Brian Morrissey

In an abrupt about-face, Google late Thursday told small publishers in its contextual advertising program that it would not impose new features that, just earlier in the day, it contended would make their ad space more valuable. After a brewing revolt among its small-publisher clientele, Google said it would no longer display “related searches” links […]

The e-mail marketing guidelines recently put on hold by the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) avoid mentioning what spam is. They do not endorse opt-out as a standard, according to a final draft that IAR obtained. Kevin Noonan, the executive director of the Association of Interactive Marketing (AIM), wrote in a cover note to Council for […]

Google and women-focused Web network iVillage announced a multiyear deal on Wednesday for both paid search and contextual advertising services, as iVillage becomes the latest sizable publisher to join Google’s AdSense contextual ad program. Under terms of the deal, Google will provide Web search and paid search listings from its network of 100,000 advertisers. In […]

The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) on Wednesday released a summary of the spam laws in 41 countries and the European Union, designed to help its members keep on the right side of the law when sending commercial e-mail abroad. The summary, covering Albania to the United Kingdom, includes bare-bones information on the varied national laws: […]

Yahoo! announced on Wednesday a shakeup in its brand advertising team, with WPP’s Soho Square supplanting Havas’ Black Rocket, a Euro RSCG agency. The move severs nearly decade-old ties between Yahoo! and Black Rocket. Yahoo! charged Soho Square with strategic planning, integrated online and offline campaigns, and media planning and buying for all of Yahoo!’s […]

Rich media platform vendor Eyeblaster announced the newest enhancement to its rich media platform, giving advertisers the chance to run streaming video ads of up to 1 megabyte without slowing pages’ load times. The capability in Eyeblaster 5.3 comes thanks to the company’s so-called “polite” downloading technology that will load just a portion of the […]

Women’s Web network iVillage announced on Tuesday that it bought the assets of teen-focused Web community gURL.com from Primedia . The deal gives iVillage access to a much younger audience, while solidifying its position as the top women’s destination on the Web. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Like iVillage, gURL.com features […]

On the heels of beating out Monster for jobs postings on AOL , CareerBuilder scored another victory on Tuesday by inking a five-year deal with Microsoft’s MSN . CareerBuilder will provide the content for the MSN Careers channel, which was previously the province of rival Monster. CareerBuilder boasts 400,000 job listings from 25,000 employers. The […]

The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) has again delayed the release of e-mail guidelines from its subsidiary, the Association for Interactive Marketing (AIM). “We’re still working on them,” said Louis Mastria, a DMA spokesman. “We will put this out in due course.” Mastria said the DMA was still evaluating the document and did not have a […]

Havas Plans Reorganization Media holding company Havas said on Thursday it would revamp its structure to improve its flagging revenue numbers. The Paris-based company, which owns more than 300 agencies in 48 countries, did not release details of the shakeup, saying the specialized agencies will be folded into Euro RSCG Worldwide or Media Planning Group. […]

Yahoo! said on Thursday it would hold a nationwide search for an amateur yodeler to appear in an upcoming commercial. The contest will feature events in eight cities, beginning with one in New York City’s Times Square tomorrow afternoon. Contestants can also submit their yodeling samples online or through a VHS tape. Professional yodelers need […]

LookSmart reported strong second-quarter earnings on Tuesday, with a sharp rise in paid clicks. The paid inclusion search company reported revenues of $38.4 million, an 83 percent increase from the same quarter last year. LookSmart returned a profit of $1.2 million, or 1 cent per share, a sharp turnaround from the $806,000 loss from a […]