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Warning to teens: The Internet is a public place

Two important, if somewhat cliche, online public service videos warn teenagers about the dangers of putting photos and personal information online. My question is why it took so long for someone to come up with an educational effort to help kids understand the privacy implications of sharing their images and lives with the world online, something many of them do every day?

The videos can be viewed on the Google Blogoscoped blog. Sponsored by the Ad Council, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and Project Safe Childhood in the U.S. Department of Justice, they are part of … Read more

Report: Internet ad sales keep rising

Internet advertising revenue reached a record $4.9 billion in the first quarter of this year, up 26 percent from a year earlier and up 2 percent from the previous quarter. That's according to a report commissioned by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Online ad sales have been rising steadily since a slump in mid-2002. They have more than tripled since then.

Google, Salesforce.com partner on Web site

Salesforce.com and Google launched a Web site on Tuesday that is designed to allow the online customer relationship management software maker to act as a reseller for Google's AdWords.

For Salesforce.com, the alliance expands its efforts to tie its hosted CRM software with Google AdWords, following its acquisition last year of privately held Kieden, which had created an add-on to Salesforce's hosted services for purchasing and managing Google-driven ad campaigns. Salesforce.com will expand beyond allowing its customers to launch Google AdWords from a Salesforce.com application to one in which it will act as a … Read more

Yahoo releases new ad pricing structure

Yahoo trotted out a new pricing structure this week and the motto is quality, over quantity.

Advertisers will pay Yahoo based on the quality of their distribution partners' Web sites where their ads appear, rather than a one-size fits all rate for traffic, according to a Yahoo blog posting.

"As part of the evolution of the Yahoo Search Marketing advertising system, we now include an assessment of the quality of our publisher's traffic when you are charged for a click from that source," Yahoo stated in its FAQ. "Depending on the quality of the traffic from … Read more

Report: Google and Salesforce.com to partner

Salesforce.com has scheduled a news conference on Tuesday to announce a partnership with an unnamed Internet company, and TechCrunch is speculating that the partner will be Google.

"Most likely it will be tighter integration between the companies. One rumor says that Salesforce customers may get a discount on Adwords if they bid through Salesforce's software," TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington wrote. He also makes the case for why Google should buy Salesforce.com, saying that Google's new Gears software, which allows Web-based software to be accessed offline, combined with Salesforce.com's customer relationship management software … Read more

Virgin Mobile flubs up ads in NYC

Advertisements are part of the landscape here in New York City (hello, Times Square) and us locals generally like to ignore them. Which is why plenty of companies are willing to bend over backwards to get New Yorkers to stop walking really fast while blasting music into their iPod headphones and, well, notice some advertisements. Virgin Mobile's one of the recent ones, having introduced a "You Rule" campaign that addresses specific groups of New Yorkers. It's been placing them in specific neighborhoods, too, in an attempt to gain buzz by delivering personalized shout-outs.

Kind of a … Read more

YouTube founders: Video ads coming

At the D5 conference, YouTube founders (and now Google employees) Chad Hurley and Steve Chen were just interviewed by Walt Mossberg. In a wide-ranging interview, Hurley and Chen discussed today's EMI deal, copyright issues, and advertising. Some highlights:

The EMI deal Regarding the deal with EMI, Hurley said it will open up opportunities for YouTube users, although in a somewhat backward fashion: "It's about creating new marketing opportunities," he said. Music rights holders will be able to "identify when their music is being used, and earn revenues against that." Presumably the revenues will be from advertising, since this will "give users a free and legal way to use" this media.

In practice, it will work with YouTube's audio swap tool, which Hurley said is being expanded and improved.

Copyrights

Walt tried to nail the founders on their apparent laissez-faire attitude regarding copyrighted material. Hurley said, "In early 2006, we were the first to release content management tools, a way for people to identify their content with metadata." Also, he says, "We've done a good job of educating people on copyright law."

Walt: "Wait. Wait. Wait."

Hurley relents a bit: "We see this as a search algorithm [issue]. We're running trial with audio and visual fingerprinting." In the Fall, he said, "everyone will have access to these advanced tools." … Read more

Photos: LG's big LED billboards

Nothing says "Look at me" quite like a giant, multicolored video billboard perched above a city square. That's why advertisers are starting to adopt new LED technology that lets them blast their marketing messages your way--and why IT services companies like LG CNS are scrambling to become the providers of choice for the high-tech systems.

The South Korean company--the "consulting and solutions" (hence "CNS") arm of electronics giant LG--has been busy installing the systems from Guangzhou, the industrial hub of southern China, to Cairo to New York. CNET News.com has a photo … Read more

Privacy concerns over Google-DoubleClick deal

Maybe I've spent too much time in information security, but Google's proposed acquisition of DoubleClick scares me from a privacy perspective.

I'm not alone here. Microsoft and AT&T are already lobbying the Federal Trade Commission to scrutinize this deal (albeit their concerns go beyond privacy alone). So has the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC).

For those of you who haven't thought about the privacy implications of this deal, let me offer a brief explanation. Google tracks user search behavior to match ads to prospective buyers. DoubleClick does the same kind of thing to serve … Read more