Articles of the Day
Online Video, Local Search Drive 30% Internet Ad Growth: ZenithOptimedia - Online video and local search will drive a 30% growth in worldwide Internet ad spending to $33.72 billion this year, according to the latest forecast from ZenithOptimedia.
WPP In Talks With Blast Radius - Seeking additional new media assets, WPP is in talks with the Vancouver-based interactive shop Blast Radius, according to sources close to the deal. As of Monday, however, no agreement had been reached.
ComScore Launches Enhanced Search Analytics Service - A new suite of competitive search analytics tools from comScore allows companies to identify high-performing search terms on a site and category level, analyze searchers and specific terms by demographic segment, and determine prime keyword and search term competitors.
Content Sponsorship Model Yields Huge Click-Through Gain - A recent campaign using Answers.com ‘Content Sponsorship’ ads garnered average click-through rates that were 300%-600% higher than those of the typical banner ad, according to a Media Contacts executive.
TiVo Creates Unit To Help Direct Marketers - TiVo on Monday unveiled its latest attempt to endear itself to the advertising industry: the Interactive Direct Response Advertising Group, a unit that will help direct marketers better reach TiVo customers.
How To Save The Internet - The long-running debate over whether the over-extended Internet will one day slow to a crawl continues. Some experts say a crisis is looming and that the worldwide Web is even in need of replacing, while others, like networking giant Cisco Systems, believe their networking technology will help Internet Service Providers and others cope. Among those who believe in doom is ABI Research’s Stan Schatt, who says that increasing bandwidth demands will inevitably lead to a traffic crash.
Yahoo Search Changes Won’t Improve Revenue - First thing’s first: Yahoo’s unveiled several new changes to Yahoo Search, adding video, audio and picture results to text searches, and drawing on user data collected across its sites to help refine searches. Considering that Yahoo has a larger breadth of content and a bigger overall user base (right now) than rivals Google and Ask.com, the changes could be significant. However, they’re not likely to help Yahoo deliver more revenue per search. According to a Compete study, Yahoo is already more effective at getting users to click on its results, but it simply can’t compete with Google when it comes to scale.
IAC Moves Into Social Gaming With iWon - The exhaustive social-networking trend continues: IAC/InterActive Corp. has added social media features to its iWon online gaming portal, announcing that it will allow consumers build to profiles, chat and use Facebook widgets on the site. As part of the online gaming site’s relaunch, IAC is incorporating a search toolbar that uses Ask’s search technology, part of a broader push to make Ask “the glue” that brings IAC’s otherwise disparate Web businesses together.
Facebook: New Threat to LinkedIn? - Now that Facebook has expanded beyond its college audience roots, the site is about to make a big push to capture a business audience as well. The social networking site’s “in the works” section states that it will soon allow members to organize contacts into groups and then choose which groups see what information. Fortune and other publications have interpreted this change as a direct challenge to LinkedIn because it will potentially let members create different profiles for business and social purposes. In other words, people will more easily be able to separate their personal lives from their business identities on the same site.
