Articles of the Day
Nielsen Reports Search Overlap Among Leaders - Most online searchers are not loyal to a single search engine, reports Nielsen//NetRatings in new data looking at month-to-month user retention. MSN registered the highest level of overlap, with 84% of its users searching elsewhere. For advertisers, it pays to diversify.
News Clips Most Popular Online Video Content: Study - News clips are the most popular form of streamed video content, according to a new study by Advertising.com. Meanwhile, 94% of survey respondents said they would prefer ads to subscription fees.
Insurers Poised For 41% Growth In Online Ad Spend: eMarketer - A new study from eMarketer projects that online ad spending by U.S. insurance companies will grow by 36% in 2007 to $980 million, and increase by 41% in 2008, to reach $1.38 billion.
Texting to Teens from E-Mail - Could full-sentence texting be next? Web-based e-mail users will soon be sending text messages to mobile phones. Yahoo! has already announced the feature for Yahoo! Mail users. “If history is any guide, the other major e-mail providers will soon follow Yahoo’s move,” wrote MediaPost’s Wendy Davis. “In the past, whenever a major company upgraded its free e-mail capabilities, a rival soon did likewise.” Ms. Davis noted that when Yahoo! upped the storage capacity of its free Web-based e-mail, Google followed suit within the week.
NBC Ditches iTunes As Competition Mounts - It would appear that Apple Inc. is losing its grip on the digital download industry, after NBC Universal decided not to renew its contract to sell its programming via iTunes, Apple’s media store. NBC made the decision because the companies were unable to agree on packaging and pricing terms. The media giant’s contract with Apple expires at the end of December. NBC, whose programming accounts for 40% of the video downloads sold on iTunes, is the second major media company to walk out on Apple because of the way it sells content through its media store.
U.S. Can’t Compete With Japanese Web Quality - Americans invented the Internet, but the Japanese are running away with it. Broadband service in the Land of the Rising Sun is anywhere from eight to 30 times faster than the U.S. (depending on where you live)–not to mention cheaper. Studies show that it has the world’s fastest connections, too, which will likely make Japan the vanguard of Internet innovation for years to come.
Companies Offer Web TV Powered By P2P Technology - In an AP report, Veoh founder Dmitry Shapiro confirms what the aforementioned Washington Post article alludes to: “the experience of online video is still very poor,” which is precisely what’s driving companies like Shapiro’s Veoh and Web TV rivals like Joost and Babelgum forward. Each is looking to provide a viewing experience that’s as good as TV; each uses peer-to-peer technology to circumvent the bandwidth limitations that plague the quality of the video experience in the U.S.
P2P Network Turns Bandwidth Into Currency - A research team has created a new peer-to-peer file-sharing system that penalizes those who take while rewarding those “selfless” sharers who contribute content to the network. A manners-enforcing file-sharing network addresses the issue of clogged networks; networks become sluggish when more users are downloading content rather than sharing it. The new system, dubbed Tribler, effectively turns bandwidth into a currency, promoting P2P stewardship.
Google’s Dangerous Game - Google’s rise to the top of the Internet pile may be unprecedented, but it also evokes fear and paranoia. Some of the concerns are justified. Media and technology companies around the globe are angered by the fact that Google profits enormously from the distribution of their content. And it’s not just copyrighted videos on YouTube: There’s also Google News, which culls news stories and brings them to a centralized, personalized hub, and Google Search, which compels goods sellers and content providers alike to make their content more visible to Web users by bidding against one another for placement in Google’s sponsored listings.
Yahoo Adds Search Marketing Tools To Panama - Yahoo has packed a number of new enhancements into its Search Marketing platform, aimed at helping advertisers create, compare and optimize their Panama ads more effectively. Marketers can group up to 20 ads and then create, manage, and compare their performance in one section. There’s also a new monthly email for quality index score information, as well as a designated section in the Account Summary tab that helps advertisers see how well (or poorly) their ads are faring when it comes to Yahoo’s quality index scores.
Hi-Media To Acquire Fotolog For $90M - Photo-blogging community Fotolog has agreed to be acquired by Paris-based interactive media company Hi-Media for about $90 million. The weighty cash and stock deal is an attempt by Hi-Media to leverage Fotolog’s millions of members for the benefit of its ad network and micro-payments business.
Baby Center Buys Maya’s Mom For Its Social Skills; Affiliate Network Next - By acquiring Maya’s Mom, BabyCenter can quickly enter the marketplace with a viable social media platform to create an affiliate network program, deploy a white label solution and maintain Maya’s Mom’s own white label program targeting local mom groups throughout the country.
TheFind.com Acquires Glimpse - Shopping search engine startup TheFind has acquired the high-fashion shopping site Glimpse.com for an undisclosed amount. It’s an early deal for Glimpse, which just launched this year. TheFind is a comparison shopping search engine that crawls many shopping sites across the internet (190 million products at over 500,000 stores).
Lagardere Buys French Interactive Media Agency Nextedia For $68 Million - A day after announcement of buying online ad firm ID Regie, the French media giant Lagardere has made another acquisition announcement: it has bought Nextedia, a French interactive media agency. Price: 50 million euros ($67.97 million) in cash, with earn-out payments in 2011 and 2013 up to a maximum of 50 million euros. Last year, Nextedia made a gross profit of 9.7 million Euros and EBITDA of 1.7 million Euros. More details in release.
