AdWords

Google plans to integrate more of its services into the Google Apps platform, which lets businesses use the company's Web-based tools within their own custom domains.

Google Apps already incorporates several core office productivity applications, such as Docs, Gmail, and Calendar. Starting this summer, these will be joined by Blogger, Picasa, Reader, and AdWords, the Google Enterprise team said in a blog post Thursday.

"Co-workers will be able to publish their organization's blog on Blogger, share project images with Picasa Web Albums, track industry news in Google Reader, advertise online with AdWords and much more, all without … Read more

Another lawsuit challenging Google's policy of allowing AdWords advertisers to bid on keywords that are also trademarks has been dismissed.

Without comment, Judge Gerald Lee of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia threw out a lawsuit Wednesday filed by language software company Rosetta Stone in a victory for Google before it ever came to trial. Rosetta Stone had originally filed suit hoping to stop Google from selling trademarked keywords to companies that did not hold the rights to those trademarks, a practice which Rosetta Stone argued has confused consumers and harmed its brand.

Similar cases have been filed … Read more

Google is giving its customers more chances to reach their audience, which means you won't be seeing things if you're wondering why that same ad keeps appearing.

"Remarketing" is what Google is calling it, the new ability for Google advertisers to target customers who have visited their Web page with ads for their goods and services on other Web pages across the Google Content Network, which Google claims reaches 80 percent of the world's Internet users. Google provided the example of a basketball team who could show ads for discount tickets to Web surfers on … Read more

If you rely on a compelling service that happens to be free, what level of customer support are you entitled to receive?

Google is trying to figure that out. Known for using brilliant engineers, complex algorithms and speedy servers to organize online information in a simple and accessible fashion, Google is learning how to add the human touch to its repertoire as customers look for answers that can't be found on an FAQ.

Not surprisingly, not everyone is happy with the results. Some advertisers have been complaining about Google's Web-page-first approach to customer service issues for years, with … Read more

An adviser to the European Union has sided with Google in the company's battle with Louis Vuitton and others over alleged trademark infringement.

The search giant is fighting a lawsuit in the European courts against several companies that claim Google is infringing on their trademarks by allowing advertisers to buy keywords that match those trademarks.

Led by LVMH's Louis Vuitton, the companies are upset that makers of imitation items can buy those keywords through Google's AdWords, allowing their products to pop up in searches alongside the genuine article.

But in a statement released by the European Court … Read more

Google is testing a new ad format that could shake up the familiar look and feel of a Google search page.

A select group of Google advertisers in the U.S. is being given the opportunity to try out so-called "product ads" that will let them put an awful lot more information in their ad than fits inside the current text-ad boxes on Google search pages. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Google has confirmed the testing, which won't replace text ads but could allow Google to test the effectiveness of a different bidding system for … Read more

Google's love-hate relationship with the advertisers that pay its bills could hit another rocky patch following its latest AdWords policy change.

Google announced Thursday night that starting next month it would begin allowing certain companies to purchase advertisements that use trademarks--even ones they don't own--in the text of their ads on Google search results. Previously, Google hadn't allowed anyone but the trademark owner to use a trademark in the text of an ad, but the search giant reversed course, saying "we believe that this change will help both our users and advertisers by reducing the number … Read more

About a month after an appeals court revived a trademark lawsuit over Google's keyword sales, another suit has surfaced in Texas.

Ars Technica spotted Firepond's lawsuit, filed Monday in Texas, against Google over whether Google should be allowed to sell keywords bearing a company's trademark to its competitors. A similar suit involving PC support company Rescuecom was brought back to life in April by an appeals court after initially being dismissed in 2006.

The issue is whether Coke, for example, should be allowed to buy keywords such as Pepsi and place ads for Coke products on searches … Read more

Google has settled a lawsuit filed by advertisers who claimed they were charged for more ads through the AdWords system than they had agreed to pay for.

Under the settlement, two named plaintiffs will each receive $20,000, other marketers will get ad credits and Google agreed to pay the plaintiffs' lawyers more than $5 million, according to MediaPost.

The lawsuit, filed in 2005 in Santa Clara Superior Court in California, named as plaintiffs printing company CLRB Hanson Industries of Minnesota and Howard Stern of New Jersey (no relation to the radio personality). It alleged that Google misrepresented what constitutes … Read more