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Adsense

online advertising

Google's Ad Planner no threat to Nielsen, ComScore

Media buyers and major publishers say that despite ComScore shareholders' worries, Google's Ad Planner, which provides Web metrics and demographic data to online advertisers, won't dislodge Web-traffic measurement leader ComScore or its rival Nielsen. “[Google needs] to add so many things, it’s not even a consideration at this point,” Mediasmith CEO David Smith told Mediaweek. “It’s absolutely not ready for prime time.” And publishers say Ad Planner won't provide advertisers a more accurate look at their inventories. “Their numbers are as bad or worse as anybody else’s out there,” Forbes.com CEO Jim Spanfeller said. So why bother? Google just wants advertisers to pay more attention to the sites it reps through its AdSense network.

online advertising

Why doesn't Facebook serve contextual ads against messages?

When our video producer, Richard Blakeley, sent me an invite to the Belmont stakes this weekend, a link appeared below his message. It read: More »

security

Google's Blogger flooded by spammers

Over the last few months, wily spammers may have figured out how to crack the security feature known as "captchas." With an army of compromised Windows PCs known as botnets, they've been using their new power to flood Google's Blogger with spam. Why Blogger? More »

deals

Is Slide worth half a billion? Only if Facebook buys them

In January a pair of money managers, Fidelity and T. Rowe Price, bought 9.1 percent of Slide for $50 million. Fortune asks, "Are these widgets worth half a billion?" The mag doesn't come up with anything more than "maybe," but I'm willing to go a little further. Slide worth $550 million? No, despite its huge traffic numbers. While it's true that advertisers are desperate to reach the 18-24 market, I hardly think SuperPoke is what they had in mind. More »

i hate it here

Googlers vent: Working here sucks, too

Last quarter, Google hired 889 people, bringing the total headcount to 16,805. What do all these new employees do? Stab each other in the back, apparently. A tipster writes: "The management within Google, especially AdWords and AdSense (the money making machines of the entire company ... engineering gets the glory but advertising brings in the big bucks) are completely disorganized and chaotic (in a BAD way- because Google sometimes tries to spin the whole 'chaotic' thing in a good way)." There's much more: More »

online advertising

Glam Media raises $84 million, far short of its $200 million goal

Glam Media, the women-focused ad network, has raised $84.6 million, leaving the company valued at a rich $500 million. That still falls short of founder Samir Arora's hopes: According to a private-placement document circulating last year, he was seeking $200 million. Why'd he fall short? More »

online advertising

26 million publishers commit click fraud -- get over it

Fraudulent clicks accounted for 28.3 percent of all clicks on ad networks like Google's AdSense and the Yahoo Publisher Network during the fourth quarter of 2007. After some approximations, Freakonomics puts the number of publishers who are theoretically complicit in click fraud as high as 26 million. Which means advertisers need to get over it. Buy ads on a cost-per-action basis, where you only pay when clickers turn into buyers. Or do your own math and discount what you pay for a click accordingly — which is, in effect, what Google, Yahoo, and the like are already doing to publishers. Whining about the problem gives zero ROI. (Photo by Jason Upshaw)

hackers

Trojan targets Google's AdSense revenue

Google is the target of a trojan that could be more damaging than the worm that has affected literally dozens of Orkut users. This new trojan, however, hits Google where it hurts — its ever-swelling advertising revenues. It redirects Web ads from the AdSense program to a rival ad provider. Bitdefender, the Romanian security-software maker which identified the trojan, does not specify who is serving these third-party ads or how the trojan is propagating. Researchers do say that Google may be powerless to stop the attack, because the malware affects personal computers, not the company's ad servers. Google is unlikely to lose substantial sums, but the search giant cannot enjoy being this helpless. No wonder it's pushing antivirus software.

conflicts of interest

ChaCha turns Indiana University into its billboard

Hoosier-powered search engine Chacha is turning to an unlikely source to fund its already cozy deal with Indiana University. Chacha is introducing Google AdSense ads to the university's search results. ChaCha already features both Google and Yahoo ads as sponsored links, on its public search, but until recently IU had a strict policy against advertising: More »

toogle many googlers

Another Googler takes credit for AdSense

Fortune is reporting that Google engineer Gokul Rajaram is leaving the Googleplex for a stab at his own company. Rajaram's greatest achievement? Oh, this little thing called AdSense, you heard of it? The ad system that places Google ads on blogs and Web 2.0 apps, keeping them financially viable against all business logic? After being hired in 2003, Rajaram supposedly worked to create the ad publishing network which now brings in, Fortune writes, "one-third of Google's revenue." Let's get this straight, people. More »

scams

How to get real Google bucks from fake press releases

Phony press releases have become the grist for the newest Internet profit mills. If you're like Chris Anderson and us, you don't read press releases. But several tech blogs were taken in by a dubious press release issued by a nonexistent company allegedly backed by real investors who may or may not have invested in several fake companies. Huh? Exactly. How the scam was uncovered, how it works, and how to avoid falling victim after the jump. More »

Google has changed the clickable area within AdSense ads to include just the title and the url of the ad, rather than the entire ad box. This should raise the value of ad clicks in the long run by reducing the likelihood of accidental clicks. [Google Blogoscoped]

online advertising

Facebook SocialAds revealed!

Facebook updated its code over the weekend and, according to reports, Facebook's much-anticipated SocialAds are now officially part of the ones and zeroes. Based on the updates, Allfacebook created this mock-up of what a SocialAd might look like. Hmm. Looks like an ad. Here's a more revealing shot. More »

facebook

Ad networks evolve from Facebook's primordial ooze

Ignoring the perfectly good solution we cooked up in Valleywag Labs, AdBrite and Ad Chap went to market with products for Facebook applications yesterday. AdBrite cofounder Philip Kaplan told CNET that the company already powers the ads on popular apps such as iLike and Zombies. The program is supposed to help tailor those ads better for the social environment. Google is working to do the same thing for developers using AdSense on their apps. Ad Chap's service, itself a Facebook application, is entirely new. Why it's unlikely to work? Ad Chap charges advertisers per click, but doesn't offer any targeting. For right now, there's a proliferation of ad networks on Facebook, but we suspect Darwin will soon cull the herd.

online advertising

Google silent on major AdSense bug

Google's system for placing ads on other websites, AdSense, is experiencing a significant bug at exactly the wrong time. Microsoft has dominated media coverage all week with its investment in Facebook, with the promise of precisely targeted ads. Meanwhile, the search giant has been toiling since last Friday to resolve errors in how AdSense reports ad "channel" data since Friday. ("Channels" allow publishers who run AdSense to track ad performance in detail.) Google's silence has done little to assuage the complaints of AdSense users. Google's only comment came on Monday from the quasi-anonymous "AdSense Advisor": More »

"Is GOOG Shafting Its AdSense Partners?" Yes. Next question? Google paid out 2 percent less — from 78.6 percent to 76.7 percent — of AdSense revenue to partners this quarter compared to last. [SiliconValleyWatcher]

venture capital

Facebook developers and AdSense publishers need not apply

Josh Kopelman sold Half.com to eBay in 2000. Since then, he founded First Round Capital and sold StumbleUpon for $75 million, again to eBay. BusinessWeek's Kerry Miller got Kopelman to complain about three ideas he tired of seeing from startups.
More »

Has Facebook already cut a deal with Google? A French blog notes that Facebook, locked in negotiations with Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo for an investment combined with an international-advertising deal, is already carrying Google's AdSense ads. It could be a test to see if Google's ads are lucrative enough to be worth the terms the search giant is offering — or just a stopgap measure to make money before a formal deal is struck. [Adscriptor]