Articles of the Day
Users More Aware Of Cookies, Deletion Skills Grow Crummier - Awareness of cookies has increased significantly among consumers over the past two years, but most are still ignorant about the actual role they play in the online industry. That’s the bad news, according to a new study conducted by online marketing research firm InsightExpress, which found that consumers delete cookies for the wrong reasons. The good news for industry pros is that consumers are equally ignorant in their ability to delete cookies.
Google Unveils Search Service For Small Businesses - Google on Monday unveiled a new search service for small businesses that lets visitors search for information deep within their sites. At $100 per year, it’s pretty cheap. The service will be hosted on Google’s computers, but does not require participation in AdSense, the Web giant’s advertising network.
Google, Viacom Execs Square Off in Sun Valley - Google and Viacom’s YouTube-face off heated up last week at the Allen & Company media summit when Google CEO Eric Schmidt vehemently defended his company’s policy of taking down copyrighted materials flagged by the owner. Viacom and others believe the Web giant has the resources to filter out copyrighted content altogether, but chooses not to because it benefits from their illegal use. They also complain that the laborious process of copyright identification is both costly and inefficient.
Possible Injunction Could Deflate Facebook’s Sails - It’s not often referred to amid all the hoopla, but Michael Zuckerberg and Facebook have been embroiled in a three-year court battle with a smaller rival that seeks an injunction that would shut the social network down. ConnectU claims that Zuckerberg created Facebook using code and other ideas stolen from the rival site, which was started by three of his Harvard classmates.
Casual Games Takes Center Stage at E3 - “Casual” was the buzzword of this year’s E3 conference in Los Angeles, championed mainly by Wii-maker Nintendo, which is widely being regarded as the leader of the next generation of video games. This year’s E3 stressed the importance of reaching out the mainstream–and for good reason.
Harry Potter’s Web Explosion - Author J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books are so popular they’ve spawned a parallel universe on the Web, where some sites attract millions of fans every day who chat about the books and view Web pages built around them. One of the biggest is Mugglenet.com, created by Emerson Spartz when he was just 12. Today the site is visited up to 40 million times in a month, making it one of the biggest Harry Potter-related Web sites-not to mention a commercial success.
NBC.com Broadens Its Social Networking Around Shows - NBC Digital Entertainment will continue beefing up NBC.com throughout the summer with additional tech and content features. Several additions noted Monday include new social networking tools, streaming episodes of “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,” the continued rollout of “Heroes 360,” the show’s multi-platform presentation, along with new WAP mobile sites for new and returning shows.
Legislation Watch: No ‘Solutions’ In Sight - Since 2003, Congress has considered bills aimed at curbing spyware. And since 2003, these bills have stalled, despite overwhelming backing in the House of Representatives. Now, once again, legislators are mulling over new measures that specifically take aim at spyware, including ad-serving software installed on people’s computers without their consent.
Online Radio Tops June comScore Gains As Gays, Gaming, Gambling Also Soar - Radio was the top-gaining Web category in June, according to comScore MediaMetrix. Yahoo Music led the growth in the category, and Yahoo again led comScore’s list as top U.S. online property. In the ad network rankings, Yahoo moved down from second to third place, falling slightly to flip places with ValueClick.
Four Out of Five Newspaper Website Readers Also Read the Printed Edition - A new study recently released by the Newspaper National Network LP, conducted by Scarborough Research, found that 81% of newspaper website users also read the printed newspaper in the last 7 days. Crossover users (those who used both print and online newspapers in the past 7 days) have deep affinity with both their printed newspaper and their newspaper website, and 83% say “I love both my printed newspaper and visiting my newspapers website.”
Time Warner Mulls AOL Sale, Again - Time Warner may be preparing to shed AOL and other properties in an effort to push its stock price to $25, according to a recent report from Pali Capital. Analyst Richard Greenfield raised his rating on TW’s stock from “neutral” to “buy,” on speculation that the media giant would sell its cable unit and either spin off or sell its AOL Internet division. Greenfield added that Time Warner should get rid of Time, Inc., too.
P&G Vet Looks to Build a Google for the Beauty-Care Business - A former Procter & Gamble Co. marketing executive is out to make sense of the jumble of tens of thousands of beauty-care products — and create the industry’s killer digital media app in the process. The fall launch of TotalBeauty.com aims to catalog and update in real time the vast array of beauty products; review as many as possible in-house; have visitors review them on their own; and provide a “personalization engine” that lets people sort through them in categories such as price, “eco issues,” and skin and hair type.
