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Facebook has started testing a new mobile ad network that can place advertisements outside of Facebook based on user data.

That means some users may start seeing ads -- ones that may link to the Facebook app store or a mobile Web site -- on mobile apps outside of Facebook. The roll-out includes a small group of ad exchanges that will place ads on iOS and Android.

"We are working on a small test in which we'll be showing mobile ads in apps off of Facebook," a Facebook spokesperson said today. "We've been showing web … Read more

Three years ago (an eternity in the social media world), Facebook was trying to become more like Twitter. Facebook, while big, wasn't the dominant force it is today, and Twitter was growing at record speeds.

This scared Facebook, of course, so Zuckerberg and his team set out to counter the Twitter threat with updates of their own. Facebook added public status updates and a real-time search engine. It even released Facebook Lite, a simplified Facebook interface that drew a lot fo comparisons to Twitter's sparse and simplistic design.

Fast-forward to today. Facebook has grown to 950+ million users … Read more

Facebook, as part of its ongoing attempt to make money off mobile, is letting businesses with Facebook pages promote posts using an app on their smartphones.

The newest version of Facebook's Pages Manager app allows users to pick their promoted posts -- i.e., posts the social network will shoot out to users far and wide, for a modest fee -- directly from the app. The app is only available on iPhone and iPad.

The ability to buy the ads directly from mobile phones was a widely requested feature from small businesses, according to Facebook.

It's just the … Read more

I don't think they've kissed and made up yet.

I don't even think they're talking.

When one party embarrasses another so badly -- and in public -- you don't expect the hurt one to just take it, do you?

And so Samsung is greeting the arrival of the iPhone 5 with an ad that will run tomorrow in certain national and local newspapers (how modern). It is not a flattering ad. It suggests that the iPhone 5 isn't even good enough to be, well, a copy of the Galaxy S3.

Clearly, it's been … Read more

Fab, a social media-driven online retail site, is growing fast -- like 1-million-users-a-month fast -- and it's going all out to propel that growth by buying up the splashiest display ad Facebook offers.

Never mind that some marketers complain about the effectiveness of advertising on Facebook. Fab founder and CEO Jason Goldberg says Facebook ads pay off, and then some. Which is why for a 24-hour period -- which started at 9 p.m. PT Thursday night -- Goldberg ponied up an undisclosed amount to buy Facebook's so-called "log-out" ads that appear when members sign out … Read more

There was quite the hullabaloo last week regarding Amazon's new Kindles.

Turns out that the Kindle Paperwhite and Kindle Fire HD tablets were all "Special Offers" models, meaning they'd display ads on their lock screens and main home screens.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos neglected to mention this when announcing the prices for all these Kindles, causing a minor uproar in the hours that followed -- especially when Amazon reps said there would be no way to opt out. Then, barely a day later, Bezos and Co. reversed course and gave Kindle Fire customers the option of … Read more

NEW YORK -- Google is the big cheese in online advertisement, but offline, the search company still has a few things to learn.

Last night, Google took to one of the many jumbo screens in Times Square to promote the upcoming biopic "Lincoln," as well as Google+ Hangout, the video-chat service.

Sadly for Google, not even Steven Spielberg, the director of "Lincoln" and America's premier storyteller, could get passers-by to take notice. After the trailer for "Lincoln" made its debut on Google+ online, Spielberg and actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt took part in a video … Read more

As reported earlier today on SearchEngineLand.com, Microsoft seems to have inadvertently tipped its plan to rename Microsoft Advertising to the "Yahoo Bing Network" and to rebrand its own online ads as "Bing Ads."

Update (September 10): Microsoft officials sent overnight the following clarification:" Microsoft Advertising is not changing branding. What was called the 'Search Alliance' is now the Yahoo Bing Network. AdCenter is being rebranded to Bing Ads." (AdCenter is Microsoft's search-based advertising tool.)

When I checked around 7 p.m. PT on September 9, Microsoft was displaying posts, a new Twitter account … Read more

Editors' note (September 8, 2012, 6:21 p.m. PT): One day after this story was published, Amazon has reversed course. The company now says it will offer a $15 opt-out option to go ad-free.

Amazon introduced a bevy of new tablets and e-readers at its Santa Monica, Calif., press conference yesterday. And once the dust cleared, it became clear that there was a tiny asterisk that the company wasn't highlighting: all of the new Kindle Fire tablets include ad-supported "Special Offers." That means that the lock-screen will have have an ad, along with a link on … Read more