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Last year VideoClix.TV demoed an early version of its creepy, yet intelligent video advertising technology in an episode of Revision3's Diggnation, the popular podcast starring Digg.com's Kevin Rose and co-host Alex Albrecht. The technology, which inserts clickable advertising in every element of the video, gives users a way to be linked up to online retailers for any product or service that's seen in videos. It also lets users click on things not for sale to see any related information from elsewhere on the Web--a handy service that's usually ended up with horribly annoying results … Read more

In an attempt to improve the relevance of ads attached to search results, Yahoo plans to adjust the process advertisers use to bid for placement as soon as next week.

Today, there's a minimum bid of 10 cents per keyword. Soon, though, Yahoo will move to a variable minimum price, the company said Friday. The new minimum price could be higher or lower, depending on the keyword and the quality of the individual advertiser who's bidding for it, the company said.

For example, with the new system, a minimum bid--called a reserve price--could be lower for a high-quality … Read more

Updated 8:10 AM PDT with Wall Street reaction.

In rapid-fire succession Wednesday, the Microhoo buyout brawl had Yahoo throwing a one-two punch at Microsoft, with a swift comeback punch from the folks in Redmond.

And the crowd, or should I say the investors, liked what they saw. Yahoo's stock ended the day up slightly as the first punch came in toward the end of the trading day, and has continued to climb in early morning trading Thursday, following news events from last night.

Here's a quick blow-by-blow.

Yahoo looks to Google and AOL Yahoo kicked things off … Read more

Yahoo will test the use of Google advertisements on some of its search pages, the companies said Wednesday, a move that raises the possibility of a significant departure from Yahoo's present ad strategy.

"Yahoo will be testing Google's AdSense for Search service, which will deliver relevant ads alongside Yahoo's own natural search results. This is only a limited test, and does not necessarily mean that Yahoo will join the AdSense program," Google spokesman Daniel Rubin said.

The test is narrow in scope, Yahoo said: "The test will apply only to traffic from yahoo.com … Read more

Microsoft can give Google a better fight in online ads than Google can compete against Redmond in enterprise software, a Gartner analyst concludes in a new research report.

In one corner is Microsoft, the leader in enterprise software and PC-centric applications. Microsoft's eye is on the prize--a bigger slice of the $75 billion in online ad revenue that is forecast by 2011.

Microsoft is looking for growth after failing to see big payoffs from investments in areas like mobile, games, and online services, says David Mitchell Smith, Gartner research vice president and fellow, who authored the "Google vs. … Read more

The free security application Ad-Aware 2007 updated today, included in the new version is Spanish language support. An entry on the the Lavasoft blog discusses the latest release, the first in what is expected to be a series of localized versions of the software.

Ad-Aware was once the undisputed king of the download hill, but its reputation was tarnished a bit with the version 2007 release. Stability issues and concerns about the "always-on" updater were a few of the issues that pushed its CNET Download.com rating down to 4 stars. A full CNET review arrived at a … Read more

Google is laying off about 300 employees in its newly acquired DoubleClick ad business, according to a source familiar with the matter.

A Google spokesman said the company could not confirm the number of workers laid off.

"Since our acquisition of DoubleClick closed on March 11, we have been working to match and align DoubleClick employees in the U.S. with our organizational plan for the business," the company said in a statement.

"As with many mergers, this review has resulted in a reduction in headcount at the acquired company," the statement said. "Today, we … Read more

We've all known for a while now that things aren't looking exactly rosy for the newspaper industry (for an excellent account of the state of the newspaper world read this New Yorker article).

Now, Editor & Publisher has figures that are enough to make any newspaper mogul cry.

Total print advertising revenue last year dropped 9.4 percent to $42 billion from the year before, according to the Newspaper Association of America. That's the biggest decrease since the NAA began measuring ad expenditures in 1950.

Total advertising revenue, including online revenue, decreased 7.9 percent in 2007 … Read more

Video ads for select keywords are now showing up on Google and Yahoo search sites. I took a look and I have to say I prefer the Google ads because they seem less intrusive and obnoxious.

I typed in "smartphone" on Google's search site and saw a hot link that said "watch commercial" under the second sponsored listing on the right side. Clicking on that link opened a small 2-inch-by-2-inch window below the listing that automatically played the 34-second ad. I could pause the video or hide it.

I got a similar experience when I … Read more