Marketing

Facebook's makeover is now official. The social networking site has rolled out its revamped page with a so-called Social Graph for users to better connect with friends and new contacts and an improved Publisher that now sits on the top of the home page. Upgrades to that feature make it easier to a...

The historians will have to be very kind to this global financial meltdown and should reward it for a most needed rude awakening call, which is forcing a dramatic change of traditional business models. Right now, all over the world, this crisis is teaching CEOs new things -- first, that it's time to...

Search engine powerhouse Google is testing the use of a new expandable ad format with advertisers. An expandable ad typically comes in the form of a small display ad that expands into a much larger ad -- often covering up much of a Web page's content, much to the chagrin of users. However, Google ha...

On paper, the affiliate market appears to be among the most lucrative marketing channels. At its core, it is a revenue-sharing model among a network of Web sites or partners that receive a cut of the sales of any products that they promote. In reality, though, using an affiliate network to drive sal...

Yahoo is fine-tuning its online advertising platform with the launch of three new targeting tools: Search Retargeting, which targets display advertising based on user search activities; Enhanced Retargeting, which delivers display ads across the Yahoo network based on user activity on an advertiser'...

Beleaguered Internet search portal Yahoo has launched a new type of online ad that incorporates traditional search results with images and video. Here's an example: Go to Yahoo, type in the keyword "pedigree," and a sponsored search result for Pedigree dog food will come up accompanied by a video ad...

The federal judge overseeing a lawsuit against Microsoft over marketing claims for its Vista operating system has reversed an earlier decision to certify the suit as a class action designation. She also denied Microsoft's motion for summary judgment. U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman allowed the ca...

We have now arrived right in the middle of that second half of the hyper-accelerated phase, where Western brands start to fall like dominoes. In the U.S. alone, hundreds of its world-class brands are being erased. From monster banking to mega manufacturing, some 73,000 stores alone will be closed in...

The year-long U.S. recession hasn't brought spending on advertising to a screeching halt, but it has forced a shift in the way advertisers engage their audiences. With marketing budgets shrinking by the day, advertisers are turning to the Internet as an alternative to more traditional media such as ...

In advertising, the focus is on getting across a clear message to consumers. The Federal Trade Commission's message to advertisers in its staff report released Thursday regarding online consumer data collection was laser-like in its clarity: Get busy with protecting privacy, or the government will d...

Small businesses have been reluctant to spend precious resources on a marketing medium that traditionally has not delivered -- at least to them -- on its promise. That medium is search engine marketing. However, they will find it worthwhile to take another look at this particular tactic. A lot of lo...

For a long time, small businesses were reluctant to embrace the latest in search engine marketing and other online advertising tactics. The SEM industry was unable to deliver to this group of typically local-interest, cost-conscious companies what they wanted the most: a means to assess how their in...

Microsoft launched a beta version of a new celebrity gossip site Thursday called "Wonderwall.com." The new site is loaded with pictures of celebrities that visitors can click on to read news stories, features and commentary about the stars. For example, Wonderwall.com on Thursday displayed a zany ...

No matter where one turns on the Internet these days, it's virtually impossible to avoid being bombarded by advertising in one form or another. Banner ads. Video ads. Display ads. Search engine marketing. Ads on MySpace. Ads on Facebook. The only area of the Web left untouched by advertising may be ...

Search engine powerhouse Google has decided to sell its decaying 5 percent equity stake in struggling Internet portal AOL just two years after investing $1 billion in the company. AOL parent Time Warner disclosed Google's decision on Wednesday -- the same day Time Warner announced fourth-quarter fin...