Sorry for being quiet for the last few days

I was down and out with a fever, but am on my way back now. Thanks for your patience!

New Study Shows that Heavy Clickers Distort Reality of Display Advertising Click-Through Metrics

comScore: "The study illustrates that heavy clickers represent just 6% of the online population yet account for 50% of all display ad clicks.

While many online media companies use click-through rate as an ad negotiation currency, the study shows that heavy clickers are not representative of the general public. In fact, heavy clickers skew towards Internet users between the ages of 25-44 and households with an income under $40,000. Heavy clickers behave very differently online than the typical Internet user, and while they spend four times more time online than non-clickers, their spending does not proportionately reflect this very heavy Internet usage. Heavy clickers are also relatively more likely to visit auctions, gambling, and career services sites – a markedly different surfing pattern than non-clickers."

Online Advertising Grows by 27 Percent in 2007

ClickZ: "Internet ad spending totaled $7.3 billion for the fourth-quarter of 2007, about 28 percent more than the same period in 2006, according to IDC. For the 2007 calendar year, it reached $25.5 billion, representing year-over-year growth of 27 percent."

Google May Get EU Approval on DoubleClick

Bloomberg: "Google Inc. hasn't received formal objections from European Union regulators about its proposed $3.1 billion purchase of DoubleClick Inc., three people familiar with the case said, indicating the EU is close to approving the deal."

Publicis Chief Outlines Tie-Up With Google

MediaPost: "Who knows the consumer and who knows best the advertisers' needs? We do. So we are bringing our knowledge to Google. They are bringing their technology and we are trying to see what is best for the future of both of us."

Generation MySpace Is Getting Fed Up

BusinessWeek: "'What you have with social networks is the most overhyped scenario in online advertising,' says Tim Vanderhook, CEO of Specific Media, which places ads for customers on a variety of Web sites."

My thoughts on this: Social networking: In search of a business model

Social Media Marketing's Disease: No Follow-Through

MediaPost: "Overall, the study finds that social media marketing did play an increasingly important role in holiday sales, and it expects that to increase in the months ahead. What seems to work best, Kauffold says, are marketers tweaking and evolving plans while still staying within the brand's personality."

My thoughts on this: Social networking: In search of a business model

Social networking: In search of a business model

Graham Jenkin on New Media: "Contextual advertising works great for search. Contextual advertising sucks for social networking."

Google Aims to Crack China With Music Push

WSJ.com: "The U.S. search giant is in the late planning stages of a joint venture with a Chinese online music company that would permit it to provide free -- licensed -- music downloads in China."

Google Likely Out, And Happy

Forbes.com: "After dominating the U.S. wireless spectrum auction for months, from influencing the terms of the auction to bidding, it looks like Google is off the hook."

Social Sites Don't Deliver Big Ad Gains

WSJ.com: "While announcing disappointing fourth-quarter earnings Thursday, Google executives said the company was having a harder time than it expected generating ad revenue on social-networking sites and figuring out the best ad formats for its YouTube video-sharing service. Social-networking phenomenon Facebook Inc. also has been publicly grappling with how to make money amid its massive spurt in usage. Microsoft, which owns a 1.6% stake in Facebook, has a long-term deal to sell ads that appear on the site -- and analysts estimate that arrangement is losing money for Microsoft."

My thoughts on this: Social networking: In search of a business model

Google "Social Network Inventory is Not Monetizing as Well as Expected"

SEO Book.com: "Social media has little to no value to advertisers. There is little to no implied intent. It is the exact opposite of focused marketing like search marketing, direct navigation domain names, and targeted affiliate sites. You simply can't put a value on a social media connection like you can on search."

My thoughts on this: Social networking: In search of a business model

What you all are missing about Google

Scobleizer: Robert Scoble argues that the battle over Yahoo is really a battle over the mobile space.

MySpace Users Build Up Ad Immunity

BusinessWeek: "While News Corp. is thrilled about its social network's ad-revenue growth, Google and many marketers are frustrated about click-through rates"

My thoughts on this: Social networking: In search of a business model

Newspapers Turn to Online Networks for Display Ads

MediaPost: "LOCAL NEWSPAPER WEB SITES ARE seeking safety in numbers and convenience, joining large networks for online display ads. These networks are proving to be a key part of online strategy for newspapers, which must build their display ad revenues to offset slowing growth in online classifieds."

Interview: David Eun "Google Won't Become a Media Company"

I Want Media: "The head of Google's content partnerships insists that the Internet behemoth won't be a competitor to traditional media. Producing content is 'not our business,' he says. 'Journalists, news bureaus -- that's not what we do.'"

IDG revives The Industry Standard online

Computerworld: "...once known as The Bible of the Internet economy, with a new publishing model that includes editorial content, a community-driven prediction market and social networking components."

Emmis' Smulyan Calls Tagging Radio's 'Killer App'

MediaPost: "He concluded with a bold vision: 'We want to have a radio tuner in every mobile phone, every PDA sold in the U.S. That's 400 million devices in the next five years. The industry is pulling together, and we're going to do it.'"

Network's pursuit of youth falters

Los Angeles Times: "The CW could be a canary in the coal mine for the broadcast television industry. Declining viewership, shifts in consumer tastes, increased competition from video games, cable TV and the Internet, as well as the rising use of digital video recorders, are affecting ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox. But they are hitting the CW harder."

Google Says Microsoft's Bid for Yahoo Is `Troubling'

Bloomberg.com: Worldwide: "``This is about more than simply a financial transaction, one company taking over another,'' Mountain View, California- based Google said in a blog posting on the Web. ``It's about preserving the underlying principles of the Internet: openness and innovation.''"