Articles of the Day
Social Nets, Niche Employment Sites Likely To Snag Most Employer Dollars - Employers see social networking sites as one of the most promising channels for finding new hires, and 61% anticipate spending more of their recruitment budgets on sites like Facebook this year, according to a new report from Classified Intelligence, LLC.
Kelsey Group: Interactive Ad Revenues To Reach $147 Billion Globally By 2012 - Interactive advertising revenues will increase significantly from $45 billion in 2007 to $147 billion globally in 2012, representing a 23.4% compound annual growth rate, according to The Kelsey Group. Interactive advertising–including search, display advertising, classifieds and other interactive ad products–grew its share of global advertising revenues from 6.1% in 2006 to 7.4% in 2007.
Agency Shifts Buys Away From Portals - Web portals lost 5% of online ad dollars last year to narrower content sites and search engines as spending followed consumers across a more fragmented Web landscape. That’s among the key findings in Avenue A|Razorfish’s annual outlook report on digital advertising trends based on 2007 billings of $735 million. Overall, vertical sites accounted for 39% of spending; search, 31%; portals, 19%; and ad networks, 11%.
Zinio Strikes Deal With Havas Media Unit, Gains Access To Global Markets, Clients - In a move to leverage the global distribution of the Internet, digital magazine publisher Zinio has team with a unit of Havas Media to extend the reach of consumer magazines into Europe and Latin America. The deal, which combines Zinio’s digital magazine publishing platform with Acceso, a powerful media management system jointly owned by Havas Media and ISP, is expected to greatly expand the number of consumer magazine titles utilizing Zinio’s system from about 850 currently to more than 2,000 over the next year, executives at the companies said.
AOL Inks Content Deals To Launch Mexico Portal, Home Improvement Site - AOL has launched AOL.com.mx, a Spanish-language Web portal for Mexico, and rolled out AOL Home, a U.S.-based home improvement and domestic enthusiast site. Both endeavors highlight a key step the Web giant has taken in its struggle to break the shackles of its former subscription-based business.
Internal Microsoft Email Reveals Details Of Proposed Yahoo Acquisition - Microsoft has not given up on its plan to acquire Yahoo, a company executive told employees in an email on Friday. “If and when Yahoo agrees to proceed with the proposed transaction, we will go through the process to receive regulatory approval, and expect that this transaction will close in the 2nd half of calendar year 2008.”
IAB Approves, Releases Ad Privacy Guidelines - With concerns mounting over access and usage of consumer data, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Sunday unveiled new interactive advertising privacy guidelines that are designed to ensure users’ control over the use of personal information by interactive media and advertisers.
Microsoft’s “Brilliant Steps” To Remake Itself - Microsoft is “taking brilliant steps to remake itself.” Fortune says the decisions both to buy Yahoo and to open its software up to greater interoperability represent a “critical moment in [Microsoft’s] history.” The bigger step, of course, is the $40 billion-plus Yahoo bid, which would be the company’s largest-ever acquisition and could pose significant regulatory and restructuring complications. Shareholders are very much against the deal, and have shaved 15 percent off Microsoft’s stock price since the company announced its intentions.The move to more open software is especially positive for Microsoft’s enterprise business, which faces mounting pressure from corporate software makers who use open source technology. The addition of Yahoo will ease the company’s transition to a more “Web-centric” (i.e. ad-supported) approach to Internet services.
Industry Execs Say Gaming To Move Online - Industry luminaries are in accord: The future of gaming is online. They predict that content will be delivered from a central server to a network of users, and that Internet service providers will provide access to that network by tacking on an added charge for gaming service, just like cable providers charge $10 extra per month for HBO.
Facebook Traffic Declines in U.S., U.K. - Facebook saw month-to-month traffic declines in December and January, according to separate reports from ComScore Media Metrix and Nielson Online. TechCrunch suggests that the Web’s No. 2 social network may be plateauing in the U.S. ComScore data shows the site’s traffic leveling over the past few months, dipping by about 800,000 visitors in January. In December, the site drew 34.7 million unique visitors in the U.S. compared to 33.9 million in January. MySpace also saw declines, but less so, drawing 68.9 million U.S. uniques in December compared to 68.6 million in January.
Netscape Founder Sounds NYT Deathwatch - On the eve of Netscape’s official demise, its co-founder Marc Andreessen, who sold the company to AOL in 1998 for $4.2 billion, points to another failing business: The New York Times. He notes on his blog: “I hereby inaugurate my New York Times Deathwatch, which will continue until the last Sulzberger has left the building.”
