WebProNews

McCain Buys Up Online Ads
By Doug Caverly · July 10, 2007 · 1

We’ve said it time and time again: in the 2008 presidential campaign, the Web will play a major role. But as new numbers come out concerning Web ad buying, we’re getting a clearer idea of how the candidates have responded to the online world.

Be Wary Of Free Credit Report Sites
By Mike Sachoff · July 10, 2007 · 3

There are a number of Web sites that heavily advertise "free" credit reports and charge consumers for services they probably do not need, according to a Consumer Reports WebWatch study.

New Reports Added To AdCenter
By WebProNews Staff · July 6, 2007

Microsoft’s AdCenter has placed click quality reports in their service for campaign managers to review for their advertising efforts.

Most eBay Users Satisfied
By Mike Sachoff · July 3, 2007 · 1

Seventy percent of consumers who made purchases on eBay in the last year were highly satisfied with their experience according to a new survey from Consumer Reports.

Google Engineers Join VC Firm
By Andy Beal · June 21, 2007

How would you like to get paid to just sit around and give some thought to what start-up you’d like to do next? Sounds good to me, and it must have sounded pretty enticing to Bret Taylor and Jim Norris, two of the engineers behind Google Maps, as they’ve left Google to join venture capital firm Benchmark Capital.

Why Decker isn’t the CEO of Yahoo…
By Robert Scoble · June 19, 2007

So, just before interviewing Sun Microsystems’ DTrace team today (that’s a photo of them) I got a call from a source. He said “Semel is out. Yang is taking over.”

Why Did Terry Semel Get $107.5 Million?
By Nathan Weinberg · June 14, 2007

Douglas McIntyre reports that two consulting firms have analyzed Yahoo CEO Terry Semel’s compensation package and determined that Yahoo shareholders should consider revolting.

Google Courting More Students With Email
By WebProNews Staff · June 13, 2007

Google’s serious about creating relationships with the greater Academia – its founders were collegiate all-stars building printers out of Legos, and of course badly-named search engines (Google was once called BackRub, we imagine because that was Larry Page’s best pickup line) – ahem, as more and more universities turn their email systems over to the search engine company.

Google Shows Who’s Selling Cheap Quality Links
By Aaron Wall · June 13, 2007

Google recently added the ability for you to report link buyers, which is probably nothing more than a mind control game and a complete waste of time. I recently saw what looked like obvious link buying by Discovery.com. Do you think Google would do anything about it if I reported them? Nope.

AdWords Gets Content Placement Reports
By WebProNews Staff · June 12, 2007 · 1

Google announced today the addition of Placement Performance reports to AdWords, which allows advertisers to see exactly which sites their ads are appearing.

The World Thinks Google’s Big Brother
By Andy Beal · June 11, 2007

There’s a lot of buzzing in the blogosphere right now (you can read Jordan’s coverage here), as it appears Google is under fire again for its privacy policies. AP reports that London-based Privacy International has issued a study of 23 internet companies, with Google coming out dead-last. In fact no other company studied, received the same low rating.

Google Gets Secure With GreenBorder
By Doug Caverly · May 29, 2007

Had another company done this, it might have seemed silly; it might have been called a lost opportunity. But for GreenBorder, staying out of the spotlight was a rather impressive feat; you see, the security company was acquired by Google, and it then kept word from spreading for almost two weeks.

Google Gets Secure With GreenBorder

Absolute Gobbledegook
By James Cherkoff · May 8, 2007

Everyone knows that in marketing the really big dollars are shepherded around by the media boys, the likes of Mindshare and Starcom.

Microsoft Mixes it Up
By Robert Scoble · May 1, 2007

I’ve posted a few of the best posts from the floor of Mix to my link blog. I didn’t post much news myself, instead have been listening to developers up in the BlogZone about what they think to get a feeling of how well Microsoft’s announcements are going over with attendees.

Contextual Ads Added to Ask Sponsored Listings
By Andy Beal · April 25, 2007

The 30,000 advertisers using Ask Sponsored Listings just received a new channel for displaying their ads as IAC has announced the launch of a contextual advertising channel.

Most Blogs Have Offensive Content
By Jordan McCollum · April 25, 2007

PC World reports on Scansafe’s Monthly Global Threat Report for March 2007, which states that up to 80% of blogs contain “offensive” content. This includes porn, offensive language, hate posting, and malware—6% hosted active malware.

PC World describes the methodology behind the report:

Did Doubleclick Turn Down Microsoft Money?
By Robert Scoble · April 23, 2007

John Battelle reports that Microsoft was actually offering more money than Google was for Doubleclick and that Doubleclick went with Google anyway.

Honeymoon Over for Social Networks?
By Jordan McCollum · April 23, 2007

MediaPost reports on an In-Stat report that says the honeymoon is over for social networks. It’s time to root, hog, or die: “They need to start generating revenue now or bow out of the race, according to a new report from In-Stat. ‘In order for a social networking site to be successful, it must attain a critical mass, and competition is fierce to attract new members,’ said In-Stat analyst Jill Meyers.”

Google Ranking News With General Search Results
By Navneet Kaushal · April 20, 2007

Google is starting to integrate news results into standard web search results which will eventually mean the end of OneBox results. Under the OneBox scheme of search result display, news links were placed at the top of general search results in a neat cluster.

The Crowd Reports on Virginia Tech
By Mathew Ingram · April 17, 2007

As horrific as the circumstances at Virginia Tech were, as a journalist it was fascinating to watch the information about the shootings filter out through the students and faculty at the college, by way cellphones and webcams, blogs and Facebook accounts, Flickr photos and LiveJournal updates. The Wikipedia page was updated minute by minute (the page of edits makes for interesting reading). Another example of “crowdsourcing” the news.

Google Signs Deal with Clear Channel
By Andy Beal · April 16, 2007

Since the end of last year, we’ve suspected that Google has been hard at work, trying to negotiate a big deal for its Google Audio Ads. Back in November reports surfaced that Google was looking to buy $1 billion in radio advertising from Clear Channel Communications.