Articles of the Day
Pubs Using Digital Mags To Engage Readers With Ads - Repurposing print magazines for the Web increases user engagement with and affinity toward ads, according to stats from a new survey by The Harrison Group and Zinio. Some 37% of people who have purchased at least one digital magazine said that they were more likely to read an ad in digital format than in print. And almost half said that they found ads on screen more appealing than their analog counterparts.
VoodooVox Adds Ad Revenue Generating Voice Capability - In-call ad company VoodooVox has launched a new service that lets developers add voice capability to applications and Web widgets. Through the new MyVox service, end users will be able to do things like add voiceovers to online slide shows. When users record voice content via phone, they’ll hear a 10-second ad served by VoodooVox’s audio ad network. The company will split the ad revenue with developers.
Adobe Partners With Digital Agencies To Form Industry Group - Adobe, in partnership with 18 digital agencies, on Monday introduced the Society of Digital Agencies, a group established by CEOs of digital marketing and design agencies around the world. SoDA will bring these CEOs together to address the unique issues faced by the industry to develop standards and best practices. Richard Lent, CEO of AgencyNet, has been appointed chairman of SoDA. Charter members of SoDA include AgencyNet, Big Spaceship, Blitz Agency, Domani Studios, Exopolis, First Born Multimedia, Grupo W, iChameleon Group, IQ Interactive, Juxt Interactive, Lightmaker, Mind Comet, Odopod, Schematic, Struck Design, WDDG, WhittmanHart and 360i.
News Corp. Backs Out Of Yahoo Race - News Corp. on Monday officially bowed out of the race to buy Yahoo, severely narrowing the options for the Web giant as it attempts to stave off a hostile buyout from Microsoft Corp. Yahoo and News Corp. explored the possibility of the media giant owning 20 percent of Yahoo in exchange for cash and assuming the whole of its Fox Interactive Media division, which houses the massive social network MySpace. Yahoo was exploring this and other options, including a merger with AOL, in order to block Microsoft’s $40 billion-plus bid for the company, which Yahoo rejected a month ago.
Facebook CEO On Future Of Social Ads - Zuckerberg has said that social advertising will evolve significantly over the next 10-20 years. Beacon “was our first cut at a protocol to [evolve social advertising].” People communicate and stay connected over a social network by sharing information, he says, which means, “the business model should be around people sharing information and staying connected.”
Web 3: UGC Out, Experts In - The Cult of the Amatuer is losing steam, as the same entrepreneurs that once funded Web 2.0 startups are now shifting their focus back to the expert. Why? The revival comes amid mounting demand for a more reliable, bankable Web. Sites like Wikipedia and Craigsist are still brought to task for the stuff they get wrong: the inaccuracies, the scams and fraud. For example, ever wonder who edits Wikipedia pages? Last summer, researchers in Palo Alto found that more than 50 percent of the sites edits came from 1 percent of its users. Since then, Google has launched a Wikipedia competitor called Knol, which calls on experts to create, edit and maintain entries. As Mahalo founder Jason Calacanis says, “Web 3.0 is taking what we’ve built in Web 2.0-the wisdom of the crowds–and putting an editorial layer on it of truly talented, compensated people to make the product more trusted and refined.”
Facebook app lets users send movie clips - Paramount Pictures will become the first major studio to make clips from thousands of its movies available for use on the Internet.The unit of Viacom Inc. is teaming with Los Angeles-based developer FanRocket to launch the VooZoo application Monday on Facebook. The service gives Facebook users access to footage from thousands of movies, ranging from “The Ten Commandments” to “Forrest Gump,” to send to others on the popular social networking site.
