Online Advertising

Google has become the subject of a series of withering articles calling it out for violating its own advertising policies. The company reportedly has run sponsored marketing ads for its Chrome browser using techniques that last year's Panda algorithm change was designed to prohibit. The paid sponsor...

Traditionally, online advertising was viewed primarily as a direct-response vehicle. However, the growing use of data to define and deliver audience targeting means it now can have an impact on all levels of the purchasing funnel -- from fostering awareness to reaching consumers at the ideal interse...

Google and Mozilla have reupped their search revenue agreement. Under the new three-year plan, Google Search will continue to be the default search provider for Firefox users. Given Google's clear desire to push Chrome into the top ranks of the browser market, it would seem counterintuitive for it...

In May 2011, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada released a report based on a consultation process for online tracking, profiling and targeting of advertisers, and cloud computing. The goal was to engage the public on recent technological advancements and privacy complications in behavioral advertisi...

AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo are joining forces to sell unused online ads to each other, a position designed to combat the growing market dominance of Google and Facebook. The partnership will allow the companies to buy and sell each other's online inventory of ads. The companies are interested in uppin...

Google might soon quit surprising you with ridiculously off-target ads in your search results and Gmail. Or, you may finally find out how they deliver ads that are strikingly right-on. The search leader has announced an upcoming feature called "Why These Ads?" The company will also launch an Ads Pre...

There's a new social network in town -- Chime.in, the brainchild of Bill Gross, known for creating Google's AdWords platform. Gross is the CEO of UberMedia, the developer of popular Twitter clients Echofon and Ubersocial. Chime.in launched as a public beta on Tuesday and will fully launch in Novemb...

Victims bilked of their money by fake online ads are not the only ones hurt. "Blatant fraud, like the fake-news diet promotions and other online scams that have sprouted in recent years, only serves to undermine consumer confidence and eventually marketers and business as a whole," said attorney Bil...

3D marketing is powerful -- and even more so, when it's delivered to the palm of your hand. Mobile 3D is becoming an increasingly common way of grabbing, holding, and entertaining consumers. From using current mobile technologies to create a sense of 3D, to creating actual images that seem to pop of...

You've seen the ad a thousand times on the Internet: "1 Tip for a Tiny Belly" says the hand-lettered headline above the crudely drawn swelling-and-shrinking belly. "Cut down a bit of your belly everyday following this one weird tip," it goes on to say. If starvation caused by having funds continuous...

A new ad sales pact between Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL has the tech companies teaming up against a common enemy, Google. By selling ad inventory on each other's sites, the three aim to hang onto ad revenue that previously was lost to third-party networks. Their goal is to convince big Web properties t...

When Google settled with the U.S. Department of Justice for $500 million over accusations that it allowed Canadian pharmaceutical companies to illegally place ads on its network, it may have thought its troubles with this issue were over. It was wrong. A shareholder has filed suit against the compa...

Internet radio service Pandora announced its first results as a publicly traded company on Thursday. Quarterly revenues totaled $67 million, 117 percent up year over year, and listener hours hit a new high of 1.8 billion, up 125 percent YoY, Pandora said. Advertising revenue more than doubled, from ...

Google has agreed to a $500 million settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice for allowing online Canadian pharmacies to place ads through its AdWords program targeting consumers in the United States. The ads resulted in the illegal importation of controlled and non-controlled prescription dru...

A social network makes changes to its privacy policy. Shortly thereafter, users are shocked to see their names and photos appear in in-house ads. For example, an ad promoting the services of a local printer might include the faces of three "followers" of that particular company. Is this Facebook pri...