Articles of the Day
Honeymoon Is Over For Social Networks - Competition is fierce among social networking sites trying to reach the critical mass of audience necessary for commercial success — and those that fail to start generating revenue will be forced to bow out of the race this year, predicts In-Stat.
MySpace “Shoot The Rapper” Banners Link To Virginia Tech Shooting Victims - The Web is notorious for inappropriately matching content with ads. It’s happened again with the Virginia Tech tragedy, as MySpace ads encouraging visitors to “Shoot the Rapper, win $5,000″ are appearing alongside profiles of students who lost their lives this week.
Havas’ Media Contacts Signs Global Ad-Serving Deal With aQuantive’s Atlas - Insisting the deal does not mean a move away from DoubleClick in the wake of the Google acquisition, Media Contacts, the interactive arm of Havas, has signed an ad-serving deal with the Atlas unit of aQuantive. It covers more than 400 clients — including Dell, Nike and Air France.
Major Crises Catalyze Interactive News Capabilities - Traditional news organizations typically spring into action online in the wake of significant breaking news events. Using paid search keywords to attract traffic and turning to user-generated content to flesh out reports were both on display during this week’s coverage of the Virginia Tech shooting.
Click Fraud Hits 14.8% For 1Q 2007: Click Forensics - Click Forensics reported an average industry click fraud rate of 14.8% for the first three months of 2007 — the highest reported rate since the firm started tracking click fraud a year ago.
Mochila Launches AdMatch Video Player - Mochila, an online media marketplace for publishers of print, audio, video and photo content, has launched AdMatch Player — an ad-supported video player that enables publishers to create and deliver customized video experiences for consumers.
The Unstoppable Surge of Search Advertising - There are two giants in the space, and they are getting bigger! Saying that search engine marketing is a highly concentrated industry is an understatement. Looking at the numbers, according to comScore, US Internet users performed 75.8% of their January 2007 searches on Google or Yahoo!, and Nielsen//NetRatings put the combined total at 76.4%. eMarketer projects Google and Yahoo to take up 75.6% and 16.3% of US paid search by the end of 2007.
More Boomers Watching Online Video - At 39.4 years old, the average adult who downloads video is about five years younger than the average Internet user, according to BIGresearch. The data refer to all Internet users or Internet video viewers. The number of US adults who have downloaded a TV show, for example, remains small. Like the BIGresearch data, a demographic profile from Arbitron/Edison Media Research is based on self-reported survey results, but still points to the significant trend of more mature viewers. The survey indicates that over a fourth of online video viewers are 45 or older.
Low-Key Reception As Google Beats Street–Again - What if Google delivered whopping earnings and nobody cared? Google’s first-quarter earnings haven’t been the media event of the past. Revenues jumped 65% to $2.53 billion, a $1 billion increase over last year, while its international business grew an astonishing 81%, raising its share of revenues to 47% from 42%. On a pro-forma basis, which excludes employee stock options, the company delivered $3.68 a share, easily beating analysts’ expectations of $3.31.
Social Networking Transforms Academia - Academia is a very different world today. College pofessors now have to compete with mobile phones, wireless Internet and colossal time wasters like MySpace and YouTube for attention in the classroom. In fact, Congress recently introduced a bill to stifle funds for schools that don’t restrict access to certain Web sites on their networks. Naturally, there has to be an opportunity in there somewhere.
Is The Web Squeezing Out Local Broadcasters? - As News Corp., NBC, Viacom and others send prime-tie content to the Internet, local TV affiliates are wondering whether they’re the next business to be left behind by the Internet revolution. NBC and News Corp. plan to distribute prime-time content across a large network of major Internet publishers. Moreover, it’s an on-demand future, as the big telecoms, Apple, Joost, YouTube, Sling Media and others, change the way people watch television.
Circuit City And Napster Launching Digital Music Store - Troubled Circuit City is getting back into selling online music by teaming up with Napster on a new online MP3 service that will give consumers access to songs via monthly subscriptions as well as the choice of buying individual tracks. The company sold its MusicNow subscription service to AOL in November 2005. The latest venture begins April 29, when users can sign up for the service at Circuit City + Napster. The subscription service is $14.95 per month; new subscribers get the first month of access for free, along with five free downloads.
EA Launches Casual Gaming Site Pogo in Germany; Expands In UK - Electronic Arts is expanding its casual gaming service Pogo in Europe, adding services in the UK and launching a German-language site. The company said a French-language site will be launched in coming months. EA is pursuing the estimated 30-45 percent (Media Metrix, 12/06) of the online population in the UK and Germany that plays casual games. After a soft launch, the local UK site already is drawing 3.2 million monthly uniques; they average 11 minutes a day. The U.S. has 11 million monthly uniques who play an average 53 minutes a day. The majority of users in both cases are women over 35.
Google Acquires Marratech’s Video Conferencing Software - Google adds another weapon to its online app arsenal with the acquisition of Marratech’s video conferencing and video new meeting software. The Swedish company will continue to serve and support its customer base and reseller network. Marratech’s cross-platform e-Meeting software creates a virtual office. No terms were disclosed; the small—but potentially loud—acquisition was announced late Thursday after Google’s earnings release and call.
