Brian Morrissey

Yahoo! and SBC Communications announced a number of new features to its broadband and dial-up Internet service, including the ability to block out unwanted pop-up advertisements and a service aimed at small businesses. The new protection features include more parental controls, as well as anti-virus and pop-up blocking software. Yahoo! and SBC also added communications […]

EarthLink began a new ad campaign this past weekend to build awareness of the steps it has taken to address consumers’ two biggest Internet-related headaches: spam and pop-up ads. In a new campaign launched Sept. 13, EarthLink touts its focus on blocking out whatever annoys its customers. The TV spots feature testimonials from customers who […]

Insurance giant Cigna said on Monday it tapped Dow Jones for a cross-media marketing campaign explaining financial benefits issues to corporate decision-makers and employees. The campaign, called “The Benefits of Planning,” will use a variety of Dow Jones assets as platforms for discussing financial planning for retirement, leveraging Dow Jones’ popularity with high-level executives who […]

Nike Rolls Out Mia Hamm IM Bot AOL and Nike have teamed up to release an interactive agent on AOL Instant Messenger for U.S. soccer star Mia Hamm. ActiveBuddy powers the IM bot, which will be officially released next week, coinciding with the start of the Women’s World Cup. By typing to MiaHamm9, AIM users […]

NEW YORK — Web publishers admit the current torrent of pop-up advertisements bother many Internet users, but few agree on how to solve the problem. In what was billed as a town hall meeting, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) on Wednesday invited the online advertising industry to weigh in on whether pop-up standards were needed […]

Overture Services announced on Wednesday a deal to provide paid search and contextual advertising for real estate site Homestore. The 18-month deal calls for Overture’s paid listings to appear on non-real estate searches on Homestore’s network of real estate sites. The listings will appear under “Sponsored Results.” In addition, Homestore signed up to use Overture’s […]

NEW YORK – AOL interactive marketing executive Lisa Brown has a single word for all those disappointed in the Internet service’s past advertising performance: Sorry. “We created our own issues at AOL, and we have no one to blame but ourselves,” Brown said Wednesday at the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Advertising Forum. “In many ways, […]

NEW YORK – The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) on Tuesday released top-line results from its latest cross-media optimization study, for pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca, showing improved results in branding from an increase in online spending. Pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca released some broad results from research into its ad campaign for Nexium, its heartburn drug. However, the company […]

USAToday.com said on Tuesday that it would offer advertisers the ability to target its audience based on their demographic and behavioral data, following the lead of other publishers trying to capitalize on users’ behavior. Using Tacoda System’s Audience Management System, USAToday.com can combine a user’s site activity with gender, household income and zip code information […]

InfoSpace said on Monday that its InfoSpace.com site is now devoted to providing directory services, in a further example of the melding of online directories and local search. The newly redesigned InfoSpace.com features a Google-like interface dedicated to directory services, from white pages to yellow pages. The site features typical online directory services, such as […]

A federal judge said adware maker WhenU.com’s pop-up advertising does not infringe on the trademarks and copyrights of Web site publishers, in the first legal ruling favoring desktop advertising companies in their fight with Web site operators. U.S. District Court Judge Gerald Bruce Lee released the opinion on Friday, two months after issuing a summary […]

IBM is continuing its push to align itself with open-source software with a new integrated ad campaign that introduces Linux as a young autodidact who absorbs knowledge from diverse sources. The Armonk, N.Y.-based computer giant began teasing the ad this week, running online ads on sites like NYTimes.com that show a young boy. The ads […]