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As people increasingly turn to mobile devices for their Web consumption, Google has decided to revamp its keyword advertising service to make it easier for marketers to reach target audiences on different devices.

Google's AdWords Enhanced Campaign aims to make it easier for advertisers to manage bids for ads across a variety of device platforms, locations, and times, the Web giant announced in a company blog post today. AdWords allows advertisers to bid on a given keyword and win premium placement with search results.

Google's goal in retooling AdWords -- a chief money maker for the company -- … Read more

Facebook is fussing with the look of those fuddy-duddy ads it shows to members on the right-hand side of the website. The point is to get the easily ignored ads more clicks -- and to make more money, of course.

The social network today confirmed that it is conducting a small test in the U.S. and showing some users advertisements with bigger images. The new ad unit is a tweaked version of the standard "marketplace ads," or the ads you see in the right-hand column, and is distinct from the ads you find in the News Feed. … Read more

Apparently advertising really works. Well, at least if it contains a nerdy geek making out with a blonde model.

Web hosting company Go Daddy announced yesterday that it had its biggest Super Bowl sales day ever after its infamous ad aired on Sunday. The site got more new customers and overall sales than after any of its other Super Bowl campaigns.

"Attracting new customers is what advertising is all about," Go Daddy CEO Blake Irving said in a statement. "We set all-time Super Bowl Sunday records for mobile sales, Website Builders, website hosting and new customers." … Read more

Google has won a landmark advertising case in Australia with a ruling that the Web giant was not responsible for misleading advertising that ran on its site.

The five judges of Australia's High Court unanimously ruled Wednesday that Google did not violate trade laws by allowing companies to purchase AdWords related to competitors' names. The decision overturned a Federal Court's ruling last April that found four advertisements purchased on the site between March 2006 and July 2007 were misleading and in violation of Australia's Trade Practices Act 1974.

Google appealed the decision, arguing that it was merely … Read more

The first time I saw GoDaddy's geek-smooching supermodel ad during the Super Bowl, I silently cheered for the curly-headed geek in a "Revenge of the Nerds" sort of way. The second time the ad came on, I was reading Super Bowl articles on my iPad and only heard the lascivious slurping sound effects. Ewww.

This got me thinking. We're supposed to root for the geek who gets the hot girl. We know the woman in the ad, Bar Rafaeli, is a real supermodel. Is the actor, Jesse Heiman, a real geek? Let's investigate.… Read more

"To the curious, inquisitive, the seekers of knowledge."

So began one Super Bowl ad last night. It smacked of more than a little philosophical grandeur.

It continued: "To the ones who just want to know." Well, this had to be something big, something portentous. This had to be a tech company, surely.

With another line, I had no doubts: "To the rebels, the artists, and the free-thinkers and the innovators."

Yes, soon would appear images of Gandhi, Muhammad Ali and, um, Mark Zuckerberg. It was all going to end with an image of Steve … Read more

America has a relationship with sex that can best be described as uncomfortable.

Over the years, the wily manipulators at Go Daddy have tried to soothe -- or, for some, exacerbate -- this discomfort with various sexual exploits at Super Bowl time.

This year is no exception.

For the company has decided to offer an ad in which Bar Refaeli kisses a nerd who is not quite as pulchritudinous as herself.

Which nerd could be?

The point of this is clearly strategic. Go Daddy as a brand is both sexy and nerdy. Of course it is.

And of course certain … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Tumblr sits alongside the Internet elites in terms of audience, but the 5-year-old blogging medium has lagged far behind the likes of Facebook and Twitter in the money-making department. That could all change in 2013 as the social site pushes forward on a more aggressive strategy to get big brands to pay top dollar to reach its highly influential community.

Derek Gottfrid, vice president of product at Tumblr, told CNET that the company has seen a ton on inbound interest on its Tumblr Radar and Spotlight ad units, first launched in limited release in May of last year.

"… Read more

California's attorney general issued long-promised guidelines on mobile privacy today. The "Privacy on the Go (PDF)" report address the varied interests in smartphone and mobile app development, including app developers, carriers, ad networks, and operating system makers.

"We are now offering this set of privacy practice recommendations to assist app developers, and others, in considering privacy early in the development process," Attorney General Kamala Harris wrote in an introduction to the guidelines.

Sarah Downey, online privacy analyst at online privacy firm Abine, agreed that it's important to get the various mobile interests focused on … Read more