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AdPerk: Get paid to watch

"You won't see this on TV," Barry Soicher, CEO of AdPerk told me as he fired up his demo. AdPerk is a company that helps magazine publishers make more money, by putting its advertisers' videos in front of readers and potential subscribers. Readers also get paid (after a fashion) to watch the vids.

From the user's perspective, it works like this: on the magazine's Web site, you're given a pitch to "Watch and be Rewarded." You're presented with a collection of videos, and can select which ones you want to watch. … Read more

Apple logo--a real buzz kill

I found myself at a friend's birthday party July 4 eve with a bunch of San Francisco hipsters celebrating the fact that the next day was a holiday.

Downstairs, DJs were spinning techno and break beats; upstairs was a mellower scene. The attic of this historic home in the Presidio had been turned into the ultimate chill pad, the floors covered in futons and faux-fur throws, lamps throwing colored light on the ceiling; a carefully chosen ambient selection drifting from iTunes. On a big screen, the interactive iTunes Visualizer was warping the music into beautiful swirls of color and … Read more

Google on 'Sicko' criticism--'We blew it'

Last weekend a corporate Google blog raised a stink by blasting Michael Moore's new documentary, Sicko, and offering to help the health care industry defend itself with Google ads.

The blog posting generated much justified criticism in the blogosphere, and within a few days the blog writer wrote another blog entry clarifying that the opinion was hers alone and not the company's.

The criticism of Google was so harsh and unexpected that the search giant also addressed the matter in its main corporate blog. It's not so much an apology as a defense of its actions: "… Read more

Under the Radar: Video ads are here, now what?

Advertising is an important part of the Internet, but how are content creators and advertisers going to come together to start making money off videos? At Under the Radar this morning four new Web 2.0 advertising companies that specialize in video are trying to figure that out.

Adap.tv is an online video advertising platform that looks at the context of a video to place advertisements. Almost like Google's contextual AdSense program, Adapt.tv reads a video's metadata to figure out what the video is about before serving up an ad that (hopefully) is related. Ads pop … Read more

Craigslister offers to scare people out of iPhone line

A San Francisco Craigslist posting is offering to supply "diversions" that will allow buyers to cut in line for the iPhone, and sadly, we're afraid he might not be joking.

"Why pay someone else big $$$ to wait in line if the only thing between you and the front of the line is a good diversion?" the post asks, claiming to come from a trademarked company called "Over Here, Jerks." "Our tactics are guaranteed to be safe, effective and even humorous!"

Photos accompanying the posting include a giant clown bicycle, a scary-looking … Read more

Internet advertising: Going up, up, up

More advertising dollars are flowing to the Internet, in a trend that started years ago. Advertising Age has come out with its annual look at the United States top-100 advertising spenders. There are few surprises, but it's confirmation of what you've probably been seeing and expecting. Internet ads now account for 5.5 percent of total spending by the top 100 advertisers in the U.S. That adds up to nearly $10 billion, and the Internet's about even with radio and ahead of outdoor.

What are the biggest losers? TV's share of ad spending has been … Read more

Marchex spawns 100,000 local search sites

Seattle-based Marchex is launching more than 100,000 Web sites on Wednesday that are designed to serve as online yellow pages for all types of services and covering all of the United States. They also offer targeted ads.

There are more than 15 million business listings across more than 20,000 categories, everything from suntan parlors and auto repair to pest control and baby sitters. Sites run the gamut from the general to the specific based on city and category, such as: www.cuisine.com, www.podiatrist.com, www.dallasdoctors.com and www.90210.com.

Unlike many online business listing … Read more

Video ads from Blinkx

Video search site Blinkx is launching on Monday a service to allow Web site publishers to put contextually relevant text or video ads alongside or in video clips. The new AdHoc video ad platform uses speech recognition and looks at metadata in the clips and ads to match them up. For instance, the system would know to put a Home Depot ad with a video showing how to redecorate a kitchen. Separately, Blinkx is announcing that it will be powering the video search for the new RealPlayer, as well as powering video search for Infospace and extending a distribution deal … Read more

Buy AT&T/Yahoo DSL and get... e-mail ads!

Customers paying for AT&T and Yahoo's co-branded DSL service are outraged about ads that started showing up over the last few weeks that take up quite a bit of real estate on the page. A chunky "skyscraper" ad now runs up and down the right side of the page. There have always been ads on Yahoo's free Web-based e-mail service, but paying customers say the monthly fees they pay should be enough to spare them the advertising.

"AT&T Yahoo has inserted advertising into every corner and crevice of the AT&… Read more