Here's an AP story exploring the privacy implications of high-resolution online mapping. Nothing particularly new here except that the issue is getting flagged. We may be in an era of new privacy initiatives (we'll see). The consumer zeitgeist may be…
Microsoft Corp. announced Friday that it will step up its adCenter online ad platform to handle all the paid search results that appear on MSN search. Currently about 25 percent of sponsored links come from adCenter, and the rest are…
I had a briefing with Rick Szatkowski of a company called NeoMedia, which has a range of product offerings. What we talked about, however, was a pretty compelling mobile ad infrastructure called "PaperClick," which links the wireless and physical worlds…
Blogger David Galbraith is being credited as the first to discover that Google is beginning to offer blue "Adballoons" on maps, which for now appears limited to hotels in New York City. One of Galbraith's basic conclusions is that this…
The Washington Post's Leslie Walker penned an interesting post-CES piece today about IPTV. From the article: No single company put everything together into a magical product at the Consumer Electronics Show this year, but you didn't need much imagination to…
John Battelle points to an Andy Beal post pointing a Pamela Parker ClickZ story about Google putting sponsored links on the map itself. (Click one of the blue "pushpins.") We knew this day would come (and have been talking about…
Free local classified provider LiveDeal announced a new program, AdTarget, that permits national brands and large advertisers to target its local users across the U.S. and Canada. This represents a new revenue stream for LiveDeal, which has been creatively diversifying…
Here's a release that reflects continued traffic growth at Interchange Corp.'s Local.com destination. The company said that for the month of December 2005, Local.com reached 6.9 million unique visitors and over 33 million page views, up from 5 million unique…
Shawn Riegsecker, president of local media buying agency Centro, wrote a thoughtful commentary in MediaPost (reg. req'd) that argues online editions of local newspapers are far from dead in the water and represent desired inventory from an advertiser perspective. I…
I got word today from Verizon that SuperPages advertisers (horizontal links across the top) will appear in MSN local search results. This is an extension of Verizon's existing relationship with MSN, which provides the listings for MSN Yellow Pages. Verizon…
The Wall Street Journal (sub. req'd) has a piece today about the mainstreaming of VoIP through handsets that look and act like traditional cordless phones: A slew of new phones are heading to stores aimed at the millions of people…
In addition to the announced button on Motorola phones, BlackBerry says it will support Google Talk IM (among others) and Google Local Maps. Separately, Google filed a patent application in the mobile space that appears to be about delivering calls…
Spot Runner launched today. It presents itself as an ad agency, but it's really an Internet-based TV ad buying network. It's totally local, and it's potentially revolutionary (yes, that's what I said), offering spot cable buying for small businesses. It's…
There are a number of interesting things I ran across today. Given my schedule this morning, here's an abbreviated roundup: Fast Search & Transfer's Stephen Baker points me to a results page on the Denver Post site to show FAST's…
Rupert Murdoch has announced the integration of downloadable video, VoIP and IM to MySpace, which News Corp. acquired for $580 million in July. These moves are intended to drive use of the wildly popular social networking site and boost ad…
SEW reports that IAC/InterActiveCorp has launched a comparison shopping service called Pronto. Check it out and let us know what you think. We'll do the same. More on this later.
This came out today. Here's what they had to say about it in Mountain View at "the plex." Today is the 10th day of January and I'm counting four product announcements (or their equivalents) so far—ahead of last year's pace.
BusinessWeek has an interesting take on the benefits of spin-offs, which is apropos given the likelihood that Verizon will go the spin-off route with its Information Services directory publishing unit. A BusinessWeek study conducted by Dealogic found that " ...the…
MIVA, formed from the combination of FindWhat and ESpotting, was the first network to adopt PPCall and is a marquee player abroad, but it has stuggled in the U.S. of late. The company has now apparently retained Deutsche Bank to…
Today Fast Search & Transfer (FAST) announced a major deal to be the platform for MediaNews Group, which publishes 50 dailies and 121 other publications in 12 states (with combined daily and Sunday circulation of 2.1 million and 2.4 million,…
