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YouTube’s InVideo Ads: Smart Move, But Far From Final, Say Experts - Semi-transparent overlays spur video giant’s latest debate as bloggers, analysts, advertisers, competitors and others weigh in.                   

Microsoft Opens MSN Pages to adCenter, Launches Tafiti Search Beta - Microsoft said it will upgrade adCenter on Aug. 29 to allow users to place targeted ads on Microsoft Network (MSN) content pages for the first time, starting with Tech & Gadgets, Money, Real Estate and Windows Marketplace. The software giant also launched a beta of Tafiti, combining the Silverlight rich media plug-in application with Live Search capabilities to create a new search “front-end.”                 

ABI: Internet To Drive Console Game Ad Revenues - Driven by the ability to dynamically serve advertising into video games connected to the Internet, in-game advertising on consoles will grow more than tenfold from $80 million in 2007 to $850 million in 2011, according to ABI Research.              

Zango, Pixsy Partner For Video Search And Ad Capabilities - Online video and image search provider Pixsy announced a content and advertising partnership with online media company Zango.                 

IBM Study: Internet Overtakes TV Time - Time spent on the Internet is set to surpass time spent watching TV in the average American home. Results from an IBM global survey found that online usage is eating into traditional TV viewing patterns.

Colleges Perfect for Word of Mouth - College students, like many young people, are strongly influenced by word of mouth and look to their friends for advice. With the rise of social networking, blogs and viral video, this group has many new user-generated sources for information about products and services. According to Youth Trends, word of mouth is the top way students like to learn about new products and services. TV advertising ranked second, although it was a more powerful driver for females than males. “The fact that students favor word of mouth, combined with their use of social networking, indicates that they are a strong audience for online word-of-mouth marketing efforts,” said eMarketer senior analyst Debra Aho Williamson.             

Most Moms Research Products on Web - Most mothers make time to check the Internet several times a day, a report says. And they use search regularly for product research. Seven in 10 moms used search engines to research online purchases, 57% used search engines to research offline purchases and 64% used search to find out where to buy products offline. “Of the nearly 1,000 moms surveyed, 89% use the Internet at least twice a day, and 90% have been using it for more than seven years,” said Stuart Larkins, vice president of search at DoubleClick Performics, in a statement. “A whopping 86% of respondents said search engines are the most efficient way to find information.”

Facebook Confirms New Ad Plan - A new advertising system on Facebook gives marketers access to an unprecedented amount of information that its users reveal about themselves. The idea is to ultimately devise a system that predicts what products and services users might be interested in before they know it. Unnamed sources say the new behavior targeting plan, set to be unveiled this fall, is the company’s top priority moving forward. Facebook declined to discuss specifics.

Who Makes Money From Facebook Apps? - Third-party software development on Facebook is booming, but are application makers making any money? Where is the business model? Advertising is the logical choice, but even the most interesting Facebook applications are attracting small audiences.

Flawed Study Overstates Piracy’s Economic Effect - A new study that says music piracy will cost the U.S. economy more than $12.5 billion this year takes a shortsighted view of pee-to-peer file sharing technology. The Institute for Policy Innovation study, like many that measure the negative effects of P2P networks, assumes most illegal downloads should be considered lost sales. To its credit, the study substitutes a weighted average that says 65.7%t of illegal downloads would have been CD sales. Still, it’s a somewhat arbitrary, if educated guess.

YouTube Used For Real Estate Ads - Could YouTube overtake Craigslist as the undisputed classifieds king? After all, video is a far more helpful resource for a prospective buyer than a photo–especially when it comes to apartment hunting. Brokers and landlords are using the video-sharing site as an opportunity to give walking tours of their properties.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 23rd, 2007 at 8:08 pm and is filed under Internet, Digital Media & Software, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.