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Zenith: Online to Grow 29% Globally This Year - Zenith Optimedia has predicted slow but steady growth in total global advertising budgets for 2007, with a 3.7% increase over last year — but a 29% growth in Internet spending — to $33.5 billion. In addition, Zenith predicts online ad spending will grow by 82% between 2006 and 2009, while the rest of the ad market grows by 13%.                       

Broadband Enterprises Launches Contextual Video Platform - Broadband Enterprises has launched vComm, a Web-based platform where publishers and advertisers can exchange contextually relevant video ad inventory.

Nielsen Gets Deeper Into Game Ads with Sony - Nielsen has partnered with Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) to develop a measurement system for Web-linked console game advertising.

Online Media & Marketing Dominates 2007 M&A - Such second-quarter deals as Microsoft/aQuantive and Google/DoubleClick led $32 billion in total Merger & Acquisition activity for the online media and marketing services sector during the first half of 2007.

The Widget Way to 3-D - Second Life and other virtual worlds have grabbed most of the attention when it comes to 3-D imagery online. But Web-building service Freewebs made a splash recently with a new widget — currently in beta — that turns digital photos into 3-D pictures.

IT Execs Extend Trust to Social Media in Making Purchase Decisions - A new study by ITtoolbox confirms that today’s Information Technology decision-makers and influencers not only turn to traditional vendor Web sites and editorial media Web sites for research, but also join peer-driven communities and participate in user-generated content to help in the decision process. And, the advertisers as well are seeking out these user-generated content sites to more strategically target the customer.

When Bad Ads Harm Good E-Commerce - Over a third of US consumers do not use payment cards to buy from unfamiliar Web sites because of security concerns, according to the Ponemon Institute and Vontu’s “2007 Consumer Survey on Data Security.” The study covered a range of privacy and security concerns. Data breaches are not the only way that consumers become distrustful. Over four in 10 respondents said that irresponsible marketing would lessen their trust in how a company handled privacy issues.

Do File-Sharing Sites Build Buzz? - “Sicko,” Michael Moore’s documentary about the U.S. healthcare system, had a “glittering debut” at the box office over the weekend, but the controversial film has also made headlines for being widely and illegally distributed on the Web. That raises an interesting issue for Hollywood: To what extent does peer-to-peer file-sharing help build buzz for a film? Or depress box office sales?

Icann Involves Bigger Web Censorship Debate - Open Internet, open source, open everything types believe the FCC”s recent recommendation against Net neutrality is bad, but Icann, the California-based organization that registers Internet domain names, is a much bigger fish for open source advocates to fry. Should a U.S.-based organization be in charge of assigning domain names and Internet Protocol addresses?

Media Morph: Filling Up Empty Domains - “Domain parking,” in which companies buy commonly misspelled domain names and fill them with cost-per-click ads, has long been a frowned-upon practice. But Seattle-based Marchex is trying to change that perception by filling more than 100,000 such sites with directory-style content consumers may find useful.

Broadband Continues High-Speed Growth - With more and more content migrating online, broadband penetration is continuing to surge. Seven in 10 Americans who go online from home now connect via high-speed lines, according to a new report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. What’s more, almost half, 47%, of all Americans now have broadband at home, up from just 30% just two years ago. Another 15% connect at home via dial-up lines, and a handful say they only go online from work. Around 29% don’t use the Internet at all.

Yahoo Launches Behavior-Based SmartAds - Yahoo today launches behavior-based SmartAds, a product that epitomizes the blending of brand and direct response advertising. It allows advertisers to target their message and creative on-the-fly and triggered by online user behavior.              

Heavy Contest Winner Gets 1.2 Million Streams - Heavy.com’s “ContraBand” video contest has ended, with the winning band Punchline having created 65 videos that were streamed 1,189,157 times during the battle-of-the-bands contest. Virgin Group Chairman Richard Branson will judge the Canadian contest.

Industry Watch - Into the Yonder: Have Laptop, Will Travel - According to travel, tourism and hospitality research firm PhoCusWright, online transactions will account for more than half of all U.S. travel bookings in 2007, and that figure is expected to rise to 60% next year. Here’s how the Web is creating opportunities to reach niches.

Internet Usage and Importance Expand - The Internet is the most essential medium for consumers and newspapers are the least, according to an Edison Media Research study conducted by Arbitron in January and February 2007. Respondents were all from the US and ages 12 and older. Over a third of consumers deemed newspapers “least essential,” while nearly a quarter felt that way about the Internet. Both radio and television had the fewest “least essential” mentions, at 18%.

Apple Faces UMG Defection - As Apple unveiled its iPhone on Friday, Steve Jobs and co. over the weekend were handed a fresh headache. Universal Music Group, the biggest contributor to Apple’s iTunes, will not be renewing its annual contract to sell music through the media store. Instead, if the two parties cannot agree on pricing and other terms, UMG wants to market its music to Apple at will, which would allow the record label to remove songs from iTunes on short notice, giving it far more control in dealing with distributors like Apple.

Apple Sells 500,000 iPhones, Despite Problems - A slow cellular network and expected first-generation bugs are two things that kept many from buying Apple’s iPhone. There were also activation problems for several new iPhone owners this weekend. Most of the complaints came from AT&T business customers who were unable to quickly transfer there new phones to a business account. Other complaints came from those switching carriers. AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel said the overwhelming majority of customers could activate service “within minutes.”

For iLike, There’s No Place Like Facebook - iLike, the fastest-growing digital music service on the planet, owes its surging popularity to Facebook. After integrating its music-sharing service into Facebook, iLike is now growing at a rate of 1 million new registered users per week. The social music site is also being taken far more seriously by record labels, who’ve opened discussion with it.

Widgets Revamp Advertising On Social Networks - It’s not surprising to hear that the social-networking generation prefers to choose their own marketing messages rather than receive random banner ads from marketers. A study of more than 1,200 kids ages 9 to 17 and about 1,000 parents across the country, finds that many consumers enjoy playing with ad-related features of their choosing on their personal profile pages.

PlanetOut Sells 56 Percent Majority Stake To Investors For $26.2 Million - PlanetOut, which operates websites, magazines and travel services for the gay and lesbian community, has sold majority in the company to investors: it sold 22.8 million shares for gross proceeds of $26.2 million, which comes to 56 percent of the company.