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Why are we even discussing the fact that Microsoft is using the information it has through its Hotmail and other services to target the delivery of online ads? Did we not all see that coming? I mean, that was going to be the whole point, kind like how I'm sure Yahoo and Google are able to target you when you're signed into their services. 
Two separate studies, one from Yahoo and comScore and the other from Avenue A/Razorfish, recommend that online advertisers engage in both search and display ad efforts. Both studies show that both click rates as well as actual purchase behavior were positively influenced by campaigns that contained both types of advertising. The two ad formats in concert play to their strengths, with display ads reinforcing branding efforts and search ads hitting people when they're in the right frame of mind.
I'm not sure what about this story isn't just a re-purposed press release, but it does show how Google's AdSense is the primary driver of the growth the company has experienced. Basically, by making ads easy for every publisher - regardless of size - to put ads on their site, Google has reached a large number of people by allowing for very small niches to be targeted. The fact that their own search engine not only displays ads but often points to sites that wind up hosting AdSense ads doesn't hurt either.
I think it's nice when a big company like Google takes a vested interest in the well-being of its customers. Of course the fact that it has a financial stake in its customer's success might have something to do with it. Regardless, the AdWords team has posted a reminder to advertisers to make sure that they're doing everything they can to maximize their online campaigns in preparation for the post-Thanksgiving shopping season. That includes making sure keywords are refined, landing pages are efficiently laid out and more.
This past Tuesday saw Yahoo launch a beta trial of graphical ad delivery on mobile platforms. Clicking on the ads will allow users to either visit a site for more information or call the company doing the advertiser directly. The ads don't seem to be substantively different from text ads that were already being tested, just more pretty.
Executives from both Google and Yahoo popped into the American Magazine Conference to layout their plans for complete and utter domination of the print advertising world. Well, not quite that. But they did encourage publishers to do more in terms of online search, a field both companies both happen to sell advertising within. Both companies emphasized that they're not looking to get into content creation but just want to facilitate the creation that's going on already, as well as help to monetize that. 
Ready? Let's play a game. It's called Dewey gotta. I say Dewey gotta...and you say something like mow the lawn, or do the dishes. Ready go! Dewey gotta...listen to this new very bad website trying to "do search" a new way. Ms. Dewey is one of the worst search marketing ideas I have seen in a long time. Without the cheesy dialog, drawn out attempts at very bad humor, what do you have? A search engine that still doesn't function well. This site is all about fluff, and not searching for stuff (I rhymed, woohoo). If Ms. Dewey asked me a question, Dewey gotta...shut-up? Yes, for the love of Google, please shut the jeepers up, please. I don't care if you are J-lo's better looking older sister, okay!
Yahoo CEO Terry Semel has announced that Panama, Yahoo's long-planned new ad delivery platform, has finally gone live. The new system is designed to be more user-friendly and flexible, with the hope being more users will actually be using it. Panama's delivery is about when it was expected but also comes just as news hits that Yahoo missed third-quarter ad-revenue estimates, if only by a small amount. Yahoo will be encouraging current advertisers to switch over to using Panama sooner rather than later.
Here's the main point of contention you should be aware of when you hear that MySpace is not a big fan of the Google/YouTube deal: If a MySpace user embeds a YouTube video containing an ad on their page and someone clicks on that ad, who gets the revenue? Fox Interactive, which owns MySpace, is worried it's not going to be them. That's leading the two companies to hold a series of high-level meetings, one half of which have to be conducted with everyone speaking with an Australian accent. (I might be making some of that up.) Even beyond that, though, YouTube has technologies MySpace would love to get their hands on and MySpace drives 1/3 of YouTube's traffic, which seemingly puts it in a powerful position. I get the feeling, though, that a little ad revenue will go along way to ironing out whatever other issues there might be.
Yahoo search advertisers are left high and dry for 3 plus days now as their search ad platform won't allow several account-holders to change ads or view their status online. Yahoo's search ad structure is much like Google's, though apparently they don't have quite as good a grip on their systems. The writer of this article states that upon calling his Yahoo ad representative, they could not access the system nor make changes either, leaving ad customers high and dry. No word yet on what the problem is or when it will be resolved, but beware if you have an account at Yahoo. Everyone will most likely experience system problems at one time or another, but just be sure you keep track of what should be happening in your account, so it can be straightened out later, once the problem is resolved. This PSA brought to you by, me.
Source: Bug Leaves Advertisers Unable To Change Ads On Yahoo
A number of new media types such as Rafat Ali from PaidContent weigh in on how the Google/YouTube merger is going to affect the media and advertising industries in the short and long term. 
Microsoft has, as expected, become the latest search advertising company to enter the pay-per-call market, one that's projected for huge growth over the next few years. People searching for local businesses on mobile devices will see a single sponsored link at the top of the search results which will enable the user to make a call. Ads will be served up via Ingenio, which is also the driving force behind a couple other pay-per-call programs. Much of the growth in this market is expected to come from the fact that people are running searches for non-emergency things like real estate and mortgages, in essence seeing their mobile devices as mini computers.
Do celebrities make a difference in advertising campaigns? Sure, people remember them. Sarah Jessica Parker was successfully annoying (no really, the ads were rated that, I'm not just saying it), and we could probably come up with a dozen more. And don't even get me started about Antonio Banderas playing the bee in Nasonex commercials.
Last week Steve Rubel found what appeared to be a paid Google AdSense ad for, of all things, a Wikipedia entry for the term "crowdsourcing." Rubel wondered why the popular community-edited information source would be advertising since it's information generally has very good to excellent organic search entries. Kevin Newcomb at ClickZ points to a comment left on Rubel's post from someone who volunteers at Wikimedia, the company that runs Wikipedia, saying the ad did not come from them. All income, they say, goes into infrastructure and operational costs. So who paid for the ad? There's some speculation that it came from someone who had a link within the entry on "crowdsourcing" who was trying to drive traffic to their site. But all links have been stripped from that page and yet the ad continues to run. Still a mystery waiting to be solved, it seems.
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Ever wonder what the most expensive Overture keywords are? According to this list they are, unsurprisingly, almost all related to issues regarding lawsuits and legal issues. Also on the list are things like "investment fraud" and "cord blood." See the full 
