Brian Morrissey

LookSmart on Wednesday announced a multiyear search agreement with Terra Lycos to provide Web search and paid inclusion on the Lycos portal. Under terms of the deal, LookSmart will provide search results for commercial terms beginning in the third quarter. Lycos will also have the option to sell LookSmart’s paid inclusion product, LookListings, through its […]

Days after declaring that it would step up the defense of its patents, 24/7 Real Media was dealt a setback, when a federal judge ruled against the company in its patent-infringement case against fellow ad serving company aQuantive . The U.S. Federal Court for the Western District of Washington last Thursday granted aQuantive’s request for […]

Paid inclusion leader LookSmart announced on Tuesday that it would combine its separate products for small and large businesses into a single offering called LookListings. LookListings will give small advertisers more options for building their paid inclusion programs, allowing them to add search listings for multiple Web pages. Previously, small businesses could only list their […]

On Wednesday afternoon, Yahoo! will report its second-quarter earnings, which analysts expect will confirm that an Internet ad recovery is well underway. The two most watched gauges for Yahoo! will be the performance of its branded advertising and search businesses. On both counts, according to analysts, the company is set to report robust growth. Officially, […]

Coremetrics announced on Monday the acquisition of WebCriteria, a scenario-optimization firm that allows companies to improve the performance of their sites by anticipating customer behavior. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. The acquisition builds on Coremetrics’ marketing analytics offering by adding WebCriteria’s scenario-optimization technology and services. Scenario optimization identifies the many different functions […]

Paid listings provider Sprinks and MSNBC.com announced a deal Monday for Sprinks contextual advertising links to appear on MSNBC.com for the next nine months. The deal calls for Sprinks, a unit of Primedia’s About, to provide contextually relevant paid listings through its ContentSprinks offering in a number of MSNBC.com sections, including travel, health, technology, sports, […]

Despite frequent predictions of its demise, Overture Services and MSN’s partnership was strengthened Monday, when the companies announced they would extend their paid listings deal for browser search in six countries and add Web search in Italy. Under terms of the new agreement, Overture will continue to provide paid search listings on MSN Search in […]

Since its launch last Friday, consumers have flooded the government’s Web site to register for its do-not-call list, designed to free people from the unwanted hassles of telemarketers calling during dinner. The success has led some to wonder if the next step in the war on spam will be a do-not-e-mail list, such as the […]

WhenU.com won an important legal victory last week, when a federal judge issued a summary judgment for the New York adware company in its legal fight with U-Haul over WhenU’s pop-up ads. In a two-page order, U.S. District Court Judge Gerald Lee last Thursday granted WhenU’s motion to dismiss the meat of the charges brought […]

An in-depth study of people unaware how pay-for-placement search found that they are surprised, and often negative, when they find out how paid listings work. Baltimore-based Context-Based Research Group conducted the ethnographic study, which looked at the actions and feedback of 17 participants in four test cities, on behalf of Consumers Union’s Consumer WebWatch. The […]

24/7 Real Media said on Tuesday that one of its patents applies to most companies in the booming paid listings industry, and says it intends to go after patent violators. The interactive marketing technology company wants paid listings companies to enter a licensing agreement; otherwise, they could face legal action, said Mark Moran, 24/7 Real […]

DoubleClick announced on Tuesday the acquisition of CSC Advanced Database Solutions, a privately held data management company. The acquisition adds another product to DoubleClick’s marketing technology suite, joining its e-mail, ad serving, campaign management, catalog and analytics services. Financial terms of the cash deal were not disclosed. Schaumburg, Ill.-based CSC provides data management services to […]