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My 2 featured articles for the week ending Sep. 8, 2006:

Archived blogs for the week of Sep. 4, 2006

1229 - Sep. 7, 2006 - 4.23 PM EST

Relevant ads that should work

According to some reports, yesterday MSN began implementing behavioral targeting of display ads on its MSN search engine.

MSN's targeting technology should place Internet users into one of 18 different segments as dictated by a combination of their overall search habits and the various Web sites visited.

Based on their segmentation, users will be served display ads that are supposed to be relevant to their specific areas of interest.

Some of the areas available for targeting include parents, new and expecting moms, so-called power users, mobile users, movie watchers and various gamers. In addition to a new 'auto buyers' category, Microsoft will segment researchers of luxury cars, sports cars, pick-up trucks, SUVs and passenger cars. For travel-related categories, there are different areas for hotel, cruise and airfare seekers.

However, financial categories will include home buyers, credit card shoppers and personal investors in the general area.

For example, a search marketer could show ads to new mothers and parents and MSN would show the ads to those visitors to any Microsoft sites that have been identified as members of that segment, while showing other ads on the same page for visitors from other segments.

A Microsoft spokesperson said "The benefits are two-fold: First, Internet users benefit from ads that are relevant to their specific interests. Secondly, search advertisers benefit by reaching a more relevant audience, along with an increasing ROI."

MSN first previewed its targeting capabilities to a group of select advertisers at its Strategic Accounts Summit in May 2006. Read more...

Posted on Businessblog™

1228 - Sep. 7, 2006 - 11.10 AM EST

Google trying mobile ads in Europe and the US

A Google spokesperson has confirmed that for the past few weeks, the company has been testing ads on its mobile search interfaces in the United States, the United Kingdom and parts of Germany.

This is very similar to a pilot project Google began testing in Japan earlier in 2006. Meanwhile, mobile search rival JumpTap has launched a mobile search engine and auction-based ad platform to better monetize search traffic for some of its carrier clients.

Mobile operators use JumpTap's service in an effort to provide real-time search functions to their subscribers. According to an AdWords FAQ on the subject of pricing, Google's mobile ads product is similar to that of the company's keyword bidding platform for standard Internet search.

Marketers set their maximum CPC (cost-per-click) they are willing to pay. However, smart pricing doesn't apply and conversion tracking isn't currently available. Additionally, all mobile search ads are currently subject to human editorial review.

Among the few providers of branded mobile search, Google has the largest audience with approximately 4.5 million users on average during each off the last three months, according to M:Metrics. In comparion, Yahoo's mobile search offering trails slightly behind, at 3.8 million. MSN and AOL have far smaller mobile reach, with 1.1 million and 700,000 users, respectively.

M:Metrics doesn't compile the percentage share of search owned by so-called white label search services like JumpTap. The company's V.P. of Marketing, Eric McCabe claims search services on the carrier decks account for about 33 percent of all search traffic. Read more...

Posted on Businessblog™

1227 - Sep. 6, 2006 - 11.29 AM EST

Internet advertising increases 49.1 percent

According to a new study performed by Nielsen//NetRatings, Internet advertising increased by 49.1 percent during the first six months of 2006, surpassing all other media types.

Internet ad spending was up 5 percent for the same period, when compared to the same period a year ago. Overall, online ad spending topped $3.82 billion between January and June, compared to $2.6 billion in 2005.

Among the verticals that increased their use of Internet marketing, telecommunications led all industries with a 122.3 percent growth in spending when compared to the year-ago period.

Posted on Businessblog™

1226 - Sep. 5, 2006 - 4.49 PM EST

Google offers Brazilian government data on criminals

Google is working with the Brazilian government and is complying with a court order to turn over data to Brazil which could help identify Orkut users who could be distributing child pornography pictures and could potentially act as a center for various hate crimes.

Unlike the US Government’s much broader request for search behavior data in 2005, Brazil has requested specific information on criminals and members of groups in the Orkut social search site who are using the system for illegal activities in Brazil and in other countries.

“What they’re asking for is not millions of pages,” said Nicole Wong, Google associate general counsel. “In many cases, it is relatively discrete, small and very narrow.”

Google is going down the right and responsible path with its social network in this instance, working with the authorities to combat child trafficking and crimes against children in Brazil.

The company will be handing over specific information on criminals who are using Orkut for real evil, not world domination evil or tracking of all users’ archives and click behavior evil, but the kidnapping, killing and torture of innnocent children.

The Washington Post reports: "The Brazilian authorities are particularly interested in Internet protocol (IP) addresses with time and date stamps that can help trace a specific user. Registration information Google could provide includes names and email addresses.

Posted on Businessblog™

Copyright © Serge Thibodeau 2006. All rights reserved.

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