Test OpenSocial Gadget

NEWS: Eyeblaster In-Game Exceeds 60 Titles as Games Reach Wider Demographic

Eyeblaster - Press Release

Along with 40% growth in video impressions in the last quarter of 2007 over the ... technology that goes beyond interstitial advertising,” said Cohen. ...

NEWS: Algorithms White Paper

November 14, 2007

Algorithms White Paper

Today we launched our new website, which introduces the new Efficient Frontier logo and corporate identity. As part of the launch, I wrote a white paper about the algorithms behind our technology. The paper can be downloaded here.

Efficient Frontier's algorithmic approach involves click modeling and revenue modeling for every keyword in a portfolio, and then chooses the optimal bidding strategy based upon those models. Without such models, it would be impossible to know what level of performance your campaign could achieve just by changing your bids.

Researching the white paper was a fascinating process - I looked into the history of mathematics, computer science, and economics in order to explain the application of modern portfolio theory to search engine marketing. Our founder, Anil Kamath, had a unique vision that pioneered much of today's thinking behind search marketing optimization. If the white paper whets your appetite for more, readthis interview with Anil by Eric Enge.

Ed: Sensitivity analysis of costs to impressions. Thus, choose cheaper keyword to save costs.

NEWS: Warner Bros., Lifetime and Others Join Women's Ad Network Race

Warner Bros. Television Group is joining the ranks of large media brands extending female audience reach by building women-centric site networks or aligning with complementary networks. The producer of programs like "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" today is launching news and community site MomLogic.com along with a companion network of smaller sites into which it will sell ads and share content. Unilever is an initial sponsor.

Yesterday Lifetime Networks announced an ad and content-sharing alliance with Glam Media, following Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia's home and decorating content network launch last week. NBC Universal Digital Media hooked up in June with female-oriented Sugar Publishing to sell advertising and share iVillage content.

"Advertisers don't want to leave the comfort of the brands they want to associate with," said Brett Bouttier, SVP digital for Warner Bros. Television Group, suggesting these new online networks allow well-known firms leverage established media brands to help develop new ones.
... (full)

NEWS: Another Step for a Remade AOL

ADVERTISING; Another Step for a Remade AOL

...sponsored links that run next to articles. Quigo is AOL's fourth advertising acquisition...features -- like e-mail -- are now free. Quigo, which reportedly cost AOL about $350...president and chief operating officer of AOL. Quigo sells ads on the sites of Time Inc. magazines...
November 8, 2007 - By LOUISE STORY (NYT)

AOL has acquired Advertising.com (AdNet for remnant display ads), Tacoda (behavior targeting), Quigo (CPC ads), and Klipmart (rich media).

NEWS: Google launches open APIs for social networks

...

Google's social network, Orkut, is among the sites that will accept apps written
using OpenSocial APIs, as is LinkedIn, hi5, Ning, Friendster and Plaxo. Other partners include iLike, Slide, Oracle and Salesforce.com.

A Google representative would not say whether Google had talked to Facebook and MySpace about joining the initiative or comment on why they were not involved.

The OpenSocial resources for developers and Web sites will be available at code.google.com/apis/opensocial.

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9808145-7.html

Big Tech Buyouts

How 10 Internet startups cashed in big, and what their founders will do with the loot

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/07/10/1011_luckyducks/index_01.htm

NEWS: Microsoft acquires equity stake in Facebook, expands ad partnership

Microsoft will take a $240 million equity stake in Facebook during its next round of financing, valuing the company at a whopping $15 billion. ( full )

NEWS: Will Facebook’s Developers Defect to OpenSocial

October 4, 2007, 9:25 am
Will Facebook’s Developers Defect to Other Platforms?
By Brad Stone
Tags: Facebook, MySpace

...

Google is reportedly planning to open the social network Orkut and perhaps Gmail to developers. So are social networks like Bebo, hi5 and Tagged, each popular with different Internet communities.

...

Social Network Sites Seek Common Software Standard

...its own standard and join the alliance, called OpenSocial. ''OpenSocial is going to be become the de facto standard for...company said in a statement that it would evaluate OpenSocial one it had a chance to study it. Other members...

November 2, 2007 - By MIGUEL HELFT and BRAD STONE - Technology - 623 words
...

The addition of MySpace, the world’s largest social network with 110 million active members, and Bebo, the No. 1 site in Britain with 39 million active users, could also put pressure on Facebook to drop its own standard and join the alliance, called OpenSocial.
...
Other members of the OpenSocial alliance include the social networks Friendster, Hi5, LinkedIn, Plaxo, Ning and the blogging network SixApart, as well as the software makers Oracle and SalesForce.com. Creators of several of the most popular programs on Facebook, including Slide, RockYou, iLike and Flixster, have announced their intention to write programs conforming to the OpenSocial standards.
...

DIGITAL DOMAIN; Why Google Turned Into a Social Butterfly
...company. Its initiative, which it calls OpenSocial, is an appeal to software developers...unique visitors in September, to join OpenSocial gives Google an impressive assembly...Incidentally, if software based on OpenSocial specifications spreads throughout the...
November 4, 2007 - By RANDALL STROSS - Technology - 1070 words

Further Reading:OpenSocial FAQ
OpenSocial API Blog
OpenSocial Examples (listed 3rd party, but not accessible)

NEWS: New Metrics for Social Media

A Shift to Engagement. 12:37am Wednesday, Aug 29 Published by Dave Morin, Facebook

As we indicated earlier, today we are introducing new guidelines that will change how applications are ranked in the application directory. Currently, the focus is on total number of users, but going forward it will be based on user engagement. This is an important step in the evolution of Facebook Platform which will help drive the growth and distribution of applications that focus on user engagement and utility. With a change this foundational to Facebook Platform's measurement, we want to make sure that you completely understand how we will be measuring engagement.

We define engagement as the number of users who touch your application every day (measured from midnight to midnight each day). These touch points are:

• Canvas Page Views
• Link Clicks in FBML
• Mock-Ajax Form Submission
• Click-to-Play Flash

The number of engaged users is calculated by putting all of these touch points together. We display this as the number of "Daily Active Users." Next to it we also show what percentage that is of the application's total number of users.

This change is part of our commitment to making Facebook Platform better for both developers and users. And, we hope that through this change, you continue to focus on creating engaging applications which add maximum utility to a Facebook user's everyday life.

What is Adonomics?

Adonomics™, formerly Appaholic, is your source for Facebook analytics. By providing a stock-market-style analysis of the Facebook platform we enable developers and investors to track application growth, activity, and valuation.

Apparently Facebook is thinking about Web 2.0 measurement too. A few days ago Facebook posted this blog entry. http://judah.webanalyticsdemystified.com/2007/09/web-analytics-facebook-applications-fbml-engagement.html

ANALYSIS: The State of Ad Network Transparency

Though there are several shades of definition, ad network transparency is a network's disclosure of the sites it represents.

...
Ad Network Claims

Pose the transparency question to an ad network now and you're almost certain to get an affirmative answer -- with a few exceptions. Probe a little further, however, and you'll see not all their answers are the same.

Some networks, like Interclick, and contextual networks, like Google's Content Network, Google's content network, AdBrite, and Quigo, take an absolute stance on transparency. Others, like Tribal Fusion, Tacoda, and Collective Media, emphasize the quality content of their network and assert transparency, but there seem to be some gray areas. These networks may conceal a small number of publishers, only disclose their list of sites upon request, or provide limited reporting. Still others, such as Burst Media, offer both. Burst Media's Burst Direct is a blind network, while the Burst Network is transparent.

... (blog)

(Ed: also lacking transparency on targeting method, auction policies, fraud control.)

NEWS: iPhone sales said to hit half-million

New Apple device lives up to the hype, though some buyers have activation woes; availability mixed at Apple Stores heading into new week.

July 2 2007: 8:22 AM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Opening weekend sales of iPhones may have reached 500,000, according to an analyst's estimate, as Apple's much anticipated product saw sales that lived up to and even exceeded its hype.

Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster released a report Sunday night estimating that the iPhone sales would reach that mark through the close of business Sunday. He had previously forecast first weekend sales of 200,000 of the device, which sells for either $499 or $599.

"Overall, Apple met strong demand over the weekend with adequate supply," he wrote in the report. "We were surprised by the rate at which Apple was able to sell the handsets, with 50 cashiers processing up to 1,000 iPhones an hour in some stores."

Apple (Charts, Fortune 500) was not immediately available to comment on that estimate early Monday. It has set a goal of selling 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008, and analysts are generally looking for it to sell about 3 million units this year. The phones went on sale at 6 p.m. Friday, with long lines outside many Apple Stores...

NEWS: Answers Corp Dependence on Google SEO

Recent Events In July 2007, a search engine algorithm adjustment by Google led to a drop in Google directed traffic to Answers.com. This adjustment reduced our overall traffic by approximately 28% based on the average traffic directed to Answers.com from Google for the week prior to the adjustment as compared to the week after. As a result, our revenue also declined proportionately. We have not been able to reverse the impact of this adjustment, and we do not anticipate that we will recover the lost traffic and revenue. In response to the Google algorithm adjustment, we reduced our headcount and related compensation costs, reducing our base payroll expenses by approximately 12%. As a result, we recorded a charge of approximately $250 thousand in the third quarter of 2007, related to this restructuring.

In September 2007, Yahoo! dropped our content from its search index, which reduced our Yahoo! directed traffic. This action was reversed within a week, and we have recovered all of our Yahoo! directed traffic.

Note 5 — Major Customers

During the nine months ended September 30, 2007, the vast majority of the Company’s advertising revenue was generated through the efforts of third party ad networks. Additionally, during the three months ended September 30, 2007, the Company earned approximately 67% and 8% of its total revenue through two of its third party ad networks, Google and Shopping.com, compared to 70% and 15%, respectively, of the total revenue during the third quarter of 2006. Of the total revenue during the nine months ended September 30, 2007, Google and Shopping.com accounted for approximately 65% and 9%, compared to 67% and 15% of our total revenue during the same period in 2006.

Traffic 

Our revenue is primarily driven by the traffic generated by our Web properties and our ability to effectively monetize that traffic. Our current sources of traffic include the following:

 

•       Search engines : Users submit queries and algorithm search engines respond by generating a list of Web pages that are likely to offer the most relevant content. When our pages rank high in the algorithmic systems of search engines, our results are more likely to be accessed by users. According to our internal estimates, for September 2007, this source of traffic represented approximately 60% of our traffic. 

•       Google’s definition link :  We have an informal, non-contractual relationship with Google under which Google links search results related to certain definitional queries to Answers.com.  According to our internal estimates, for September 2007, this source of traffic represented approximately 15% of our traffic. 

•       Direct users : Users visiting our Web properties directly.  According to our internal estimates, for September 2007, direct users represented approximately 25% of our traffic.

The following table sets forth our Answers.com average daily page views and RPM, since our launch of Answers.com:

 

		Average Daily Page Views		Ad Revenue  (Thousands)			RPM
Q-1 2005		1,010,000		$	107		$	1.17
Q-2 2005		2,000,000		$	357		$	1.96
Q-3 2005		1,990,000		$	500		$	2.73
Q-4 2005		2,370,000		$	807		$	3.71
Q-1 2006		2,920,000		$	1,090		$	4.15
Q-2 2006		3,030,000		$	1,457		$	5.29
Q-3 2006		3,400,000		$	1,810		$	5.79
Q-4 2006		4,340,000		$	2,400		$	6.02
Q-1 2007		5,470,000		$	2,768		$	5.62
Q-2 2007		4,890,000		$	2,551		$	5.73
Q-3 2007		3,730,000		$	1,861		$	5.41

 

 

Facebook Funds Launched

Facebook, Accel and Founders Fund Launch fbFund; To Give Grants To Facebook App Startups

The size of the fund will be $10 million (coming from Accel and Founders Fund) with anywhere between $25 to $250 thousand in grants available for each selected startup dedicated to developing Facebook applications. Founders Fund and Accel will get the right of first refusal for the first round of financing of any company in the fund.

Peter Thiel of Founders Fund and Jim Breyer of Accel will be involved in the fund. Josh Kopelman of First Round Capital, founder of LinkedIn Reid Hoffman, Rajeev Motwani of Google, and Mark Zuckerberg himself will be on fbFund’s board of advisors. Chamath Palihapitiya, VP of Product Marketing and Operations of Facebook, will be handling fbFund internally for Facebook.

Zuckerberg’s announcement comes two months after Bay Partners decided
to earmark millions of dollars for investment in Facebook applications. Bay
Partners’ prospects will certainly be diminished as the result of Facebook’s
move to fund applications built on its own platform.

"To make sure that everyone understands the conditions of submitting a grant application, we will not review any materials you have sent via email, and any materials you may have sent have been deleted," the copy-pasted e-mail read. It's apparently to ensure that applicants know that the company "can't promise that any materials or information (they) submit here will be kept confidential, or specifically that (Facebook) or others might not develop similar or identical products or services."

Attention Facebook Developers!

On July 4, 2007, Altura Ventures announced the Altura 1 Facebook Investment Fund becoming the world's first Facebook-only venture capital firm. The fund is focused exclusively on the Facebook social operating system, the F8 development platform, the growing number of facebook applications and the developers, advertisers and users that are participating in the Facebook eco-system.

Announcing the New KP Facebook Fund: KPCBFBAF (Fictional Tom Perkins)
By Tom Perkins 9/18/07 10:30 AM EST New York

I wanted to take this opportunity to announce The Kleiner Perkins Facebook Applications Fund (KPCBFBAF) which recently closed on $150 million of capital. I’ve recruited Chamath Palihapitiy, Facebook’s VP Marketing and Operations as well as Gideon Yu, Facebook’s CFO to our Investment Board. The Fund, whose primary limited partner is Harvard University, will be dedicated to investing in applications developed for Facebook. We’ll be looking to invest sizable amounts of capital into each company from $2 million to $5 million over the life of the company.

the CRV QuickStart Seed Funding Program.

CRV QuickStart provides select entrepreneurs with a loan to fund the work needed to build out your idea, enabling you to explore its potential in its earliest stage before you raise a round of formal equity financing. By offering up to $250,000 in the form of a loan (also referred to as a “convertible note”), we’re providing the capital to fuel ideas without that painful seed-stage dilution.

Meet the Next Billionaires

Calling all geeks! Do you have a hot idea for a start-up? If so, this boot camp where Silicon Valley meets 'American Idol' is for you. That is, if you make the cut. By Steven Levy Newsweek Web Exclusive

It's dramatically cheaper to start a company now than it was in the dot-com boom, and possible to build a substantial operation before requiring venture capital or achieving that liquidity event. (To pay salaries and costs during that time, one can get "angel funding"—less money than a VC firm pays, but in exchange for less equity.) Software tools, which used to cost hundreds of thousands, are now largely free. A wide variety of tasks can be outsourced cheaply. Computers, servers, bandwidth and storage cost a fraction of what they did a decade ago. And there's no need for a marketing budget when you've got Internet word of mouth.

NEWS: Facebook welcomes outside services

Facebook welcomes outside services — May 24, 2007

Facebook announced Thursday that the No. 2 social-networking site is allowing software developers to create applications, or "widgets," for Facebook users. MySpace executives may yawn, but Facebook is also going to allow other companies to open retail services and advertise on the site, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced at a media event here Thursday.

"You can serve ads...or if you don't want to advertise, you can just sell something," Zuckerberg told an audience of journalists and outside developers. "You keep all the revenue."

This contrasts sharply with MySpace's philosophy. It's against MySpace rules for anyone other than MySpace to advertise on the site.

...

NEWS: The High Price of Getting Paid for Content

News Analysis May 9, 2007,

For YouTube's top video creators, being compensated for the Web traffic and ad
impressions they generate isn't all it's cracked up to be

by Catherine Holahan

While Gambito was thrilled with the May 4 announcement that Google's YouTube will share ad revenue with her and a handful of other top creators, her goal is to make money without the site. For budding Internet celebrities like Gambito, the real value of posting videos to YouTube and others like Revver is the potential to drive traffic to her own site, where she can reap the full financial benefits from her work. "You can't sell your DVD on YouTube," says Gambito

ANALYSIS: Low eCPMs on video content.

NEWS: Internet Giants Vie to Snap Up Web Ad Firms

Online Advertising Share and Forecast
Charts
Chasing Ad Dollars

It’s a good time to be an Internet advertising company.

...

The struggle reached new heights yesterday when Microsoft agreed to buy the online advertising company aQuantive for about $6 billion. It is Microsoft’s largest acquisition ever and a sign of its struggle to build an Internet ad business on its own.

The purchase caps a month of intense deal making, ignited when Google agreed to buy DoubleClick, a competitor of aQuantive, for $3.1 billion, outbidding Microsoft. Since then, all of Google’s main competitors have snapped up online advertising specialists.

...

Online ads accounted for 5.8 percent of the $285 billion spent on advertising in the United States in 2006, according to eMarketer, a research firm. It estimates that the online share will rise to 10.2 percent by 2010.

In the first quarter of this year, AT&T spent $79 million on online image-based advertising, compared with $55.6 million in the quarter a year ago, according to Nielsen/NetRatings Ad Relevance. The Ford Motor Company increased its purchases to $29 million in the period, from $7 million a year earlier.

...

Until recently, for instance, Google was largely focused on selling small text ads that appear alongside its search results and on other Web sites.

Internet Giants Vie to Snap Up Web Ad Firms, New York Times

NEWS: Yahoo to Buy Ad Company in Bid to Compete With Google

Yahoo to Buy Ad Company in Bid to Compete With Google

Yahoo plans to acquire Right Media, a privately held...speculated that Yahoo would acquire control of Right Media to help it compete...business. By buying Right Media, analysts have said, Yahoo would accelerate...
April 30, 2007 - By MIGUEL HELFT 

Yahoo's Turnaround Said to Include Layoffs

...company, who discussed Yahoo's layoff plans on condition...hundreds. The last time Yahoo had sizable layoffs was...advertising specialists Right Media and BlueLithium and the...Zimbra. Mr. Yang and other Yahoo executives have said recently...
January 22, 2008 - By MIGUEL HELFT 

Can She Turn Yahoo Into, Well, Google?

...acquisition of Right Media, which Yahoo considers a success...percent stake in Right Media last October. By the time Yahoo decided to buy...company in April, Right Media's value had soared, forcing Yahoo to pay an additional...
July 1, 2007 - By MIGUEL HELFT 

NEWS: Gooble Buys an Online Ad Firm for $3.1 Billion

PERSONAL BUSINESS; Google Buys an Online Ad Firm for $3.1 Billion

...Warner's AOL unit. Google won then, too, agreeing...One attraction for Google was DoubleClick's new exchange that...further acceleration of Google creating the spine of...Group of Companies that buys ads. ''In the context...
April 14, 2007 - By LOUISE STORY and MIGUEL HELFT 

Google Buys A Manager Of E-Mail

...said Dave Girouard, Google's vice president and general...third-largest acquisition in Google's history, after its planned...online advertising company DoubleClick and its $1.65 billion deal for the video site YouTube. Google and other companies say that...
July 10, 2007 - By MIGUEL HELFT 

Google Reaches Deal With Clear Channel to Sell Radio Ads

...s encroachment. Google may have an easier...Strategies, a firm that buys ads. ''Most mediums...offline. On Friday, Google agreed to pay $3.1 billion to acquire DoubleClick, a company with display ad knowledge that Google hopes will help it...
April 16, 2007 - By LOUISE STORY 

List of CMS Providers

Name	Platform	Supported databases	Latest stable release	Price in USD	Online Demo
AdaptCMS Pro	PHP	MySQL	1.1	$25/domain	Yes
AspireCMS Web Content Management	PHP, XML, XSLT,Apache	MySQL	4.0	$299 and up	Yes
Cascade Server	Java	SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL	5.0		Yes
CommonSpot	ColdFusion	MS Access, Oracle, SQL Server	5.0		Yes
Community Server	ASP.NET	SQL Server	2007	$2000	Yes
Contrexx	PHP	MySQL	1.2	From $892	Yes
CoreMedia CMS	Java	Oracle, IBM DB2, Microsoft SQL Server	2006
COMSHARP CMS	.NET	Microsoft SQL Server	2.1.1.20	From $499	Yes
Docket Platform	PHP	MySQL	8.0x	From $2,500
EPiServer	.NET	Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle	5.1		Yes
FatWire Content Server	Java	Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, IBM DB2	7.0.3
IBM Workplace Web Content Management	J2EE or Lotus Domino	Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, IBM DB2, Lotus Domino	6.0
Immediacy	.NET	Microsoft SQL Server	6.0
Jadu	PHP and .NET	MS SQL Server, MySQL	2.0x
Jalios JCMS	Java	Built-in	5.7.4	From $9,000	Yes
MyCMS	PHP	MySQL	2.3x		Yes
ProFusion Ultra IS	ASP	SQL Server	v3.1	From $495	No
Windows SharePoint Services / Microsoft Office SharePoint Server	.NET	Microsoft SQL Server (2000 or 2005), SQL Express	2007		Yes
Powerfront CMS	ASP	SQL	6.6	From $5,000	Yes
Sitefinity CMS	ASP.NET	MySQL, Oracle Database, MS SQL Server,	3.2	$899/domain	Yes
Site Foundry	PHP	MySQL	2.3	$700	Yes
Sitekit CMS	.NET	MS SQL Server	7.18		Yes
Socialtext	Perl	PostgreSQL 8.x	2.15.0.1		Yes
Stellent	Java, IDocScript, XML	Oracle, SQL Server, other	10g
Traction TeamPage	Java	Built-in	3.7	$5,000 and up
Vignette Content Management	Java	Oracle Database, MS SQL Server, IBM DB2	7.4

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