Google Continues Search Dominance

AdWeek: "Google's share of search spending was 77 percent in the latest holiday quarter, up from 71 percent a year earlier. During the same period, Yahoo!'s share dropped by 25 percent, from 24 percent of the market to 17 percent. Microsoft remained a small presence, taking just 6 percent of the market, up from 5 percent in the year-ago period."

New Media Icon Grapples With Newer Media Rivals

WSJ.com: "But the rise of blogs and online-ad networks has altered the landscape for such premium Web-publishing efforts. As tech blogs proliferated, CNET's News.com and ZDNet tech sites lost 27% and 4%, respectively, of their U.S. readers over the past year, according to comScore Inc."

Google's Newspaper Ads: Big Hopes For Small Barcodes

Silicon Alley Insider: "Google's efforts to get into the newspaper ad business have yet to yield much. One tool it hopes will eventually change that: Small, square barcodes at the bottom of print ads. When a person scans the barcode with a compatible camera phone, it takes their phone's browser to a mobile Web address encrypted in the graphic."

Nielsen Commercializes Social Network, Will Use HeyNielsen.com As Super Ad Focus Group

MediaPost: "ON SUPER SUNDAY SOMETHING ELSE will kick off besides Super Bowl XLII: The world's largest focus group study on television advertising, courtesy of a burgeoning online social network being propagated by consumer research giant Nielsen Co."

Mainstream music industry realizes the value of 'free'

International Herald Tribune: "Unlike their predecessors, the new field of 'free' digital services may even have Top 40 tracks that consumers can download, keep and sometimes copy. The catch? For the most part, it is being exposed to advertising."

DLD Conference: Old media meets empowered customers

Fortune: "Most media companies still think it's all about the content, but taking a software-driven approach makes it easier to find unique and creative ways to develop a synthesis between professional and non-professional content, and to monetize both, usually with advertising."

Google CEO bullish on mobile Web advertising

Reuters: "Schmidt said he was confident location-based advertising -- which could, for example, direct hungry travelers to nearby restaurants -- would be 'a very, very good business'."

Newspapers see more online users in '07

Yahoo! News: "U.S. newspapers' online audiences grew about 6 percent last year, an industry group reported Thursday, a rare bit of good news for an industry struggling to adapt as readers and advertising dollars continue to migrate online."

Google-DoubleClick deal likely to win EU go-ahead

Reuters: "European regulators are likely to approve Google's $3.1 billion takeover of ad firm DoubleClick, despite rivals' worries the deal could squeeze them and make Web advertising more expensive."

Growth of gaming in 2007 far outpaces movies, music

ars technica: "2007 was a banner year for video gaming, and the industry has the figures to prove it. The Entertainment Software Association announced today that total sales for 2007 were $18.85 billion, with $9.5 billion of that spent on games (both PC and console) and $9.35 billion on consoles ... Both the movie and music industries should be jealous of gaming's 2007 growth. The motion picture industry saw modest growth in 2007, reporting a total box office take of $9.66 billion, a modest increase over 2006's $9.49 billion. Things aren't going as smoothly for the music industry. The RIAA has not yet released its 2007 report, but we did learn from the IFPI today that global music sales fell about 10 percent for the year."

Top 50 Advertisers by Media Value in October, 2007

ClickZ:
1 LendingTree
2 E-Trade Financial
3 Dell: Inspiron computer
4 AT&T Wireless
5 University of Phoenix Online
6 Fidelity Brokerage Services: consumer services
7 Verizon Wireless
8 Privacy Matters Services
9 TD Ameritrade
10 Classmates Online

Microsoft ponders offline profiling of Web users

MarketWatch: "Microsoft Corp. is developing a method of using personal data such as credit-card information to target Internet users with advertising once they connect to the Web, according to a patent application filed by the company."

Yankee Group Forecasts US Online Advertising Market to Reach $50 Billion by 2011

Yankee Group: "The internet accounts for approximately 20% of overall media consumption in the US, but advertisers currently invest only 7.5% of their budget online ... By 2011, nearly 25% of all media consumption will be online, drawing 15% of the advertising dollars."

Survey: In-Stream Ads Are Intrusive

MediaPost: "About 78% of respondents surveyed say in-stream ads in online video are intrusive. According to the online survey conducted in December of some 2,600 adult Web users, half say ads in video content disrupt their Web surfing experience."

Google and Publicis Share Ad Know-How

WSJ.com: "'We are sharing our information to help Google develop the right platforms and Google is sharing technology to help us develop the best services for our clients,' said Publicis Chairman and CEO Maurice Levy in an interview. 'Google is not going to be an advertising agency,' said Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt. 'We've all sort of figured out where everybody goes now.'"

Google's search share slackens, Nielsen says

MarketWatch: "Google garnered a 56.3% share of the U.S. search market in December, compared with a 57.7% share in the previous month, according to Nielsen. Yahoo Inc., meanwhile, saw its share in December fall slightly to 17.7%, compared with 17.9% in November."

Consumer magazines finish 2007 flat

Media Life: "By and large, 2007 was a year of retrenchment for America's magazine publishers as they struggled against further incursions by the internet, in terms of reader and advertiser defections. There were fewer launches but more closings, some of them major titles, such as Condé Nast's House & Garden, founded more than 100 years ago."

CBS inks deals to expand out-of-home ad business

Crain's New York Business.com: "The deals come one day after NBC touted its NBC Everywhere place-based digital video capabilities to ad buyers and discussed new partnerships aimed at reaching college students and fitness club members."

Advertising: Now a Conversation

BusinessWeek: "In today's environment where independent information about a product is plentiful, traditional one-way messages to consumers no longer work"

Online Advertising To Reach $50 Billion by 2011

WebProNews: "25% Of Media Consumption Will Be Online"

Traditional Media Ready to Elevate the Conversation Online -- with Moderation

MediaShift: "Major media sites have started to get the religion of audience participation, but there’s been one big hitch: How do you harness the audience’s knowledge and participation without the forums devolving into a messy online brawl that requires time-intensive moderation?"

Despite Facebook Rise, MySpace Still King

WebProNews: "All the press and the industry observers talked about last year was Facebook, which made it seem like MySpace was soooo 2006. Social networkers, though, must not have been paying too much attention."

Google may lose ad spend to Facebook

Telegraph: "the report points out that social networks are an important source of traffic for other websites - particularly music, film and TV websites which were among the first to realise the advertising potential."

Mobile Pitches Hit Home

eMarketer: "Text messages had the highest rate of interaction for any rich media type measured in PointRoll's'Entertainment Analysis' report. Text messages had an interaction rate of nearly 13% when used as part of entertainment rich media campaigns fielded in 2006 and the first quarter of 2007—more than video, audio or gaming."

As Big Brands Embrace Digital, Digital's Branding Power Wanes

ClickZ: "That's because the branding effectiveness of online advertising has declined over the past two years by nearly every measure, according to data provided to ClickZ by Dynamic Logic. Explanations for the decline include the rise of ad clutter, the desensitization of Internet users to display ads and other causes."

Ad Revenue Tied To Streams Rises

WSJ.com: "Advertising from streaming video and audio totaled about $1.37 billion last year, up 38% from 2006, according to a new report"

Will Digital Cause Agency Shrinkage?

Adweek: "The increased automation of advertising routed through the buying systems of companies like Google and Microsoft will likely produce significantly altered agency models, according to a key AOL executive."

Recession Hits: What It Means for Ad Biz

Advertising Age: "It might not hurt in the short-term, but if things don't tick up, gird yourself for a tough 2009. It might not hurt in the short-term, but if things don't tick up, gird yourself for a tough 2009."

Ad Network Targets College Students

MediaPost: "The network will connect content sites and online publishers popular with college-age students with advertisers interested in reaching the notoriously cynical audience."

comScore Media Metrix Releases Top 50 U.S. Web Rankings for December

comScore: "Advertising.com continued to lead the Ad Focus ranking of ad networks and sites accepting advertising, reaching 86 percent of the more than 183 million Americans online in December.Advertising.com continued to lead the Ad Focus ranking of ad networks and sites accepting advertising, reaching 86 percent of the more than 183 million Americans online in December."

Google: Melding TV's 'Emotion' With Web Tracking

Broadcast Newsroom: "Google wants to take the ad-targeting capability that powers Internet ads and marry it with the 'emotion' provided by television advertising, said Vincent Dureau, the search company's head of TV technology."

New Gannett Chief Digital Officer Details Vision

MediaPost : "Online Media Daily took the opportunity to ask Saridakis a number of questions regarding his new role, Gannett's digital future and the state of rich media today."

The New Focus Groups: Online Networks

WSJ.com: "Such online networks, first cultivated as a tool for consumer research by tech and videogame firms, are now rapidly spreading to companies ranging from Coca-Cola to Walt Disney's ABC Television Studios. They are often cheaper and more effective than phone surveys or traditional focus groups because companies can draw on the participants in a much broader and deeper way than they could in an offline setting."

Nielsen Internet Trends

Nielsen: Top ten internet brands, online videos, news stories, blogs.

Beyond the Click Through

MediaPost: "AS THE LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR, it is clear why CTR has emerged as a primary measurement criterion around ad effectiveness. It is, however, often one of the most misleading metrics available. There's a huge difference between measuring click through rates and measuring why people click on ads or links in the first place."

So Much for Engagement; Buys Are Still Based on Eyes

Advertising Age: "An overwhelming 76% of respondents said they will increase online spending within the next six months; 55% said their mobile outlays will rise; and 34% said they will bulk up their cable spending."

Election Prompts Melding Of Old And New Media

MediaPost: "Competing old-new media alliances including CNN and YouTube, MTV and MySpace, ABC News and Facebook have promised to shake up the political process by mashing up traditional TV news with the Internet's user-empowering tools from Web video to instant polling."

Search Marketing Takes Lion’s Share of Online Spend

eMarketer: "Marketers in the United Kingdom say that search marketing is the most efficient way to generate leads. So it’s no surprise that advertisers spent 44% more on search during the first half of 2007 than they did during the first six months of 2006."

Baidu vs. Google.cn

Web Analytics World: "Enquiro Research has released a new eye research comparing the two search engines predominantly used by Chinese searchers – Baidu and Google.cn"

Google Sees Surge in iPhone Traffic

New York Times: "On Christmas, traffic to Google from iPhones surged, surpassing incoming traffic from any other type of mobile device, according to internal Google data made available to The New York Times. A few days later, iPhone traffic to Google fell below that of devices powered by the Nokia-backed Symbian operating system but remained higher than traffic from any other type of cellphone."

Why CondeNet Is Banking on Facebook

Adweek: "When it launched in February, Flip.com was CondeNet's effort to target teen girls with an ambitious social media site. Just 10 months later, the digital arm of Conde Nast is reversing course to embrace a distributed media strategy and converting the destination site into a series of applications that will live on social networks, starting with Facebook."

Facebook Founder Says "Beacon" Needs Work, Also Tells 60 Minutes It's Unlikely Company Will Go Public in 2008

CBS News: "The controversial advertising device many accused of invading the privacy of Facebook users will eventually be a good tool, says Facebook founder and chief executive officer, Mark Zuckerberg."

Study: Traffic to video-sharing sites doubled

Pew Internet: "48% of internet users have been to video-sharing sites such as YouTube and the daily traffic to such sites on a typical day has doubled in the past year."

Study: Mobile Subscribers Taking Note Of Ads

MediaPost: "ONE IN THREE U.S. MOBILE subscribers, or 78 million people, saw or listened to an ad on their cell phone during the last three months, according to a study ... by mobile entertainment company Limbo in partnership with Britain-based market research firm GfK NOP Research."

MTV Networks Unveils Targeted Online Syndication Strategy

MediaPost: "The new partners are Dailymotion, GoFish, iMeem, MeeVee and Veoh--which join AOL, Bebo, Comcast's Fancast, Joost and MSN to comprise MTVN's portfolio of online syndication partners."

comScore and Google U.K. Reveal Importance of Search Engines

comScore: "Key findings include:
· On average, consumers take nearly a month to go from their first search to a purchase
· On average travelers visit the purchase website 2.5 times
· Generic search terms play a significant role in the consumer journey to purchase"

Cable-TV Industry Girds for New Threats

WSJ.com: "As the Internet becomes a larger provider of video, and technology makers ease the flow of that content to television sets, it threatens the cable and satellite industries ... anecdotal evidence suggests those affected by a souring U.S. economy are more inclined to keep their less-expensive Internet services than their cable-TV subscriptions."

Don't Call Them Readers

ClickZ: "Magazine publishers are pursuing 33.5 percent more online initiatives in 2007 compared to the same time last year, according to research released by the Magazine Publishers of America (MPA) today."

Paid downloads a thing of the past

Variety: "After years in which paid downloads saw little traction, Hollywood is focused on ad-supported streaming in '08."

BET Launches Online Ad Network

WebProNews: "BET Digital Media Group will be launching a vertical advertising network in an effort to give advertisers more exposure to African-American Internet users."

Magazine Digital Initiatives Up 33 Percent in 2007

FolioMag.com: "Magazines announcing digital initiatives—video, content sharing partnerships, integrated marketing, social networking and anything other buzzy product related to Web 2.0—increased by more than 33 percent in 2007, according to year-end data by the Magazine Publishers of America scheduled to be released later this morning."

Online To Pass TV Ad Spend in UK

eMarketer: "Group M, the media planning and buying agency owned by WPP Group, has forecast that spending on Internet advertising in the UK will surpass spending on TV ads in 2009 - making the UK the first of the world’s major economies to see TV spending overtaken by the Internet."

Saying ‘Will You’ for Prizes, on the Web

New York Times: "“ENGAGING the consumer” is a popular phrase in marketing, particularly as the public shifts its attention from television to interactive media like the Internet. This Valentine’s Day, engaging consumers — or getting consumers engaged — is precisely what the online floral retailer 1-800-Flowers.com aims to do."

Marketer Discontent Set Records in 2007

Adweek: "The total amount of client dollars that moved or went into review last year represents a 57 percent increase over the $17.5 billion logged in 2006"

What's a Widget Worth?

BusinessWeek: "Online social networks will continue to grab the attention of Web users and the advertisers who want to reach them in 2008, but some software developers who help make the networks popular say they're missing out on the spoils."

Online Ad Business Recession-Proof, Analysts Say

MediaPost: "Whereas Internet advertising budgets were the first to be cut during the market crash in 2000, we believe the proven high ROI of online advertising today will make online advertising resilient even with a recession in the United States."

Google Enabled Televisions Coming Soon

TechCrunch: "Japanese manufacturer Matsushita (Panasonic) has signed a deal with Google that will see the company launch flat panel television sets that allow users to access YouTube and other Google services such as Picasa Web Albums."

Merrill Lynch 2008 Internet Trends Report

How to Change the World: Merrill Lynch 2008 Internet Trends Report:
# Intensifying 3rd party seller competition between eBay and Amazon.
# A bump in online media spending because of the elections and the television writers' strike.
# Increasing focus on mobile market initiatives by Google and Yahoo!
# Improving display ad targeting technology because of the Google/DoubleClick merger and Yahoo!'s acquisition of Blue Lithium and Right Media.
# Asset value unlock speculation because of the split of InterActive into five entities.
# Social networking revenue model emergence as users move away from portals to social networking sites.

DoubleClick Announces Spotlight for Rich Media

DoubleClick.com || Blog: "allows you to correlate how specific creative elements inside your DoubleClick Rich Media ads (i.e. videos, games, exit links, etc.) turn into purchases or conversion on your Web site. The report helps you answer questions like:

* How do interactions directly tie to results?
* Are users who watch the complete video more likely to come to our site later?
* Which drives more conversions, the 'buy now' or 'learn more' links?
* Are expanding ads worth the extra expense and creative cost?
* Does a video play change user behavior?"

Most Agencies Bearish on Mobile for 2008

eMarketer: "More than a third of advertising agency executives polled are open-minded about significant spending on mobile marketing this year, according to a survey conducted at the 2007 iMedia Agency Summit."

TNS Sees 14.4 Percent Growth for Display Ads in 2008

ClickZ: "Internet display advertising will leap 14.4 percent this year, growing its share of all U.S. ad expenditures to more than 8 percent, according to TNS Media Intelligence. While more aggressive by half than projected increases in other channels, the anticipated digital growth rate is down slightly from 2007, when TNS found online ad expenditures for the first nine months of the year grew 17.2 percent to $8.4 billion."

Wikia Search Goes Live: Not Great

TechCrunch: "As we wrote December 23, Wikia’s Jimmy Wales is pitching the search engine as a Google competitor; its a strong statement to make but does Wikia Search Alpha take the good fight up to Google? Not yet."

DoubleClick Aims to Give Deeper Insight into Rich Media Effectivness

ClickZ: "DoubleClick is touting the free report, called Spotlight for Rich Media, as a way to precisely correlate rich media metrics with conversions."

The Fight For The Second Click

Dave Morgan: "In a post on Searchblog three weeks ago, John Battelle characterized Google's launch of a Wikipedia-like service named Knol as Google's attempt to own the 'second click' -- the click after the search click, which the company already owns. It's a wonderful characterization."

Pudding Media Raises $8 Million To Serve Ads Against Phone Conversations

Techcrunch: "Placing ads based on what people say in phone conversations is going to be controversial, but Pudding Media just raised $8 million in an A round led by Opus Capital and BRM Capital to prove the concept."

GroupM: Internet Overtakes TV In Sweden, The U.K. Will Be Next

MediaPost Publications: "THE U.K. NEXT YEAR WILL become the first major economy in which the Internet overtakes television as the No. 1 advertising medium, according to a new forecast from WPP's GroupM unit..."

Pew Internet: Teens and Social Media

Content creation by teenagers continues to grow, with 64% of online teenagers ages 12 to 17 engaging in at least one type of content creation, up from 57% of online teens in 2004...

Five Guiding Principles For The Transformation Of Media Companies

Scott Karp - Publishing 2.0: Instead of the usual predictable predictions, I thought I would ring in the new year with five principles that I believe will guide the ongoing transformation of media companies...

Why big brands are getting Facebook wrong

Valleywag: "Facebook applications were supposed to provide advertisers with compelling new ways to mine for customers on the Web, but the results have not panned out. Sony attempted to capitalize on the Facebook buzz and the holiday season with a branded snowglobe application. Just the sort of useless eye candy popular on the social network, but the application garnered less than 500 installations and only 35 active users. Why?"

John Battelle's Searchblog: Predictions 2008

John Battelle's Searchblog: Predictions 2008: So what are the trends in 2008? Well, everyone I speak to is very worried that we're in for a major economic downturn, and we all know that a key lagging indicator of a recession is a serious downturn in the advertising markets. I'm going to buck all my colleagues fears, however, and predict that web-based advertising businesses will in fact enjoy significant gains in 2008...

Facebook Ads Make You the Star -- And You May Not Know It

Epicenter from Wired.com: "Almost overlooked in the Beacon hubbub were the new display advertisements dubbed 'Social Ads.' These ads, bought by participating businesses, insert your name and profile picture directly into their pitches. Based on anecdotal evidence, the ads started to roll out right before the holidays."

Can Social Search Take Down Google?

Sci-Tech Today: "With the founder of Wikipedia setting out to dethrone Google with a search tool that is driven, as Wikipedia is, by the contributions of participants, several observers already are expressing skepticism about the plan. 'I think he doesn't really understand the scale of what Google has to handle,' said Danny Sullivan, editor of the Web site Search Engine Land."

Free WSJ.com Would Need 12x Traffic To Offset Loss; DJ Buy To Shave A Penny From NWS: Analyst

paidContent.org: "Turning WSJ.com into a free site would require a 12x increase in traffic growth to offset the lost revenue, according to a new report from Bear Stearns analyst Spencer Wang. WSJ.com revenue is currently pegged at $78 million annually, based on an estimated 989,000 subscribers paying $79/year. Including non-subscriber traffic, the company claims 122.4 million monthly page views. Based on an estimated CPM of $6 and a few other assumptions about sell-through rate and ad impressions per page, Wang arrives at the 12x conclusion."

Web2.0 faces 'users' revolt' over advertising

Telegraph: "A slew of Web2.0 companies will dissolve this year in the face of a 'users' revolt' against online advertising, industry expert Mark Anderson has warned."

Is AdSense Really Dead? Can You Make Money with AdSense?

Adsense Money: Despite the so-called “Death of AdSense” (which happens to be a smart marketing ploy), there are still a few good success stories. At least, the marketers who carry the right beliefs within them know what they are doing to persevere and achieve desired results.

Ad Houses Will Need to Be More Nimble

WSJ.com: The Web's emergence is forcing ad executives to succumb to marketers' demands that agencies reinvent how ads are created, and forgo their TV-centric approach. Clients are even calling for changes in the way ad firms are structured. But until now, few advertisers have spent more than 5% to 10% of their marketing budgets online. With the growth of online video and social networking, ad experts expect that percentage to jump significantly this year.

Kmart Tailors TV Ads for Different Audiences

Advertising Age: The national retailer rolled out some of the first national TV ads of their kind Nov. 19 on Nick at Nite and TV Land. The campaign, using technology from Visible World, let the marketer target different segments of the networks' audiences.

The Disadvantages of Adsense

E-BusinessAutomation.com: "As adsense becomes the most popular publisher program for Price per Click advertising, flaws and disadvantages still exist. Since its inception advertisers have chosen to advertise in search because they felt that visitors would be less targeted. This is a genuine concern and one that makes perfect sense. If you are visiting a website, and notice an advert then the chances are you are not particularly concentrating on its content."

Sams Club Online Advertising

Sams Club Online Advertising
- Search engine optimization and Pay-per-click advertising.

JPMorgan: '08 Online Ad CPMs Set To 'Accelerate,' Search Will Hit $30.5 Billion - 01/02/2008

MediaPost: "IN THE FIRST MAJOR WALL Street outlook for the Internet sector of the New Year, the equities research team at JPMorgan predicts the major publicly traded Internet publishers, portals, commerce sites and search engines will continue to outpace the performance of the overall stock market by wide margins through 2008."