While many are worried about the amount of private data that’s online as large sites like Facebook take flak for distributing that data, a few startups are taking a different approach. The data that users provide about themselves is worth money, as anyone who’s followed the debate over Facebook’s use of user data on their [...]

Privacy concerns have long been an issue, particularly with online tracking allowing marketers to calculate extremely precise demographics about just who is clicking on ads or viewing commercials, but more recently, online and offline data have combined to create eerily specific information on any given individual. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) held hearings last week to discuss [...]

Apple recently released its iAd platform amid much to-do, and so far the new ad option is showing some advantages over Apple’s direct competitor for the market, Google. One prime example is the iAd focus on keeping prices for apps low or allowing consumers to use them for free via the use of ads. This [...]

Viacom and Google’s legal battle over whether Google has intentionally been allowing YouTube users to post copyrighted content on the media-sharing site just got nastier – and more public. The case is pretty simple: Viacom is saying that YouTube was actively encouraging copyrighted content on the site, while Google claims it has been policing copyrighted [...]

Google TV has been using an auction model for its advertisers since the media channel existed, to what their representatives say has been rousing success (Google does not release sales information for the service, but they also intend to keep using the model for the foreseeable future, which is a pretty good indicator). But does [...]

If you wanted to summarize the difference between Google’s advertising strategy and Yahoo’s, you could do so thusly: Google uses small text ads tailored to user’s searches, whereas Yahoo focuses on graphic display ads that do much the same thing. Looks like the status quo is pretty close to being flipped. Google is looking into [...]

The iPhone leapt to popularity in part due to the user-generated applications that made owning an iPhone a fun and interactive opportunity. Those who might not otherwise have been persuaded, leapt on the bandwagon when they found out about a particular application that they really wanted to have – and with over 65,000 apps generated, [...]

Microsoft and Yahoo have joined forces in hopes of battling against the biggest of the big giants in search-engine history: Google. Even with the merger, Microsoft and Yahoo combined only make up 28% of the search market, which, pitted against Google’s 65%, does not look like good odds. They’re not looking at the market they [...]

In order to survive a recession and come out the other side moving swiftly forward, two things need to happen: Your competitors still need to be stuck far behind, and you need to have used the time to create brand-new strategies that resonate with consumers just when they’re ready to spend again. Companies have been [...]

Yes, everyone’s twittering. People who enjoy living in the world of 140 characters use it a lot and they talk about everything under the sun – but may never ask themselves what Twitter gets out of the deal. From a marketing perspective, Twitter’s seeming ambivalence about making any money out of its extraordinarily popular social [...]