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Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Yahoo and Bebo = True

Google has MySpace, Microsoft has Facebook and now Yahoo has become the exclusive display ad provider for popular social networking site Bebo. Bebo reportedly has 38 million users globally, with its most popular sites in the UK and Ireland, although the company is based in San Francisco. Bebo search has been "powered by Yahoo" since roughly June of this year. And there are been several rumors of attempts to acquire Bebo, for up to $1 billion, including by Yahoo. I would imagine that these deals (search, display ads) now would make Yahoo a likely front runner in any new acquisition scenarios.

09/12/07
From ojvcentral and ojv

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Google Mobile to Start Running AdWords

Google will shortly begin showing AdWords ads within Google Mobile Search. According to the email I received, this will start up in the next few days, and will be free to users of the service through November 18th. Google indicated that they will only show ads for sites whose landing pages that can be adapted for showing on a mobile phone screen.

The announcement made it clear that AdWords account holders could opt out of the service at any time. This is reitirated in the AdWords on Google Mobile FAQ. As a result, it seems that if you want this new service, there is really nothing you need to do. However, if you don't want it, you need to go into your AdWords account and turn the feature off. This will be something you need to remember to do.

The other interesting thing to speculate on is how and where the ads will show up on the mobile devices. All that the FAQ indicated is that the ads will show up on Google Mobile Search pages. The FAQ does indicate that "Ad displays with more than 70 characters are adapted so that only the Headline and URL is displayed when the ad appears on a mobile browser".

09/12-07

By Odd J. Vik at ojvcentral and ojv

Targeted advertising on Facebook?

Until now, Facebook has not allowed external websites to trawl its member database, which includes about 5 million UK users.

Owen Van Natta, the company's chief revenue officer, said making advertisements more personal was a priority for Facebook.

But Chris Kelly, chief privacy officer, defended the move, saying the site had always made it clear to users that their personal information may be used to target advertisements and promotions.

The announcement comes amid growing disquiet over targeted advertising online.

There are concerns that in the race to learn more about their users, and translate that data into advertising revenue, websites may risk infringing privacy rights.

Keith Reed, of internet security group Trend Micro, said criminals may be able to find information online that could help them carry out identity theft.

However, Mr Kelly told the Times the company was "very comfortable" with its position on privacy protection.

He said internet users no longer expected to remain anonymous online.

With rapidly expanding membership, which grew by more than sixty per cent in the past three months, Facebook has database which is regarded as a lucrative marketing, business research and advertising tool.

Facebook plans to use its information on users' social and professional relationships to create a highly-profitable database or "Social Graph".

The demographic information will then be used to transform the site into a "massive distribution network" for services and advertising.

ojvcentral and ojv

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