Besides being the co-founder of the site, he was also the former publisher and CEO of ClickZ, which was acquired by INT Media Group in 2000. In ’97, Bourland, along with Ann Handley, founded ClickZ as "an online publication to cover the fledging Internet advertising and marketing sector."

"I got to know Andy from numerous telephone conversations shortly after he founded ClickZ," WebProNews Publisher Rich Ord tells me. "I had just founded NewsLinx the year before and we were both looking at ways to make our respective sites more successful. Andy was one of the original great Internet business visionaries and will be missed."

Before launching ClickZ, Bourland was involved with the launch of the Andover.net network, which was later acquired by VA Linux. Before that, he spent 15 years in high-tech sales.

Bourland also ran Bourland.com, his blog where he covered topics like blogging itself and various forms of marketing and entrepreneurship (he has an archive of articles at ClickZ as well). Back in November, Bourland announced his condition and chronicled his remaining time at the blog. His last post before the blog was taken over by family members discussed the details about his decision on whether he wanted to spend his last days in his own home or in a Hospice Residence.

We at WebProNews would like to express our condolences to Andrew’s family and friends. He will be missed by many. More here.

And of those people, 76% didn’t mind seeing ads when they logged in to social media sites including Facebook and MySpace. This percentage is surprisingly large, perhaps so much so that this response is what prompted Razorfish to conclude:

Content, in our view, will become advertising.

Well, I suppose that’s a better outlook than advertising will become content.

The Razorfish study also found that, according to ClickZ:

In the report the agency explains it was surprised to find 91 percent of respondents use Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL, and Ask.com as their Internet homepages. Over 60 percent of these people have customized their homepages with content feeds and widgets. The report notes 55 percent said they use widgets with some frequency and 62 percent use them on sites such as Facebook and iGoogle.

The researchers found that, while those who view online videos don’t mind the presence of advertising, they prefer banners and “newer, emerging forms of video” ads including tickers and interstitials to pre-roll video ads.

If, as Razorfish predicts, content and advertising will merge, some brands are already gearing up for that. 32% of online retailers based in the US have a presence on Facebook, 27% on MySpace and 26% on YouTube, according to a study by Internet Retailer and Vovici (via).

As of September, in a study of 100 brands by Rosetta, 59 had Facebook Pages, too. While this advent may be indicative of the merging of content and advertising, Adam Cohen, partner with Rosetta’s consumer goods and retail practice cautioned:

It’s important that retailers don’t just slap up a page because everyone is talking about Facebook. An effective presence requires that you carefully consider what your customers are looking for, what you would like to communicate, and what role a fan page should play in your overall online strategy.

What do you think—will content be the new advertising? And how can a Facebook Page play into that?

Comments