advertising

Skype said today that users who do not have Skype Credit or subscriptions will now see advertisements in their call windows when they are making one-on-one audio calls using Skype for Windows.

Marketers can purchase these conversation ads in 55 markets where Skype is available. There's no mention of the display ads showing up on Macs or on mobile devices.

The company is portraying the change as a "an opportunity for marketers to reach our hundreds of millions of connected users in a place where they can have meaningful conversations about brands in a highly engaging environment." … Read more

More advertisers are flocking to the Web to court buyers, according to the Associated Press. First quarter results for Internet advertising revenue are in and they're record high -- reaching $8.4 billion.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau, which gathered the data, told the Associated Press that this is the highest Internet ad revenue ever recorded for the first three months of the year and it's up 15 percent from $7.3 billion during last year's first quarter. The overall record is $9 billion, which happened during the fourth quarter of 2011.

Those days of users spending countless hours on Facebook, poking, posting photos, and updating their statuses seem to be ending. And if not ending, they're definitely slowing.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the social network's growth rate in the U.S. has pretty much stopped in its tracks. However, this must be taken in the context of Facebook's stupendous growth since its inception eight years ago -- up front the numbers don't look that bad, but studied more closely it could look troublesome for the social network.

Unique visitors to the site were up 5 … Read more

Despite Apple's earlier efforts to increase privacy on iOS, mobile ad networks have found new ways to find out what iPhone and iPad users are doing on their mobile devices, according to a new report.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting today, citing sources, that a host of mobile ad networks are now culling data from a unique identifier in the iPhone's wireless networking component, called Open Device Identification Number (ODIN). In addition, the ad networks have taken advantage of OpenUDID, which can be found in the platform's copy-and-paste feature.

Apple made waves in the mobile space … Read more

When it comes to advertising on mobile devices, bigger screens don't necessary equate to more clicks.

Although the Amazon Kindle Fire's popularity may be dipping, a mobile advertising company says that users of the 7-inch tablet click on more ads than do those who use the 9.7-inch Apple iPad.

Jumptap, a company that focuses on targeted mobile advertising, released a report today containing data related to mobile devices, fast food ads, and the Kentucky Derby.

While the Kindle Fire may have the highest percentage of actual clicks on advertisements for the first quarter of this year -- … Read more

Microsoft's decision to turn off Web site tracking by default in IE10 is not sitting well with advertisers.

The Do Not Track feature prevents third-party Web sites from tracking your online activity. Web sites that receive the Do Not Track, or DNT, signal from your browser are supposed to honor that request, just as telemarketers are not supposed to call people on a "do not call" registry.

The ability to know where you go and what you do online concerns many users and privacy advocates. But advertisers use such information to determine how and where to target … Read more

It's no secret that more of us are picking up Web-connected mobile devices. But the growth with which that's happening is nothing short of impressive.

At the D10 Conference today, Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers (KPCB) partner Mary Meeker revealed that at the end of 2011, there were 1.1 billion mobile 3G subscribers around the world, representing 37 percent growth over the prior year. The strongest growth came in India, where year-over-year subscriptions rose 841 percent. In the U.S. -- a market much closer to the saturation point -- 3G subscribers rose just 31 percent.

Despite that, … Read more

General Motors asked Facebook if it was possible to run "bigger, higher-impact ad units," or full-page ads, versus the more subtle ads Facebook features, according to AdAge. Currently, companies can advertise through sponsored posts or small ads on the right side of pages.

Facebook, which traditionally opts for the user experience over advertising dollars, said no to the automaker, according to the report.

Publicly, GM has said that its Facebook advertising wasn't successful, while Facebook has said that GM ran a weak campaign. … Read more

Apple's iPhone is, by far, the most dominant device in the mobile ad market, according to new data from Millennial Media's Mobile Mix report.

The iPhone accounted for 15 percent of all mobile phone impressions hitting Millennial Media's ad network during the first quarter. RIM's BlackBerry Curve and Motorola's Droid Razr trailed far behind with 4.4 percent and 4 percent of all impressions, respectively. The Samsung Droid Charge and the BlackBerry Torch rounded out the top five with 3.4 percent and 2.9 percent, respectively.

Millennial Media's data is taken from the … Read more