Stories related to: online advertising

YouTube is testing some long-format videos for its site, anxious to increase the amount of ads they can display per view, CNN Money reports. The site has only a few videos longer than an hour, but is reaching out to independent directors at the Los Angeles Film festival this week. More »

Search engine giant Google wants to maximize online ad revenues for traditional media, CEO Eric Schmidt said yesterday, not work against them. CNets reports that with so many traditional media companies struggling to make online ads work, "it's a huge moral imperative to help here," Schmidt said. More »

Social-networking stalwart Facebook is redesigning its site to allow users easier access to an array of applications that might include search options, Forbes reports, and give advertisers more ways to reach the Facebook community. CEO Mark Zuckerberg, speaking at the All Things Digital conference, said the company hoped to work more with search giant Google. More »

Having largely abandoned its bid to buy, in the form of Yahoo, a significant presence in the Internet search business, Microsoft now will give customers money back when they buy items through its Live.com search portal, the Wall Street Journal reports. To be made official today, the move makes clear Microsoft isn't giving up on its search ambitions. More »

The Securities & Exchange Commission has filed civil fraud charges against eight former AOL executives for allegedly inflating AOL's advertising revenues before its merger with Time Warner, the Wall Street Journal reports. The men are accused of giving firms money to buy ads on AOL that they didn't want or need in "round-trip' transactions. More »

Microsoft's Yahoo bid put CEO Steve Ballmer to the test: How much would he pay to fulfill his promise to "(expletive) kill Google"? Forty-seven billion bucks was too high, but many say he'll try again—and may have a tough time convincing investors it's all cool calculation. Microsoft still lags behind Google in search advertising, and that makes Ballmer steam, the AP reports. More »

Once, advertisers bought web ads the way they bought TV spots: by buying space on popular sites to increase brand visibility. Now the mentality has changed, the New York Times reports: Buyers want targeted buys that produce lots of clicks for their buck. Increasingly, that means they’re turning away from pricey portals like Yahoo to specialized ad networks. More »

EBay's revenue soared 24% in the first quarter, the Wall Street Journal reports, with profits up 22%. Fueled by continued success with its online auction business and PayPal, its online-payment component, the company also raised its projected 2008 earnings to $8.7 billion to $9 billion, well beyond Wall Street expectations. More »

Winds of a Yahoo-Microsoft merger have sparked a “nuclear war” in the online-advertising world—and the Google-dominated market could soon see major changes, the Wall Street Journal reports. “Nothing short of a new world order in this space is up for grabs,” says an expert. As Yahoo and Microsoft mull joining forces with each other (or perhaps other partners), consolidation could create healthy competition. More »

Yahoo's board meets today to examine the options for avoiding a hostile takeover by Microsoft, the Wall Street Journal reports. Experts think a Microsoft grab is still the most likely scenario, but the situation has grown increasingly complicated in the midst of discussions of an AOL-Yahoo merger, Yahoo's proposed trial of Google ads, and rumors of News Corp. joining Microsoft's side. More »

Yahoo will try carrying ads from Google as it seeks to ward off a takeover by Microsoft—or at least get an improved offer, the Wall Street Journal reports. The test will run two weeks, and only 3% of Yahoo search results will come up with Google ads. Google, in a statement, said the test doesn't preface any longer-term cooperation. More »

Aiming to increase revenues in the face of a proposed Microsoft buyout, Yahoo is working on a system that will provide businesses with one-stop shopping for graphic advertisements across Yahoo’s partner sites, the Wall Street Journal reports. The system, called AMP, will let businesses buy ads such as banners—targeted by standardized demographic and geographic information—to appear on a range of sites. More »

TV networks, major news organizations, and independent producers are all scrambling to create Web videos that will let them snag a portion of the ad dollars flowing online. Ad spending on Internet videos will grow to $4.3 billion by 2011, say researchers—a 455% increase over today. "It's growing faster than any other advertising category," an NBC Universal exec tells USA Today . More »

Google shares declined 2.7% yesterday as the company reported its third month-on-month drop in advertising clicks, MarketWatch reports. Google's market share is still expanding, but that growth won't show up on the bottom line if the clicks that generate revenue keep slipping. The firm has shed 14% of its value since February on fears it may not be immune from a slowdown. More »

Google is working to ease concerns about privacy infringement in online advertising, ComputerWorld reports. The online giant hosted a meeting for the Consumer Privacy Legislative Forum, a group working to get a bill protecting online consumers’ information passed in Congress. Google will also file comments concerning the FTC’s proposed privacy regulations, which advocate transparency in the collection of user’s personal info. More »

A Citigroup analyst upgraded Yahoo stock to a buy today, predicting that Microsoft will raise its buyout bid from $31 per share to $34, MarketWatch reports. Acquiring Yahoo is the only way for Microsoft to successfully compete with Google for online advertising, said analyst Mark Mahaney, and so “the likelihood of Microsoft walking away from the deal is small." More »

Prosecutors have hit college gossip site JuicyCampus.com with subpoenas for records, the AP reports. New Jersey’s Attorney General Anne Milgram is investigating whether the site violates the Consumer Fraud Act by stating that it doesn’t tolerate offensive material but doing nothing to enforce that claim. "There's an unbelievable amount of offensive material posted and absolutely no enforcement," said Milgram. More »

Facebook has rolled out a new service that encourages users to recommend products to their friends and make a little money in the process, AP reports. Called Market Lodge, the program allows users to set up personal stores on their Facebook pages and hawk a variety of products from a chosen list. Merchants handle any sales, but users make a 10% commission on each. More »

AOL will buy Bebo.com for $850 million in an attempt to enter the social networking market, the Wall Street Journal reports. Bebo has 22 million unique visitors a month, well behind MySpace's 109 million, but the site’s strong European presence will give AOL access to key youth demographics outside the US. The move comes amidst reports of internal turmoil and a possible sale of the Time Warner subsidiary. More »

Google acquired ad tracker DoubleClick today after EU regulators approved the $3.1 billion deal, the AP reports. Antitrust officials dismissed concerns about competition, saying Microsoft, Yahoo, and AOL also provide “credible” online ad services. The ruling ducked questions of how private data will be handled, an issue that riles privacy advocates on both sides of the pond. More »