Internet & Media

Facebook unveils new ad-targeting features

Corrected at 9 p.m. PDT: An earlier version of this story mischaracterized Nick O'Neill's relationship with Facebook. O'Neill works for AllFacebook.com, which has no official relationship with the social network.

Facebook has announced new ad-targeting features that allow advertisers to expand their target location radius.

Facebook told advertisers Wednesday that they will be allowed to expand the radius of their target audience by a specific number of miles. Whereas advertisers could target Washington, D.C., now they will be able to expand their sphere by adding 10, 25, or 50 miles to their target radius. … Read more

CNBC spat mints online hits for Stewart and Colbert

So either Jon Stewart is really on to something with his mad-as-hell crusade against financial hypocrisy and stupidity, or there are a lot of unemployed people watching Comedy Central clips to pass the time.

Either way, an on-air freakout by CNBC reporter Rick Santelli may have been one of the best things to happen to Comedy Central in months: Fake-news pundits Stewart (of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart") and Stephen Colbert (of "The Colbert Report") have seen traffic to their Web sites and online video clips soar after the two went on mocking vendettas against … Read more

Greystripe raises additional $5.5 million in venture capital

Greystripe announced Wednesday it raised $5.5 million in a third round of venture capital funding as it seeks to gain traction for its ad-supported mobile game advertising network.

Incubic Venture capital led the round, which included additional existing investors Monitor Ventures and Walt Disney Co.-backed Steamboat Ventures.

Greystripe has raised a total of $15.6 million to date, last raising a second round of $8.9 million in May 2007 and a $1.2 million first round in October 2006. The company declined to discuss whether its latest round was at a higher or lower valuation.

The start-up … Read more

Google ads go behavioral

This was originally posted at ZDNet's Between the Lines.

Google said Wednesday that it will show ads to people based on their habits. This behavioral targeting is designed to make ads more "interesting," according to Google.

In a blog post, Google said (Techmeme):

Google has worked hard to create technology that makes the advertising on our own sites, and those of our partners, as relevant as possible. To date, we have shown ads based mainly on what your interests are at a specific moment. So if you search for [digital camera] on Google, you'll get ads … Read more

For The New York Times, the digital future is now

SAN JOSE, Calif.--By now, just about everyone who follows the media industry has heard of the deep fiscal troubles of The New York Times. But even as the paper does its best for all the news that's fit for newsprint, it is also conducting experiments aimed at moving itself into the forefront of digital journalism.

At the Emerging Technologies conference (ETech) on Tuesday, Nick Bilton, the design integration editor and user interface specialist at the Times' research and development lab, spoke about "sensors, smart content, and the future of news," essentially a recap of some of … Read more

Another $10.5 million for Auditude's video ads

Auditude, a video advertising company best known for technology that can identify clients' video content and run ads against it, has raised a $10.5 million Series B funding round from Redpoint Ventures and existing investor Greylock Partners. This brings the company's total funding to $23 million.

Last time we checked in with Auditude, the company had inked a deal with News Corp.'s MySpace and Viacom's MTV Networks to detect both official and user-uploaded MTV content on the social network's MySpaceTV platform. It was seen by many as a savvy antipiracy measure. Since then, Auditude has … Read more

Radiohead, Billy Bragg join fray against YouTube

Update 6:30 p.m.: To include insight on from industry sources.

The fight between YouTube and a U.K. music royalties group appears to be heating up as Radiohead, Billy Bragg, and Robbie Williams have come out against YouTube.

Williams, KT Tunstall, and the members of the rock band Radiohead will meet Wednesday with other marquee music performers to protest "at how badly they are treated by record companies and music streaming Web sites like YouTube," according to a report in the Times Online, a U.K. publication. The artists will gather as part of a newly … Read more

Lawmaker wants Google Maps to blur certain buildings

Imagine if all the hospitals, schools, churches, and government buildings that appear on online maps were nothing but blurs.

That would not only reduce the usefulness of things like Google Maps and Google Earth, but it would be a huge undertaking for Google and would probably violate the First Amendment.

But that's exactly what California Assemblyman Joel Anderson, a Republican from El Cajon, is proposing in a measure dubbed "AB-255."

The measure would apply to Web site operators and online services that make "a virtual globe browser available to members of the public" and fails … Read more

Music rights group calls new talks with YouTube 'positive'

A day after YouTube announced the Google-owned video site would no longer stream music videos within the United Kingdom, the Performance Right Society said talks on Tuesday between the group and YouTube were "positive."

PRS collects royalties on behalf of the music industry in the U.K. On Monday, YouTube announced that the Web's largest video site and the collections agency couldn't reach a deal on licensing fees. Talks continue and the parties are scheduled to meet over the next few days, according to a PRS statement.

"We are committed to ensuring our 60,000 … Read more