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Nov 22, 2008

Gigaom Network Parting Ways With Federated; Going With IDG's Tech Ad Network

Gigaom Network Parting Ways With Federated; Going With IDG's Tech Ad Network

Gigaomni Media (GOM), the parent company of the popular network of tech sites including Gigaom, is parting ways with its long time ad partnerFederated Media, and moving to a more enterprise-focused IDG TechNetwork, IDG's tech ad network, we have learned and confirmed from the two companies. The new deal with IDG is for all CPM-based online advertising across GOM's network of seven sites, and the company will still sell events and online sponsorships directly on its own.

While this is not a significant monetary setback for Federated, it does point to what the John Battelle-founded online-ad company is giving up as it continues to scale: Its focus has been on large-scale national advertisers and creating both general and custom programs with them, as opposed to the more 'intimate" sells required for enterprise-focused vendors that GOM attracts. FM has a big-brand focus, for most part, and beyond its early start with tech sites, it has now moved into all kinds of other verticals like parenting, food, graphic arts, small business and others.

Gigaom founder Om Malik has previously publicly disagreed with some aspects of FM's "conversational marketing" approach with some tech advertisers. And while that did lead to some tension last year, I spoke to both Chas Edwards, Publisher & Chief Revenue Officer of FM, and Paul Walborsky, CEO of GOM, and both reiterated that this parting was amicable, and of course, there are too many friendships at stake here.

For GOM, this new move comes after its biggish $4.5 million third round of funding that it announced last month. In recent months it has also acquired two blogs, jkOntheRun and TheAppleBlog, and appointed a new CEO. For IDG, this is a high-profile blog media company to bring into its fold. Its ad network was launched earlier this year, and had about 100 tech blogs as of March, and would not comment on this story. It said they will have more announcements next month about it.


Apple’s 2008 ad budget: Nearly a half billion dollars

Apple’s 2008 ad budget: Nearly a half billion dollars

There’s been a lot of talk recently about how much money Microsoft is spending (and some would say wasting) on its new advertising campaigns to promote its brand. Of course you know the ones: The Bill Gates/Seinfeld ads and the newer “I’m a PC” ads. But there hasn’t been much focus on how much Microsoft rival Apple is spending on its advertising. You might think it’d be hard to get a figure out of the ever-secretive company, but BNET’s Technology Industry Blog was able to dig the figure up from Apple’s 10-K filing.

Apple had an advertising budget of $486 million in 2008. That’s up only slightly from its $467 million budget last year, but significantly ahead of its 2006 ad budget of $338 million. Why has it risen so much in the past two years? Hard to know for sure, though I’d guess it’s because of a certain device that launched in mid-2007: The iPhone.

While Apple’s “Mac vs. PC” ads are the ones that get a lot of hype because they’re humorous, its iPhone ads are arguably more effective and important. After all, they show the device in action, and for a lot of people, seeing is believing. That’s why getting on these ads is such a big deal for individual app makers like Loopt, Urbanspoon and Shazam — all of which saw their app downloads surge after being featured in commercials by Apple.

Microsoft’s latest campaign is said to be in the $300 million range, but that is just its contract with the ad firm Crispin Porter + Bogusky for these newest ads. Microsoft also presumably has a lot of advertising budget outside of that marketing effort, and also apparently has brought on Crispin Porter + Bogusky for its Zune ads now as well, according to AdAge.


AdNet Weekend

Gigaom Network Parting Ways With Federated; Going With IDG’s Tech ...
paidContent.org, CA - 18 hours ago
Its ad network was launched earlier this year, and had about 100 tech blogs as of March, and would not comment on this story. It said they will have more ...
Time to Say Good-bye, and Thanks GigaOm
An Ad Network in Times Square
New York Times, United States - Nov 19, 2008
It will also serve as an advertising network of sorts as Walgreen and its sales representative, a unit of ABC, peddle commercial time to other marketers. ...

The Inquisitr
Apptera secures $10.5 million for advertising network expansion
CNET News, CA - Nov 19, 2008
According to the company, the new investment will be used to expand its mobile advertising network and improve its MobileAd Xchange program, which allows ...
Mobile Ad Network Apptera Earns $10.5 million in Funding Wired News
Apptera Secures Additional $10.5M Funding, Appoints Former Yahoo ... MarketWatch
Apptera Raises $10.5 Million for Mobile Ad Services Digital Media Wire
VentureBeat - The Inquisitr

CaymanMama.com (press release)
Online advertising up 11 percent from last year
CNET News, CA - Nov 20, 2008
The Yahoo Network came in second by reaching 164 million people and was followed by Google's Ad Network with 158 million. Greg Sandoval covers media and ...
Internet Advertising Revenues in Q3 '08 at Nearly $5.9 Billion MarketWatch
Growth In Online Advertising Revenue Slows InformationWeek
Q3 Online Ad Growth Sliced in Half Since Year Ago ClickZ News
NetworkWorld.com
AdEngage Further Strengthens Its Advertising Network
MarketWatch - Nov 18, 2008
"This partnership enables AdEngage to focus on building a great ad network while we lead the charge in the arms race of click fraud and traffic quality ...
24/7 Real Media Ad Network Continues Tremendous Growth
MarketWatch - Nov 17, 2008
This includes BBN Networks, the world's largest B2B online advertising network, comprised of the most highly concentrated and far-reaching collection of B2B ...
comScore Media Metrix Ranks Top 50 US Web Properties for October 2008
MarketWatch - Nov 20, 2008
Denotes an advertising network. comScore Media Metrix provides industry-leading Internet audience measurement services that report details of online media ...
Olive Canada Network Brings BNET.com into Premium Advertising Network
MarketWatch - Nov 17, 2008
... 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- Olive Canada Network ( www.olivecanadanetwork.com), one of Canada's leading online premium advertising salesnetwork...
CTV, Quattro sign mobile ad network & site mobilisation deal
Telecom Paper (subscription), Netherlands - Nov 20, 2008
Canadian broadcaster CTV has selected mobile advertising network Quattro Wireless for a global mobile ad network and site mobilisation deal. ...
Ad Network Tries Money-Back Guarantee
AdAge.com (subscription) - Nov 20, 2008
The $50000 would cover the entire cost of most campaigns on the network. The average order is about half that, or $25000. ...

Social Media Weekend

TV's Interactive Future Arrives Today, Combining Social Media With ...
MarketWatch - Nov 21, 2008
"Diggnation was the first successful social video program featuring some of the top content voted on by the Digg community," said Jim Louderback, CEO, ...

Brisbane Times
Teenagers’ Internet Socializing Not a Bad Thing
New York Times, United States - Nov 20, 2008
“Ethnographic studies like this are good at describing how young people fit social media into their lives. What they can’t do is document effects. ...
Go ahead…Hang out on MySpace. Wait, what? ZDNet
Kids gain valuable skills from time online San Francisco Chronicle
Internet Social Networking Is Good For Your Children eFluxMedia
BBC News - AHN
Awareness, Inc. Hosts Webinar: Why Social Media Is the Best ...
MarketWatch - Nov 21, 2008
New research showing how investments are shifting from traditional marketing to social media marketing; -- Strategies to build metrics into your social ...OTC:CMTX - FORR
Wanted: 3 Engaged Women Who Will Make Social Media History While ...
PR Web (press release), WA - 6 hours ago
What started as the spark of an idea at an Internet marketing conference has become the "Pay It Forward" movement of the social media and wedding industries ...
Social Media Can Get Ugly
Inc.com, NY - 18 hours ago
I read a blog post by Chris Brogan this morning that I think everyone using social media for business should take to heart. ...
Technology Companies Target Customers Direct Via Web 2.0 - Dell Channel Insider
all 2 news articles »  DELL
TOWN HALL LA Panel Addresses Doing Business Over Social MediaNetworks
MarketWatch - Nov 19, 2008
LOS ANGELES, CA, Nov 19, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- A panel of social mediaexperts will discuss "What You Don't Know: Social Media Networks and Their ...
TOWN HALL LA Panel Addresses Doing Business Over Social Media NetworksInternational Business Times
Social networking can help business The Age

SportsBusiness Daily (subscription)
SMT Concludes With Talks On Social Networking, Digital Media
SportsBusiness Daily (subscription), NC - 22 hours ago
When you think of the concept of social media, I think it’s really at a team level. ... Sports really lends itself well to this notion of social networking, ...
The Reluctant Social Media Client
WebWorkerDaily, CA - 16 hours ago
In some cases, I’ve been able to sneak in a few social media tools with positive results, however, I admit this isn’t very strategic. ...

PR Web (press release)
New Social Media Marketing Workshop Offered by the Direct ...
PR Web (press release), WA - Nov 21, 2008
As marketers face slimming budgets in the months ahead, smart social media marketing offers new opportunities for companies to engage customers, ...
Journos Use New Media More than PR Pros Think
Marketing Vox News - Nov 21, 2008
More than 75% of journalists say they use social media to research stories, compared with about 67% last year. Nearly 38% of journalists now say they visit ...

Blog Weekend


Los Angeles Times
Broderick Turner will blog live from tonight's Lakers game
Los Angeles Times, CA - 12 hours ago
Also, you can check out our Lakers blog, written by brothers Andrew and Brian Kamenetzky. Photo: Kobe Bryant, right, cheers as the Phoenix Suns' Shaquille ...
O'Neal denies LA talk, knows Lakers are big challenge KTAR.com
Shaq Has Nothing but Love for Phil Jackson FanHouse
Lakers, Celtics Look Finals-Worthy Again With Rout of Rivals Wall Street Journal Blogs
Arizona Republic
TypePad updated: Better blog comments for all
CNET News, CA - Nov 20, 2008
The first thing most users will notice is a new blog commenting system. It has both a cleaner display of comments (with icons for the comments, ...

The Miami Herald
Law Blog Chats with Marc Elias, Lawyer for Al Franken
Wall Street Journal Blogs, NY - 21 hours ago
... representing the campaign of Al Franken — who, on a completely unrelated note, graduated from the Law Blog’s high school about 27 years before we did. ...
Video: Recount Under Way in Minn. Senate Race AssociatedPress
Franken Narrows Coleman’s Lead in Minnesota Senate Recount The Moderate Voice
Franken Making Dubious Ballot Challenges AOL News Newsbloggers
Stop the ACLU - American Spectator

ZDNet UK
Google’s Lively is Short-Lived
Red Herring, CA - 19 hours ago
by Michael Lee Google has announced via its blog that its Second Life wannabe, Lively, will be discontinued at the end the year. The virtual world launched ...
Google to shut down virtual world website Reuters
Google to Shut Down Lively Virtual World PC World
Google's virtual world Lively to die next month The Associated Press
CNET News - CRN
all 175 news articles »  GOOG

Globe and Mail
Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report Feature Highlights Recent Blog ...
Kaiser network.org, DC - 23 hours ago
While mainstream news coverage is still a primary source of information for the latest in policy debates and the health care marketplace, online blogs have ...
Video: Dem Officials: Daschle Accepts Cabinet Post AssociatedPress
Want In The Obama Administration? Get A Blog Silicon Alley Insider
Obama Taps Daschle For HHS Secretary U.S. News & World Report
Reznet News - Bloomberg
Utah Jazz & NBA blog
Deseret News, UT - 10 hours ago
SAN ANTONIO – They can deny it all they want, but the Jazz simply aren’t the same team without some of their injured regulars. In Friday’s loss to the San ...

New York Times
Haste, Scorned: Blogging at a Snail’s Pace
New York Times, United States - 10 hours ago
A Slow Blog Manifesto, written in 2006 by Todd Sieling, a technology consultant from Vancouver, British Columbia, laid out the movement’s tenets. ...
Blog Zone:
Philadelphia Inquirer, PA - 7 hours ago
Bad news from Phillies land as second baseman Chase Utley will miss 4 to 6 months due to hip surgery he'll have next week. My take: Surgery is always a ...
Men's Basketball: UW vs. Iona game-day blog
University of Wisconsin Badgers, WI - 14 hours ago
Remember, the blog is now interactive, so be sure to chime in with comments and questions. The live blog will start at 7:15 pm CT and tipoff is at 7:30 pm ...
TV information for Paradise Jam University of Wisconsin Badgers
Survey: Young consumers take in-game, blog ads seriously
SmartBrief, DC - 22 hours ago
Consumers, especially those in the coveted 18- to 34-year-old segment, are being influenced by video game ads, blogs and text messages to make electronics ...

Nov 21, 2008

New York Times (NYT) Now Losing Business To Wall Street Journal

Ed: eCPM is just shy of $200.

from Silicon Alley Insider by 

As if the New York Times wasn't having enough trouble keeping up with an ad recession and the Internet crushing its print business. Now the newspaper is facing increasing competition for printads... from Murdoch's Wall Street Journal.

Bloomberg: Saks Inc., a Times advertiser since 1924, recently chose to promote a new Chanel boutique and made-to-measure men's suits in the Journal. Owner Rupert Murdoch's expansion of general news coverage and a new lifestyle magazine are starting to attract wealthy consumers and create ad space for retailers, said Milton Pedraza, chief executive officer of Luxury Institute LLC.

``They certainly have become a significant part of the advertising mix for luxury brands where they were not before,'' said Pedraza, whose New York research group tracks the market for the most expensive lines of consumer goods and services. ``They're definitely stealing advertising dollars.''

And then there's the stats: The WSJ has a paid circulation of 1.4 million, up 2.4% y/y. The NYT: 859,000, down 5.5%. With more readers, the WSJ can charge more for ads, $264,426 for full page color vs. $193,800 at the NYT.

Six Apart TypePad Connect Beta Holds Promise for All Bloggers

Six Apart TypePad Connect Beta Holds Promise for All Bloggers

TypePadToday, Six Apart is launching three new features for TypePad: enhanced TypePad profiles, a new commenting system, and TypePad Connect, a no-cost combination of services that promises to make participating in and managing communities easier for bloggers on a variety of platforms - not just those offered by Six Apart.

For users familiar with the Six Apart family of products, the profiles will be a welcome step forward from the original TypeKey implementation and the new commenting features offer functionality users have come to expect from commenting systems. But it's TypePad Connect - or more appropriately the vision for what TypePad Connect could be - that makes this announcement interesting.

Nov 20, 2008

Yahoo! Glue Finally Comes to the US and It's Awesome

Yahoo Brings Glue To U.S.: A Plethora of Aggregated Topical Third Party Content

by Michael Arrington on November 19, 2008

Yahoo Glue, a new search results page design that the company has been testing in India, is rolling out to the US market this evening. You can view it at glue.yahoo.com, although Yahoo says it is rolling out in stages, so sit tight if you don’t see it.

It’s also a little different than the Indian version, and includes a number of resources beyond what India’s version of Glue offers. On a typical query, content from Wikipedia, Yahoo Shopping, Yahoo Answers, blog search results (from Google) and YouTube videos are shown.

Yahoo! Glue Finally Comes to the US and It's Awesome

yahoogluelogo.jpgThis May Yahoo! started testing an "all in one" search product called Yahoo Glue in India. It's a really cool service that tonight becomes available to US users of Yahoo.

Yahoo! Glue search results include web search, images, news, blog search, Wikipedia and YouTube videos. That's right - in the India version at least Yahoo! displayed search results from both Google's YouTube and Google Blogsearch. The end result - all these links on one page - is pretty awesome.

Beware the Netbook Hype Machine

Analyst: 'big 'bang' to hit PC and handset industry

Posted by Brooke Crothers

A clash is brewing as PC and cell phone chip suppliers vie for new designs that fall outside traditional product categories, an analyst said in a research note Wednesday.

Asus 10-inch Eee PC 1000

Asus 10-inch Eee PC 1000

(Credit: Asus)

Doug Freedman, a chip analyst at AmTech Research, said the "line between cell phones and PCs is clearly blurring" and that consequently "PC and cell phone food chains will battle for market share in these new classes of devices." He calls this the "big bang between PCs and handsets."

This will happen as more tweener products emerge. "New product categories such as Netbooks, MIDs (mobile Internet devices), and smartphones all lie in the spectrum between the traditional PC and handset product categories," he wrote. "Cell phones are increasing in screen sizes, computational power and capabilities, while PCs are seeing declines in screen sizes and increases in connectivity."

This may present problems for chip suppliers as they rush to build inventory for these newfangled devices, resulting in an oversupply for device categories that don't succeed. "It's a safe bet that we'll end up with losers," he said in an interview. Moreover, there will be lower-than-expected gross margins (a crucial indicator of profitability) for some of the chips that go into these products, according to Freedman.

While the Netbook is considered a successful tweener product, it exemplifies a category that may be facing a reality check as the novelty wears off, resulting in an oversupply problem, he said. Intel says it has seen strong demand for the Atom processor on the back of the popularity of Netbooks but there are signs that demand has started to ebb, according to Freedman. This has resulted in cancellations from device makers for chips that go into Netbooks, Freedman said.

Netbooks have been popular because of their novel design--what is essentially a very small, very-low-cost (below $500) laptop, a category that hasn't existed to date. Ultra-small laptops (such as the MacBook Air and Toshiba Portege) have traditionally commanded a very stiff premium, typically going for more than $1,500.

Contrary to what Intel has been saying, Freedman wrote in the research note that the "initial generation Netbook solutions may not succeed in emerging/low income markets as users find feature and performance sacrifice in Netbooks (i.e. 5- to 8-inch screens) unacceptable for a networked family."

He added that Intel will also continue to be challenged by cannibalization of Netbooks: that is, Netbooks will take market share from traditional notebooks.

Down the road, Freedman writes, "we do not expect the PC and handset to converge into a single 'holy grail' device." PC and cell phone makers will continue to build devices that try to bridge the gap. Apple's iPhone is an example of a device at one end of the spectrum, while the 10-inch Asus Eee PC Netbook addresses the other end.

"We expect most users to continue to require two devices: one large form factor device and one small form factor device," he said in the note.

Beware the Netbook Hype Machine

Lance Ulanoff

Netbook PCs are a triumph partly of technology, but mostly of smart packaging.

Buzz up!on Yahoo!

I get a big kick out of the way everyone is falling all over themselves to anoint "netbooks" as the next big thing. My own Editor of Reviews, Dan Costa, is caught up in it. He's so excited that during a recent business trip, he left his boring old laptop behind in favor of a glossy new netbook. And columnist Tim Bajarin has, on this very Web site, covered or at least mentioned netbooks in no fewer than nine columns. Across the Web, examples abound. My friend and former Windows Magazine co-worker Mike Elgan has come up with four reasons why you'll buy a netbook on Black Friday. Okay, I get it. These tiny PCs are important. But, seriously, what is a netbook anyway? What are the defining features, if any?

• Is it the Intel Atom chip? Maybe. Virtually every netbook manufacturer has adopted this Intel-based, low-cost, low-energy, albeit decently powered CPU as their platform of choice.
• Is it the OS? Surprisingly, not one single netbook runs Windows VistaBasic. Instead, it's either Windows XP Home or Linux, with more manufacturers leaning toward Windows—more on that decision later.
• Is it the size? Most of these laptops weigh less than 3 pounds (or around that) and have 95 percent or smaller keyboards. Most also feature 10-inch screens. More on that later, too.
• Is it the price? You can get a good netbook for well under $500. Some, though, run closer to $600.
• Is it connectivity? Dan Costa says that this is what defines netbooks. All have built-in Wi-Fi and/or some form of wireless broadband.

I think it's something else entirely. What defines netbooks is their brilliant marketing. Ultimately, each and every one of these netbooks—the HP Mini 1000, the ASUS EeePC 900, the Acer Aspire One, the Dell Inspiron Mini 9, and the MSI Wind—are all just highly portable, middling-powered notebooks. This is not to say that they won't be popular this holiday season. I think they will. Elgan is right when he says that the economic downturn is the sub-$350 netbook's friend. But I digress. Let's get back to the marketing.

The reason I'm so surprised at the surging popularity of netbooks is that it seemed so unlikely. When I first heard the term "netbooks," I dismissed it. Like an elephant, I have a really long memory, and I recall a similarly labeled and marketed product category that crashed and burned about a decade ago. Called NetPCs, this brainchild of maverick Oracle CEO Larry Ellison was supposed to transform desktop computing. Instead of buying ever-more-powerful PCs, we would, in essence, buy semi-stupid terminal-style PCs, which lacked disk drives and could do some things but relied heavily on the Internet and connected servers to get most of the heavy lifting done.

As Wikipedia accurately notes, the plummeting prices of desktop PCs and increasing availability of components doomed the thin-client concept almost from the start.

Netbooks do owe a bit to Ellison's vision. They're not particularly powerful systems and will, in some cases, trade out the spinning drive or a faster and smaller (though not less expensive) solid-state drive. They usually have just 1GB of RAM and are best suited for Web browsing, e-mail, and document creation. And the heavy lifting is happening on far-flung servers powering a Web site. The netbook is, to a certain extent, a thin client. At some point in any given day, though, all PCs act like a NetPC, accessing data stored elsewhere, running applications, and writing documents in the cloud.— Next: Defining Netbook


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