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TruEffect dumps ad cookies in marketer's lap

A Colorado-based start-up is launching on Tuesday an online advertising service that gives marketers control over the information about how customers interact with the ads instead of sending it to third-party ad-serving companies.

TruEffect's DirectServe platform delivers advertisements from within a Web sub-domain of the advertiser. For instance, TruEffect could serve ads from "media.safeway.com."

The cookie data about who clicks on the ad and other information about viewer activity goes directly to the advertiser, who can use it for analytics and ad-targeting purposes, instead of going to a third-party ad server.

"Only the advertiser … Read more

Googlers: Old media's not dead, it just has to be Google-ized

NEW YORK--Just how much will Mountain View invade Madison Avenue?

Several hundred New Yorkers involved in advertising and marketing packed a room in Google's Chelsea offices here Monday night to find out. A panel of Google advertising employees, moderated by sponsor Mimeo Vice President Jeff Grill individually addressed the crowd at the January installment of the New York Advertising Club's bimonthly meetup to talk about what they do and how they do it: New York ad sales director Tim Castelli; East Coast team manager for audio sales, Joe Anastasi; head of television sales Long Ellis; print ads account … Read more

Wal-Mart gets into search and online ad business

In addition to low-end appliances, office supplies, and jewelry, Wal-Mart-owned Sam's Club is now offering its primarily small-business customers online advertising and search engine optimization services.

The services are part of its Online Services business, as spotted by Valleywag.

For $25 a month, Sam's Club will work to improve the ranking of a Web site on search engines, and for $50 a month a company can get pay-per-click advertising services. Sam's Club also offers Web site design and e-commerce services. Who knew?!

The online services are provided by Innuity, whose Web site looks a lot smarter than … Read more

On the eve of OnMedia NYC: media and advertising industries still optimistic about 2008

I'm off to New York for the OnMedia conference from January 28-30. The two-and-a-half day event features technology CEOs from Silicon Valley leading presentations and debates with their counterparts in global advertising and media. It will be a dynamic crowd that's coming together to discuss emerging user trends and new opportunities in the marketing, branding, advertising, and public relations industries.

The list of speakers includes web 2.0 entrepreneurs such as Steve Rosenbaum (CEO, Magnify.net), Ami Kassar (Chief Innovation Officer, ideablob), and Matt Colebourne, (CEO, coComment); established content players such as Jim Spanfeller (President, Forbes.com) and … Read more

ShareThis and the stealth business model

ShareThis makes a very useful service that might be sheltering a real business.

Let's deal with this product first, since it's quite good. ShareThis makes a widget that any content publisher can use on his or her sites. It gives users a very easy way to share a story they are reading with a site like Digg or Reddit, or with individuals via their social network, or through e-mail or instant message. And it beats littering a blog template with a dozen buttons that appear on every story.

ShareThis takes this feature to gratifying extremes. If you want … Read more

Apple and the rest of us...a different view

Tim Leberecht, in a Matter/Anti-Matter blog post, asks whether Apple's "shock and awe" approach to product announcements is a dinosaur in a Web 2.0 world. I think there are a couple of other points worth making for perspective on this.

First, Apple has shifted dramatically from purely relying on big announcements at big events. It used to be, until just a few years ago, that Apple really only had two times each year that it made major hardware announcements: Macworld expos in San Francisco and New York. The developers conference was used for software announcements. … Read more

Apple and the rest of us

Is Apple's PR wearing thin?

Sure, there was the MacBook Air and the buzz around "thinnovation." But wasn't that--pun intended--too "thin" for a big media splash, especially compared with past years? Now that MacWorld is over, pundits are reviewing Apple's PR efforts, and when the expectations are so high (and a company is so good at it), it is not too surprising that some are disappointed with what they've seen this year. Frank Shaw, a PR professional at Waggener Edstrom, Microsoft's lead PR agency, is one of them, and you have … Read more

OpenAds snags another $15.5 million in Series B funding

OpenAds, one of the world's most exciting open-source companies, just pulled in $15.b million in Series B funding. The valuation represents a major "up-round," say my sources (and I've got really good sources on this one). The round was led by Accel out of its Palo Alto office.

Why is this such cool news? Because OpenAds rocks the online advertising world, shaking up Google's cozy dominance of the industry:… Read more

Now, ads from your grocery cart

Microsoft is working with MediaCart on a grocery cart that comes with a monitor that will help you find items and pay for them without standing in line. Plus, it will deliver what we all want most--video ads. Microsoft's acquisition of aQuantive last year was key in developing this technology which should hit stores in late summer.

Read the full story on USA Today: "Cart console finds grocery items for you".