Articles of the Day
Congress Member Turns Up Heat On Google - Turning up the heat on Google, a Republican member of Congress Wednesday sent Google CEO Eric Schmidt a letter demanding answers to a host of detailed questions about the company’s privacy policy. Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.), senior Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said in the letter that he sought the information to “better understand the privacy and consumer protection implications” of the pending Google-DoubleClick merger.
Classmates.com Proposed IPO Stalls - United Online is pulling its proposed initial public offering of Classmates.com, citing unfavorable market conditions. The company initially filed to spin off the social networking property through an IPO in August, and last month said it planned to sell up to 12 million shares at $10 to $12 each. Rather than feeding off the social marketing craze, Classmates’ IPO aspirations may have been dimmed by it.
MTV Networks Strikes Deal To Distribute Programming on AOL Video - MTV Networks has reached a deal to distribute its full slate of programming–including music, comedy and other pop-culture brands for all demographics–on AOL Video. By the end of the week, visitors to AOL Video will have access to short-form video from Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, VH1 and Spike TV, as well as other sources.
Consumer-Generated Audience: The Surprising Metrics For Family Decision Makers - Occasionally I have to remind people that social media is not comprised solely of social networks. There’s that “media” part in there too–the content that people create in order to give communities something to view, read, watch, ruminate over, connect to, comment on, dig into, dig at, or just plain Digg. Social media is largely equated with younger demos. So much so, in fact, that we often overlook how other demographics are using it.
Diller Reflects On IAC Breakup - IAC chief Barry Diller discusses the decision to split the company into five entities, one of the Web industry’s major stories of the year. Some felt the move was an admission that the media conglomerate model is destined to fail on the Web. Others felt it was smart to break up the disparate assets so they could focus more on their own businesses.
Web 2.0’s Year in Review - The Web 2.0 movement is in its third season, and while business models are still “fuzzy,” tech startups and software developers continue to receive the backing of VC and private-equity firms. Online video might have been the story of 2006, but social networking recaptured center stage in 2007, thanks mostly to Facebook’s landmark innovation to open its software development kit to outside developers. Since then, just about every one of its competitors has followed-suit.
Facebook Platform Takes on OpenSocial - Facebook is opening up the Facebook Platform to other social networks, which means that software apps developed for Facebook can run on other social sites with no added work required by the developer. The company will also license Facebook Platform methods and tags to other platforms.
Bebo Platform Tied To Facebook - Bebo on Wednesday opened its doors to software developers, in a move that was closely modeled on Facebook. The Web’s No. 3 social network with 40 million uses, Bebo intends to work closely with Facebook to ensure that developers don’t have to put too much effort into transferring those programs built for Facebook to its Open Application Platform.
Why 2008 Will Be The Year Of Landing Page Optimization - Jonathan Mendez offers five reasons why landing page optimization (LPO) will take center stage next year. Competitive pressures will force both SEM firms and digital agencies to work LPO into their suite of standard offerings, as the number of advertisers searching for those services will increase — and LPO will become a critical part of overall marketing spend. LPO technology will continue to improve, with dollars flowing from VC investors as well as new M&A activity in the space. Mendez also says that landing pages have become the “30 second spot” for the digital age, and as such, LPO helps further bridge the gap between using the Web search for direct and brand marketing (a shift that has already begun taking place).
