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Free Google Apps Team Edition
2008-02-08 18:21:00
Google is releasing a new edition of its hosted applications suite that end-users can bring into the workplace without the involvement of their IT department.It means that IT managers who fret about employees using unauthorized software at work will have another tool to worry about, especially in industries where information management is heavily regulated, like health care and finance.The new release, called Google Apps Team Edition, is due to be available Thursday for free. It is aimed at employees who are interested in using Google Apps but whose employers haven't signed up for it, said Rajen Sheth, Google Apps senior product manager.Team Edition contains the core communication and collaboration services and applications from other editions, like the word processor, spreadsheet, Start page, Talk instant messaging and calendar, but not Gmail, which requires IT participation to re-route the company's e-mail flow.So far, more than 500,000 mostly small organizations have signed up ...
More About: Google , Web 2 , Free

Possible Yahoo and Google Alliance
2008-02-04 19:56:00
By Eric Auchard and Megan DaviesSAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc would consider a business alliance with Google Inc as one way to rebuff a $44.6 billion takeover proposal by Microsoft, a source familiar with Yahoo's strategy said on Sunday.Yahoo management is considering revisiting talks it held with Google several months ago on an alliance as an alternative to Microsoft's bid, that source said. At $31 a share, Yahoo believes the bid undervalues the company, two sources said.A second source close to Yahoo said it had received a procession of preliminary contacts by media, technology, telephone and financial companies. But the source said they were unaware whether any alternative bid was in the offing.In a memo to Yahoo employees on Friday, which was obtained by Reuters on Sunday, Yahoo leaders wrote: "We want to emphasize that absolutely no decisions have been made -- and, despite what some people have tried to suggest, there's certainly no integration process underwa...
More About: Alliance , Yahoo!

All About Desktops - PC Tid-bits and News
2008-01-31 18:37:00
TOP RATED DESKTOPS:? HP Pavilion Elite m9040n PC? Dell XPS One? Dell Inspiron 531s? HP Pavilion Media Center TV m8100y PC? HP Pavilion a6130nTOP 15 DESKTOP SELLERS:1. Hewlett Packard Pavilion M9040N Elite PC Desktop 2. Hewlett Packard PAVILION M8200N PC Desktop3. Hewlett Packard Pavilion A6200N PC Desktop4. Hewlett Packard Pavilion Slimline S3220N PC Desktop5. Hewlett Packard Pavilion Elite M9060N PC Desktop6. Hewlett Packard Compaq Evo D510 PC Desktop7. Gateway GT5411E PC Desktop8. Hewlett Packard Pavilion A6220N PC Desktop9. Hewlett Packard Pavilion m7750n PC Desktop10. AcerPower FH Desktop11. Dell OptiPlex? GX270 PC Desktop12. Hewlett Packard Compaq Presario SR1920NX (EX318AA) PC Desktop13. Hewlett Packard Compaq Presario SR5210NX (883585318803) PC Desktop14. Compaq Presario 7130LA PC Desktop15. Hewlett Packard AH528UT PC DesktopSource: PCMagDesktop News Bits :How to Get Windows XP After June 30InfoWorld hopes that its petition campaign to save Windows XP will persuade Micros...
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MySpace Launches Developer Platform
2008-01-30 19:03:00
NEW YORK (Reuters) - MySpace, the world's largest online social network, will launch its program to court outside software developers in February in a bid to widen the gap against rival Facebook. As part of the February 5 launch, it has also promoted MySpace business development executive Amit Kapur to a new role as chief operating officer, the company will announce on Wednesday.Over the past year, rival Facebook has moved aggressively to close the gap between it and MySpace, a division of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.Developer s have cited, as one reason for Facebook's rapid growth, its policy of opening up its platform to entrepreneurs to profit from creating applications from the silly -- like the ability to throw sheep at each other -- to the functional, such as sharing photos.Although few details were furnished ahead of MySpace's official launch of its platform, Kapur said the developer program would be rolled out globally in about 28 territories."I will be focused on making a...
More About: Myspace , Platform

Financial Troubles for Yahoo
2008-01-30 17:22:00
Yahoo's 4th-Quarter Profit Drops 23 Percent; Company to Lay Off Up to 1,000 Workers SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Yahoo Inc.'s financial funk deepened at the end of 2007, prompting the slumping Internet icon to draw up plans to lay off as many as 1,000 workers.The Sunnyvale-based company disclosed the upcoming 7 percent reduction in its 14,300-employee work force Tuesday while reviewing a 23 percent drop in fourth-quarter profit and a cautious 2008 outlook. The bad news sent Yahoo shares skidding to their lowest levels in more than four years. In a prepared statement, Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang warned of looming "headwinds," indicating that the company's tortuous turnaround efforts aren't likely to pay off this year."I'm surprised by how slowly they seem to be moving," said Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Derek Brown. "Yahoo still has quite a bit of work ahead."Yahoo shares dropped $2.09, or more than 10 percent, in extended trading Tuesday after finishing the regular session at $20.81...
More About: Yahoo , Financial , Yahoo!

Google CEO bullish on Web advertising
2008-01-25 20:43:00
The arrival of a truly mobile Web, offering a new generation of location-based advertising, is set to unleash a "huge revolution", Google Inc Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said on Friday."It's the recreation of the Internet, it's the recreation of the PC (personal computer) story and it is before us -- and it is very likely it will happen in the next year," he told a panel at the World Economic Forum.Current estimates for mobile advertising are cautious, with consultancy Forrester predicting revenues of under $1 billion by 2012.But Schmidt said this figure was too low and failed to take into account the fact the mobile Web was reaching a tipping point.Google aims to be a prime mover by bidding for coveted airwaves to launch an open U.S. wireless network, pitting it against established telecommunications players. The move will take the Silicon Valley-based company well beyond its core Web search and online advertising franchises.Some analysts are worried at the high costs involved b...
More About: Advertising , Web Advertising , Bullish

Microsoft Warns Businesses of Impending Autoupdate to IE7
2008-01-22 17:14:00
Microsoft posts guidelines on how to ward off the automatic update if admins want to keep the IE6 browser on their companies' machines By Gregg Keizer, Computerworld, IDG News ServiceMicrosoft has warned corporate administrators that it will push a new version of Internet Explorer 7 their way next month, and it has posted guidelines on how to ward off the automatic update if admins want to keep the older IE6 browser on their companies' machines. The IE7 upgrade scheduled to roll out via WSUS (Windows Server Update Services) on Feb. 12 was announced last October, when Microsoft said it would no longer require users to prove they owned a legitimate copy of Windows XP before they were allowed to download the newer browser. Microsoft explained that the move was prompted by security concerns."Because Microsoft takes its commitment to help protect the entire Windows ecosystem seriously, we're updating the IE7 installation experience to make it available as broadly as possible to all Wi...
More About: Microsoft , Businesses

Microsoft Releases Tools to Boost Web Accessibility
2008-01-18 20:04:00
Microsoft on Thursday is expected to release a new set of developer tools for products that improve the Internet's accessibility for people with disabilities. The tools, called UI Automation, can be used royalty-free, according to Microsoft's Windows Accessibility lead Norm Hodne, as long as the resulting applications are built to perform within all platforms, e.g. Windows or Linux.Microsoft formally donated the UI (user interface) Automation developer tools to the Accessibility Interoperability Alliance (AIA), an engineering working group that the software giant helped form last November in partnership with tech companies like Oracle, Novell, Hewlett-Packard and Adobe Systems, as well as assistive-technology developers like GW Micro. The working group's mission is to pave the way for standards in the industry for text-to-speech software, screen readers and other assistive products.Microsoft's UI Automation comes nearly 12 years after the company's last developer tools for acce...
More About: Tools , Microsoft , Boost

Price Effects of Google, DoubleClick Deal
2008-01-13 21:26:00
Online Advertising Firms SurveyedBy Matthew NewmanBloomberg News European Union antitrust regulators asked online advertising companies whether prices would rise if Google 's proposed $3.1 billion takeover of Double Click is approved, according to an E.U. questionnaire. The European Commission's antitrust probe is one of the last hurdles facing the proposed purchase. Google, owner of the most popular Internet search engine, is seeking to buy DoubleClick to bolster sales of Internet ads that include pictures and videos. "If you currently use DoubleClick's ad serving technology, do you expect any changes in the service it offers (in price or quality) by DoubleClick after its acquisition by Google?" the commission asked in a seven-page questionnaire obtained by Bloomberg News. The Nov. 26 questionnaire indicates the regulator's antitrust concerns about the transaction, which Google, based in Mountain View, Calif., announced in April. The commission asked companies that sell online ad...
More About: Deal , Price , Effects

Can Macs conquer the enterprise?
2008-01-11 02:01:00
If Apple Inc. were a football team, the New England Patriots would have had some serious competition this year. The company is the undefeated king of cool in the consumer electronics and home computer markets. It is rapidly gaining yardage in the broader personal computing market and is experiencing a resurgence of popularity in traditional Macintosh niches such as education, marketing and creative departments.With all of this momentum, you'd think that the Mac might be ready for a come-from-behind win in the enterprise. But on that field of play, Apple remains 1st and 10 at its own 10-yard line. That's ironic, because corporate interest in a broader role for Macs is up dramatically among IT executives, driven by changes in what the Mac has to offer, by Apple's success in the consumer market and its other niches, and by corporate trends where, thanks to virtualization and a migration to Web-based applications, Windows' grip on the desktop may be starting to loosen just a bit."I...
More About: Enterprise , Conquer

New Google Patent - AdSense, image search, maps
2008-01-08 22:50:00
By David ChartierThe days of manually adding things like keywords and location information to images could soon be behind us, thanks to a new Google patent published this week detailing the company's move into extracting text from images and creating keywords from it (e.g., reading a street or business sign in a curbside shot and adding that text to the image's metadata). Considering the gold mine of products and services Google has on the table and in the pipeline, this technology could open new doors for both consumers and Google's profits. Detailed in the patent, called Recognizing Text in Image s, are various methods for accomplishing exactly what the title says. Google details processes for analyzing a digital image, enhancing regions, extracting text, and using or comparing that text against other information or keywords included with the image. Naturally, this technology seems to lend itself to basic services like Google Image Search , which could benefit greatly from having...
More About: Adsense , Maps

Finding Reliable Free Help Desk Software
2008-01-08 19:12:00
Many companies recognize the benefits of help desk software. From streamlining technical inquiries to responding quickly to customer issues, help desk software has become a basic part of most company?s business strategies. Pricing can vary and some businesses, especially small businesses or start-ups, may be interested in free help desk software.For small companies, downloading free help desk software may be ideal. Many companies do not offer free software for more than 100 computers, so if you have a larger business, it is like that you will need to purchase a larger version.Many online companies offer free help desk software. Most of these programs are downloadable, easy to install and relatively easy to use. One company, HelpDesk Reloaded.com, offers an excellent free help desk program with almost daily updates.As a business owner, you may have questions regarding the use of free help desk software. For instance, how can companies turn a profit while offering a free product like t...
More About: Software , Free , Help Desk

Wikia Search (Alpha) Launched
2008-01-07 16:30:00
Wikia Search Alpha has been launced today.About Wikia Search:Wikia is working to develop and popularize a freely licensed (open source) search engine. What you see here is our first alpha release.We are aware that the quality of the search results is low.Wikia's search engine concept is that of trusted user feedback from a community of users acting together in an open, transparent, public way. Of course, before we start, we have no user feedback data. So the results are pretty bad. But we expect them to improve rapidly in coming weeks, so please bookmark the site and return often.Right now, the most important thing you can do is help with the "miniarticles" that appear at the top of popular search terms. These will vary in purpose according to the circumstance, but the primary uses will be:Short definitions Disambiguations Photos See also At the bottom of every page is a linke to "Post bug reports here"... please use that link liberally to give us large amounts of feedback.I believ...
More About: Wikipedia , Launched , Jimmy Wales

Wikia Search to Open to the Public
2008-01-02 20:56:00
Wikipedia Founder Brings Search ProjectBy ANICK JESDANUNNEW YORK (AP) ? The founder of Wikipedia says taking the online encyclopedia's collaborative approach into the field of search won't dethrone Google Inc. or another major search engine ? at least not soon.After months of talk and a few weeks of invitation-only testing, Wikia Search is to open to the general public next week.Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales says his goal is to let volunteers improve search technology collectively, the way Wikipedia lets anyone add or change entries, regardless of expertise."That reduces the sort of bottleneck of two or three firms really controlling the flow of search traffic," said Wales, chairman of Wikia Inc., the for-profit venture behind the search project.Engineers at Google and other search companies continually tweak their complex software algorithms to improve results and fight spammers ? those who try to artificially boost the rankings of their own sites. Search companies have not discl...
More About: Public , Open , Wikipedia

Federal Trade Commission Closes Google/DoubleClick Investigation
2007-12-25 20:43:00
This is the follow up conclusion of "Lawmakers Urge Google /Double Click Deal Scrutiny".Proposed Acquisition ?Unlikely to Substantially Lessen Competition?The Federal Trade Commission today announced that it will not seek to block Google Inc.?s proposed $3.1 billion acquisition of Internet advertising server DoubleClick Inc. In a 4-1 vote to close its eight-month investigation of the transaction, the Commission wrote in its majority statement that ?after carefully reviewing the evidence, we have concluded that Google?s proposed acquisition of DoubleClick is unlikely to substantially lessen competition.?Although interested parties have raised concerns about the proposed acquisition?s impact on consumer privacy, the Commission observed that such issues are ?not unique to Google and DoubleClick,? and ?extend to the entire online advertising marketplace.? The Commissioners further wrote that ?as the sole purpose of federal antitrust review of mergers and acquisitions is to identify and re...
More About: Investigation

The Google vs. Microsoft Rumble
2007-12-17 18:49:00
By STEVE LOHR and MIGUEL HELFTA CEREBRAL computer-scientist-turned-executive, Eric E. Schmidt has spent much of his career competing uphill against Microsoft , quietly watching it outflank, outmaneuver or simply outgun most of its rivals. At Sun Microsystems, where he was chief technology officer, Mr. Schmidt looked on as Scott G. McNealy, the company?s chairman, railed against Microsoft and its leaders, Steven A. Ballmer and Bill Gates, as ?Ballmer and Butthead.? During a four-year stint as chief executive of Novell, Mr. Schmidt routinely opined that it was folly for any Microsoft rival to ?moon the giant,? as he put it; all that would do, he argued, was incite Microsoft?s wrath.Then, six years ago, Mr. Schmidt snared the C.E.O. spot at Google and today finds himself at the helm of one of computing?s most inventive and formidable players, the runaway leader in Internet search and online advertising. With its ample resources and eye for new markets, Google has begun offering online p...

Google Announces "Knol" - A Wikipedia-style System
2007-12-16 18:39:00
The web contains an enormous amount of information, and Google has helped to make that information more easily accessible by providing pretty good search facilities. But not everything is written nor is everything well organized to make it easily discoverable. There are millions of people who possess useful knowledge that they would love to share, and there are billions of people who can benefit from it. We believe that many do not share that knowledge today simply because it is not easy enough to do that. The challenge posed to us by Larry, Sergey and Eric was to find a way to help people share their knowledge. This is our main goal.Earlier this week, we started inviting a selected group of people to try a new, free tool that we are calling "knol", which stands for a unit of knowledge. Our goal is to encourage people who know a particular subject to write an authoritative article about it. The tool is still in development and this is just the first phase of testing. For now, using ...
More About: System , Style , Wikipedia , Knol

Google Adsense Test Scrolling Contextual Ads
2007-12-12 19:23:00
by John KlineYou may or may not have seen some of the new contextual ads running on Google Adsense . Google is testing ads that allow the user to scroll through advertisements.AdSense has tested many ad formats in the past.1. Allowing the user to enter a search term if the ad is not specifically targeted2. Keyword suggestion links to more targeted key terms to match adsUnlike other Google experiments trying to get the user to interact with AdSense ads, the reaction to scrolling ads so far has been a positive one.
More About: Google Adsense , Contextual , Test

Yahoo! Search Support for New X-Robots-Tag
2007-12-09 00:52:00
Today we're (Yahoo ) announcing support for tags that give webmasters even more flexibility over which pages and documents are crawled and indexed by Yahoo! Search . Specifically, we're extending our support of page level exclusion tags -- NOINDEX, NOARCHIVE, NOSNIPPET, NOFOLLOW -- to provide additional control for archiving and summarization of ANY file type. Previously, these page level tags could only be expressed within html pages through the META directive (for e.g. ), but based on feedback from our webmasters, Yahoo! now enables these tags to be expressed through X-Robots -Tag directive in the http header, giving webmasters the flexibility to achieve exclusions on PDF, Word documents, PowerPoint, video, and other file types, including html files, and increasing their coverage through a simplified process. Additionally, webmasters no longer need access to html templates in order to express exclusions for html files. To take advantage of this feature, simply add the following pag...
More About: Support , Yahoo search

Facebook Alters Notifications "Beacon" for Privacy
2007-12-02 18:45:00
By Eric AuchardConfronted with mounting privacy protests, Facebook .com has scaled back a Web monitoring feature that notifies one's friends when the Facebook user visits affiliated Web sites, the company said on Thursday.In a statement, the Palo Alto, California-based company said it was making a several changes to a recently introduced feature called "Facebook Beacon " in the wake of a petition signed by 50,000 Facebook users to scale back the feature.The changes announced by Facebook promise to give users some improved controls over what information about a user's Web activity is broadcast to friends and also improves notifications to users before releasing user data to other Facebook users.The protest was started by online activist group MoveOn.org, who set up a petition on its Web site at civ.moveon.org/facebookprivacy/?rc=fb_fro nt/ calling on Facebook to give users a simple way to opt out of Beacon.There have been several other protests, including a petition group in the Faceb...
More About: Privacy

Google Checkout and PayPal Battle to Lure Buyers
2007-11-27 18:19:00
By Saul HansellBehind the pitched Cyber Monday battle of online retailers is the battle of the payment systems. Both Google Checkout and eBay?s PayPal unveiled generous promotions today to increase their share of holiday spending. Last year, Google spent heavily on a promotion that offered users as much as $20 off every $50 they spent. Industry executives say Google?s system quickly accounted for more than 10 percent of transactions at sites that offered the deals, but its share fell sharply as soon as the discounts were withdrawn. This year, Google is offering two frequent-flier miles on any of seven airlines (all the majors except American) for every $1 spent. It also offers $5 to $50 discounts, with minimum purchase, at several dozen merchants. It has deals with CompUSA and Drugstore.com, but not a lot of other major retail brands. PayPal has fewer merchants but its offer is more lucrative for shoppers in some ways, with 20 percent of purchases credited to the buyer?s PayPal acco...
More About: Paypal , Battle , Buyers , Lure

What is Web 2.0?
2007-11-25 01:36:00
Author: John KlineSearchBlissSo what exactly is Web 2 .0 anyway? It sounds like a software upgrade...which doesn't exist in the "real" world...or does it.Here's what I found to TRY to clarify it.According to Wikipedia, Web 2.0 is an idea in people's heads rather than a reality. It?s actually an idea that the reciprocity between the user and the provider is what's emphasized. In other words, genuine interactivity if you like, simply because people can upload as well as download. They often use the referance word "idea".The term Web 2.0 was actually coined at a conference by Tim O'Reilly. It began with a brainstorming session between O'Reilly and MediaLive International. Dale Dougherty, web pioneer and O'Reilly VP, noted that far from having "crashed", the web was more important than ever, with exciting new applications and sites popping up with surprising regularity. What's more, the companies that had survived the collapse seemed to have some things in common. Could it be tha...

Adsense Video Units Spreading to UK, Ireland, and Canada
2007-11-24 15:59:00
Following their success in the U.S., we're rolling out video units over the next several days to English-language publishers in the UK, Ireland , and Canada . If you're not already familiar with video units, they're embedded, customizable video players that can enrich your site with relevant video content while enabling you to earn extra revenue from the relevant, non-intrusive ads that accompany the videos.With this new launch, publishers in the UK, Ireland and Canada will be able to show videos from our YouTube content partners and choose those videos by category, individual YouTube partner, or have video automatically targeted to their site. Based on publisher feedback, we've also just added a feature which lets you choose individual videos to be displayed in your video units.To set up video units on your site, log in to your AdSense account and visit the AdSense Setup page. For more information about video units, please feel free to revisit our original post about the launch a...
More About: Video , Adsense , Units

Lawmakers Urge Google/DoubleClick Deal Scrutiny
2007-11-20 19:52:00
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two U.S. senators on the antitrust subcommittee urged the Federal Trade Commission's chairman to submit Google Inc's purchase of advertising company Double Click to "serious scrutiny."Sen. Herb Kohl, a Wisconsin Democrat, and Sen. Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican, argued that Google had a dominant position in a form of Internet advertising called contextual ads while DoubleClick was a market leader in display advertising.They said industry experts believed the deal could harm competition on the Web."While we have not reached any definitive conclusion regarding this issue, we urge that you only approve the merger if you determine that it will not cause any substantial lessening of competition with respect to Internet advertising," they wrote.Kohl and Hatch also raised questions about privacy implications since both Google and DoubleClick collect information about Web usage."We believe that this deal raises fundamental consumer privacy concerns worthy of serious ...
More About: Deal , Scrutiny , Doubleclick

Adsense Creator Leaves Google to Start Own Company
2007-11-17 19:17:00
By Yi-Wyn YenGokul Rajaram, a high-ranking Google product manager who helped launch one of the search giant?s most profitable ventures has left to start his own company.?I?ve been having the itch to do something entrepreneurial for awhile now,? says Rajaram, 33, known by Googlers as one of the ?godfathers of AdSense.? ?I?m in my early 30s and I have some experience and financial security, so the time felt right.??I have some ideas on the consumer Internet side,? he adds. ?I?m still trying to flesh that out in the next few weeks. Right now, I?m just trying to get used to not going to work.?Rajaram, who left Google on Nov. 2., says he?s also interested in pursuing journalism or writing.Whatever venture he pursues, he has the blessings of top Google (GOOG) brass Eric Schmidt and Sergey Brin. Product management vice president Susan Wojcicki honored him with a large plaque signed by a few hundred Googlers at his farewell party at the Googleplex in Mountain View, Calif., two weeks ago.Whe...
More About: Adsense , Company , Creator , Start

Content is Dead
2007-11-15 15:12:00
Community is King NowBy Stoney DeGeyter (c) 2007I can hardly bring myself to say the old cliche about content being... well, you know. I think it's one of the original cliche's in the SEO industry. And as redundant as it has become, for whatever reason we keep hearing it over and over again. And every now and then a new study pops up seemingly proving, once again, that content is... uh, good.But much like a TV producer suggesting "video is king" or a radio advertiser demanding that "audio is king", so goes the SEO demanding the same about content. Content has its role--and an important one at that, but it's not the be-all, end-all of online marketing. Not even close.But the roots of the "content is" movement are important for our industry. The mantra was first heard in the early days of the search engine optimization industry when SEOs were doing nothing more than throwing a bunch of keywords on a page and hoping they ranked well. Little or no thought or consideration was given ...
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University Sues Google Over Search Patent
2007-11-12 19:09:00
Google faces a US federal patent infringement lawsuit by Northeastern Univers ity over technology used in its core web-search system, according to legal papers filed last week.The complaint was filed on 6 November in Marshall, in the Eastern District of Texas ? the US court with a history of decisions that are highly favourable to plaintiffs in patent cases ? but the case only came to light over the weekend.The plaintiffs are Boston-based Northeastern University and Jarg, a start-up founded by a Northeastern University professor that is the exclusive licensee of search technology patented in 1997, a year before Google was incorporated.A spokesman for Google said the company believed the suit was without merit."While we have not been served, we are aware of the complaint and believe it to be without merit based upon our initial investigation," Google spokesman Jon Murchison said.The leading internet company derives 99 percent of its revenue from online advertising, which is delivered ...
More About: Google , Search , Patent

Online Advertising Could be Doomed
2007-11-10 22:00:00
By Scott NelsonThe report back from last week's FTC discussion about tracking and targeting should have all online advertisers worried, and scrambling to get involved.If you thought the rumblings coming out of the Federal Trade Commission Town Hall titled "Ehavioral Advertising : Tracking, Targeting, and Technology" last week will only impact behavioral targeting, you had better look beneath the surface.The purpose of the two-day event was to address consumer protection issues raised by the tracking of consumers' activities online for the purposes of targeting. The publishers were well represented with AOL, Yahoo!, Microsoft, Google and others as well as consumer advocates, technologists and industry representatives. Despite the efforts of the event organizers at the FTC, there was one constituency noticeably under represented: the companies that fund the entire industry of interactive advertising, the advertisers. Several of you may recall a similar event the FTC held in 1999, wh...
More About: Online Advertising , Online , Doomed , Vert

Latest Additive at Gas Pumps: Google
2007-11-07 19:11:00
By MICHAEL LIEDTKESAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Lost drivers soon will be able to Google for help at the pump.As part of a partnership to be announced Wednesday, the online search leader will dispense driving directions at thousands of gasoline pumps across the United States beginning early next month.The pumps, made by Gilbarco Veeder-Root, include an Internet connection and will display Google's mapping service in color on a small screen. Motorists will be able to scroll through several categories to find local landmarks, hotels, restaurants and hospitals selected by the gas station's owner.After the driver selects a destination, the pump will print out directions. Eventually, Gilbarco Veeder-Root hopes to enable motorists to type in a specific address and get directions."We think the service will create more customer loyalty for retailers," said Gilbarco Veeder-Root spokeswoman Lucy Sackett.Greensboro, N.C.-based Gilbarco Veeder-Root will initially offer the service in about 3,500 gas p...
More About: Pumps , Additive

FTC Vows Tighter Grip on Online Ads
2007-11-05 20:39:00
By LOUISE STORYA MEMBER of the Federal Trade Commission said yesterday that the agency would be exerting a tighter grip over online advertising, partly because of increased tracking by marketing companies of people?s activity on the Internet. Jon Leibowitz, the commissioner, said he was concerned about ads being shown to children online and about the tactics advertisers are using to collect data about people.?When you?re surfing the Internet, you never know who is peering over your shoulder or how many marketers are watching,? he said.Mr. Leibowitz spoke in Washington at the opening of a two-day forum on behavioral targeting, the increasingly popular tactic of delivering ads to people based on what Web sites they have visited. In practice, the targeting issue goes beyond just Web surfing: Google?s Gmail funnels ads to people based on key words in the e-mail messages they write, and MySpace helps marketers select ads for people based on the information about themselves they willingly...
More About: Online , Grip , Vows