WebProNews

US Senate's Response To Online Privacy Laws For Advertising

The US Senate is holding a series of hearings on online advertising, behavioral targeting and privacy to determine whether they should consider legislation protecting consumers online in these areas. The Senate has turned to Google, Microsoft, the FTC, Facebook, privacy watchdogs and others for their opinions in the matter. Some, like Google, welcomed a “comprehensive privacy law that would establish a uniform framework for privacy and procedures to punish bad actors.”

Facebook's Value Is Decreasing

If you’ve forgotten, just nine months ago, Microsoft purchased a 1.6% stake in Facebook for $240 million. Doing the math from that, the total value of Facebook last October was $15B.

Google Testing a Social iGoogle

If you haven’t tried iGoogle, Google’s personalized homepage, you’re not alone. But Google’s looking to spiff up their customizable homepages and testing has already begun, as Google Operating System reports—and it looks like they’re trying to make our foretelling of iGoogle as social network come true.

Teens Only Spend 11.5 Hours Online Per Week

Who knew? A study by OTX finds that on average teens (aged 13-17) spend 11.5 hours online a week (yep, not a day . . . no comment on how many hours I spend online a day. . . .). Nearly a quarter of teens spend over 15 hours online per week, while 45% spent eight hours or less online.

Yahoo and Google - How Bad is it?

It’s time for another edition of Good Idea/Bad Idea! Good idea: Making more money. Bad idea: Making more by admitting that you suck and your competition is so good at this that you’ll let them make the money for you. Actually, other than the “admitting you suck and your competition is so good,” that doesn’t sound like an entirely bad idea, does it? I mean, using the competition to increase your profits could potentially be a good thing.

Content Creators Showing Ads On YouTube

At the annual shareholder meeting a month ago, Google promised new YouTube ad formats that would be neither pre-roll or post-roll.

The Battle For "SEO Trademark" Wages On

Just when you thought it was over: May 19 was the deadline for the man who would be SEO trademark holder to respond to notices of opposition to his trademark application (which were filed by SEOmoz, Arteworks, Beanstalk Search Engine Positioning, SEO.com, Jonathan Hochman, and Rhea Drysdale). Sarah Bird, Esq., of SEOmoz filed for default judgment in the case on Tuesday.

Facebook's New Profile Design

Come on, you know you have those Facebook friends whose profile pages look like their MySpace exploded: their profile takes forever to load, their page is six “page downs” long (well, longer, but you’ve never actually made it to the bottom) and they never met an app they didn’t like. Well, Facebook is trying to do something about that.

YouTube Receives Demographic Stats

Hot on the heels of yesterday’s “buzz targeting” advertising announcement from YouTube, the video hosting service has another feature announcement. Back in March, YouTube began offering free stats to video owners about the popularity of their videos.