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Google opens up Print Ads to more advertisers

Google's Print Ads program, which lets companies use its Web-based interface to buy ad space in U.S. newspapers, must be going well. The search company is opening the service up to all of its U.S.-based AdWords marketers.

Google launched Print Ads in November as part of a test involving 50 newspapers and a "small group" of advertisers. Now, more than 225 newspapers with a combined circulation of nearly 30 million are involved, as well as potentially tens of thousands of Google advertisers.

Separately, Google says it has renewed its agreement to provide search and … Read more

Microsoft plays nice with Ask

Microsoft's adManager beta search advertising service currently enables small businesses to buy keywords on Microsoft Live Search and MSN. Now, adManager will also allow customers to buy keywords on Ask.com and manage the pay-per-click ad campaigns through one interface. AdManager is an upgrade service that's part of Microsoft's Office Live set of small business services.

New Tech Meetup: From Talking Llamas to Taming Teamwork

I'm sitting on the exquisitely uncomfortable benches in the San Francisco Metreon, listening to companies at the New Tech Meetup give their pitches. Two of them we've covered recently: AdPerk and Truemors. The news about Truemors: a Facebook port is forthcoming. The other three companies are also worth some bits:

Blabberize is a freaky little product that makes Monty Python-like animated graphics of faces from photos you upload. Then you upload a recording of your (or someone else's) voice. It syncs the audio or recorded speech to the moving mouth. Good for a laugh. Likewise the pitch. … Read more

AdPerk: Get paid to watch

"You won't see this on TV," Barry Soicher, CEO of AdPerk told me as he fired up his demo. AdPerk is a company that helps magazine publishers make more money, by putting its advertisers' videos in front of readers and potential subscribers. Readers also get paid (after a fashion) to watch the vids.

From the user's perspective, it works like this: on the magazine's Web site, you're given a pitch to "Watch and be Rewarded." You're presented with a collection of videos, and can select which ones you want to watch. … Read more

Apple logo--a real buzz kill

I found myself at a friend's birthday party July 4 eve with a bunch of San Francisco hipsters celebrating the fact that the next day was a holiday.

Downstairs, DJs were spinning techno and break beats; upstairs was a mellower scene. The attic of this historic home in the Presidio had been turned into the ultimate chill pad, the floors covered in futons and faux-fur throws, lamps throwing colored light on the ceiling; a carefully chosen ambient selection drifting from iTunes. On a big screen, the interactive iTunes Visualizer was warping the music into beautiful swirls of color and … Read more

Google on 'Sicko' criticism--'We blew it'

Last weekend a corporate Google blog raised a stink by blasting Michael Moore's new documentary, Sicko, and offering to help the health care industry defend itself with Google ads.

The blog posting generated much justified criticism in the blogosphere, and within a few days the blog writer wrote another blog entry clarifying that the opinion was hers alone and not the company's.

The criticism of Google was so harsh and unexpected that the search giant also addressed the matter in its main corporate blog. It's not so much an apology as a defense of its actions: "… Read more

Under the Radar: Video ads are here, now what?

Advertising is an important part of the Internet, but how are content creators and advertisers going to come together to start making money off videos? At Under the Radar this morning four new Web 2.0 advertising companies that specialize in video are trying to figure that out.

Adap.tv is an online video advertising platform that looks at the context of a video to place advertisements. Almost like Google's contextual AdSense program, Adapt.tv reads a video's metadata to figure out what the video is about before serving up an ad that (hopefully) is related. Ads pop … Read more

Craigslister offers to scare people out of iPhone line

A San Francisco Craigslist posting is offering to supply "diversions" that will allow buyers to cut in line for the iPhone, and sadly, we're afraid he might not be joking.

"Why pay someone else big $$$ to wait in line if the only thing between you and the front of the line is a good diversion?" the post asks, claiming to come from a trademarked company called "Over Here, Jerks." "Our tactics are guaranteed to be safe, effective and even humorous!"

Photos accompanying the posting include a giant clown bicycle, a scary-looking … Read more

Internet advertising: Going up, up, up

More advertising dollars are flowing to the Internet, in a trend that started years ago. Advertising Age has come out with its annual look at the United States top-100 advertising spenders. There are few surprises, but it's confirmation of what you've probably been seeing and expecting. Internet ads now account for 5.5 percent of total spending by the top 100 advertisers in the U.S. That adds up to nearly $10 billion, and the Internet's about even with radio and ahead of outdoor.

What are the biggest losers? TV's share of ad spending has been … Read more