoft Proposes Search Deal With Yahoo

Posted by: Rob Hof on May 18

Microsoft has proposed to Yahoo that it ally on a "transaction" that is something short of the full acquisition that Microsoft abandoned on May 3. Although the companies aren't detailing...

Finally, a Sign of Online Ad Weakness

Posted by: Rob Hof on May 13

When Google reported better-than-expected first-quarter earnings on Apr. 17, a lot of people whose livelihoods depend on online advertising breathed a sigh of relief. Even Yahoo, whose bread-and-butter is not...

Microsoft's Silence on Yahoo Has to End Soon

Posted by: Rob Hof on April 29

When there's no news, journalists (including bloggers) write about the lack of news. Sorry to say, today I can't resist the urge either. I just can't help thinking that Microsoft...

Federated Media Raises $50 Million (and a Few Eyebrows)

Posted by: Rob Hof on April 15

There's money in blogs after all. Ad network Federated Media, which aims to help blogs and other online sites create the new generation of media giants, announced this morning that...

Open-Sourcing Online Ad Targeting

Posted by: Rob Hof on April 10

There's a glut of online ad networks out there, hundreds of them, each using their own particular flavor of targeting technologies--from Google's contextual AdSense to many others that track people's...

European Commission OK's Google-DoubleClick Deal

Posted by: Rob Hof on March 11

It was expected by now, but the European Commission has just approved Google's $3.1 billion bid for ad serving firm DoubleClick. Even though competitors such as Microsoft and privacy advocates...

Will Online Advertising Finally Take a Hit Now?

Posted by: Rob Hof on January 11

So far, online advertising doesn't seem to have been hit in the economic troubles growing out of the credit crunch, and forecasters are looking for 25%-plus growth this year. But...

How Long Will Advertising Remain More Effective Online Than Off?

Posted by: Rob Hof on December 26

A new study by Simmons, a unit of Experian Research Services, indicates that people who view TV ads online are way more engaged with those ads (and with the content,...

Google Enlists Nielsen in TV Ad Push

Posted by: Rob Hof on October 23

We haven't heard much of Google TV Ads since it was announced last April, with a deal to run ads on EchoStar Communications' DISH network. The search giant is hoping...

The Fallacy of Internet Ad Spending Growth

Posted by: Rob Hof on October 12

If there's one thing I hear almost as often among Web companies than "It's different this time" and "Our product is really viral," it's something like what I read once...

Rubicon Project Aims to Automate Online Advertising

Posted by: Rob Hof on October 08

Fivetime entrepreneur Frank Addante is hoping to shake up online advertising even more than Google did with his new company, Rubicon Project. Today, he's launching it in beta with 500...

Targeting You: Yahoo Moves Deeper into Behaviorial Targeting with BlueLithium Purchase

Posted by: Rob Hof on September 04

With the $300 million purchase of ad network BlueLithium today, Yahoo! is moving further into targeting ads based on people's online behavior. Behavioral targeting, as it's known, helps marketers track...

Will the Mortgage Mess Hit Online Advertising?

Posted by: Rob Hof on August 27

Rafat Ali at paidContent.org mentioned the possibility a couple weeks ago, but a Financial Times article raises the issue anew: Will the subprime mortgage meltdown singe online advertising? Given that...

Microsoft In, Google Out for Ads on Digg

Posted by: Rob Hof on July 25

Kevin Rose at Digg is saying the popular user-driven news site has just signed a three-year exclusive ad deal with Microsoft. Bye-bye Google. Don't think it will hurt Google's bottom...

Openads: An Alternative to Google Ad Hegemony?

Posted by: Rob Hof on June 13

Openads, an open-source ad server, just got $5 million in funding. Since the company's been around for years, one might wonder if this is simply an opportunistic play on the...

Fire in the Belly? "Absolutely," Says Yahoo!'s Terry Semel

Posted by: Rob Hof on June 12

That's the word at Yahoo!'s annual shareholders meeting today, not that you'd expect the CEO to say anything else. After last month's standing-room-only annual meeting at Google, I was a...

Doubleclick Deal: Did Somebody Say Google's Too Powerful?

Posted by: Rob Hof on April 13

After a week or two of speculation, the deal's done. It's Google's biggest deal ever, by far, and all cash--a good chunk of Google's $11 billion in cash and short-term...

Google Moves Beyond Pay-Per-Click Ads

Posted by: Rob Hof on March 20

Google just announced that it's testing what it call Pay-Per-Action ads. Basically, advertisers will pay not for every click, as they do now, but only when someone buys something, fills...

Google Fights Click Fraud--Perceptions, Mostly

Posted by: Rob Hof on February 28

Google soon will introduce some new tools to fight click fraud, such as the ability to blacklist suspected fraudsters and prevent them from even viewing ads to click on. But...

Did Facebook Blow It?

Posted by: Rob Hof on February 05

That's the question GigaOM's Robert Young is asking. And from a couple of the answers in the post's comment section, the answer doesn't sound good for the social-networking service's chances...

FAST Offers Publishers a Google AdSense Alternative

Posted by: Rob Hof on February 05

Google has offered struggling newspapers and other publishers a Faustian bargain. Through the search giant's AdSense programs, ads get placed on their sites, bringing in revenue that they wouldn't have...

Yahoo Disappoints Again... Oops, Strike That. Panama's on Track

Posted by: Rob Hof on January 23

After a year of trying to gain lost ground on the likes of Google and MySpace, Yahoo's still not out of the woods. Despite posting better-than-expected earnings of 19 cents...

Search Ads: Is the Little Guy Getting Left Behind?

Posted by: Rob Hof on January 12

That's the conclusion of some small and medium-sized online retailers I talked to recently. Andy Beal, whom I quoted in a magazine story this week, takes the trend to its...

Google Rival Hopes for Its Turn

Posted by: Rob Hof on November 06

Who's crazy enough to try to take on Google's fearsome ad network? A little startup called Turn Inc., which my colleague Steve Baker had written about way back in February....

Google Moves Further Into Print

Posted by: Rob Hof on November 06

As if its commanding role in online ads isn't enough, Google is driving further into print ads with a new test of a system to let advertisers bid on space...

Edgeio Has Been Busy

Posted by: Rob Hof on October 24

Matt Marshall at VentureBeat reports that Edgeio, whose novel online classified-ad business I first described in detail here, has gotten its first venture round, $5 million led by Intel Capital....

Media Moves to Second Life

Posted by: Rob Hof on October 18

Reuters, Wired, the BBC, CNET--they're all plunging into the virtual world Second Life. Hey, maybe there's more money to be made there than here....

Unrepentant PayPerPost Gets Funding

Posted by: Rob Hof on October 02

Three months after getting slammed by BusinessWeek's Jon Fine, TechCrunch's Marshall Kirkpatrick, and a gazillion bloggers, PayPerPost is crying all the way to bank. The Orlando-based startup, which matches advertisers...

Now, It's Google + eBay

Posted by: Rob Hof on August 28

This is what Ray Noorda invented the word coopetition to describe. I have a feeling an eBay-Google relationship is going to be, let's say, dynamic....

Fighting Attention Deficit with Engagement

Posted by: Rob Hof on July 14

Heather Green and I just published a story, with the help of colleagues Stanley Holmes and Kerry Capell, on how some companies are managing to fight media attention deficit disorder....

The Death of Ads?

Posted by: Rob Hof on June 22

Two of the biggest marketers in the world showed up at the Supernova conference in San Francisco today and sounded more like Web 2.0 zealots than brand giants. Michael Wiley,...

eBay Gets into the Ad Game, Sort Of

Posted by: Rob Hof on June 11

I couldn't make it early enough to the eBay Developer Conference in Las Vegas to hear the company announce eBay AdContext, which at first sounds like a competitor to Google's...

Web Advertising's Flight to Quality

Posted by: Rob Hof on March 17

My colleague Steve Baker has a story on what's coming next in Web advertising: tracking not just our clicks but our actual behavior in viewing ads. The race is on...

eBay Adds More Ads

Posted by: Rob Hof on February 24

No doubt eyeing the boom in online advertising, eBay is now trying out an ad format it has used in its real estate listings on a new swath of products,...

Edgeio Edges Toward Launch--and a Clash with E-Commerce Giants?

Posted by: Rob Hof on February 09

Edgeio, the much-anticipated, secretive startup by onetime RealNames founder Keith Teare and TechCrunch blogger Mike Arrington, suddenly isn't so secret anymore. Although its "official" launch is weeks away, possibly Feb....

Google to Get AdSense Competition From Amazon?

Posted by: Rob Hof on February 05

Chris Beasley says it looks like Amazon is considering an ad network to compete with Google's AdSense. Beasley, who's an Amazon Associate--meaning he gets commissions for referring his Web site...

Interesting New Microsoft Browser Feature...

Posted by: Rob Hof on January 27

... as imagined by Naval Ravikant: Made me smile, anyway. (Via Munjal Shah)...

Why Spot Runner May Be Revolutionary

Posted by: Rob Hof on January 24

I like Umair Haque's take on the real reason why Spot Runner is revolutionary--or could be. This is the new outfit, still in beta, that lets local businesses buy generic...

New Ideas in Online Advertising: Who Needs Google?

Posted by: Rob Hof on December 06

Heard a couple of new buzzwords--or are they incipient markets?--at the When 2.0 workshop presented at Stanford today by Esther Dyson's ReLease 1.0 and Stanford's Media X program. * "user-generated...

Vonage spending loads for new customers

Posted by: Stephen Baker on May 27

Vonage appears to be dramatically hiking ad spending

Viral Ads, or So the Marketers Hope

Posted by: Rob Hof on May 22

USA Today writes about how Wendy's and Anheuser-Busch are hoping to tap into word-of-mouth marketing with "viral" ads that young people will send to each other online. Busch even hired...

15-Sec Video Spots don't Fit Internet Time

Posted by: Heather Green on May 18

Interesting take at The Pomo Blog on why the portals shouldn't give in to advertisers who want to run standard TV-length spots online. The portals should be in the drivers...

A new excuse to go get a beer from the fridge

Posted by: Rob Hof on January 21

The good news is, those awful pop-up ads apparently are on their way out, according to a new report from the Internet ad agency Avenue A/Razorfish. The bad news: Now,...