283 Topics
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| | The independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industry, OFCOM, was charged by the government to reveal consumers' experiences of electronic communications services, including broadband provision, and the results do not make for happy reading. The research saw in excess of 60 million separate service performance tests carried … |
 | Apple released its [URL="http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2009/07/21results.html"]third quarter numbers[/URL] yesterday and by any benchmark they were impressive. Consider these numbers as [URL="http://www.macworld.com/article/141829/2009/07/appleq309.html?lsrc=top_1"]reported by Macworld[/URL]: * $8.34 billion in sales and a net profit of $1.23 billion * 5.2 million iPhones * 10. 2 million iPods * 2.6 million Macs (of which1.75 million were … |
| | [I]It's not always easy, And sometimes life can be deceiving, I'll tell you one thing, its always better when we're together ~Jack Johnson, Better Together[/I] News leaked out this morning on the [URL="http://kara.allthingsd.com/20090716/yahoo-search-ad-deal-with-microsoft-down-to-the-short-strokes-but-caution-also-advised/"]All Things Digital Blog[/URL] (and subsequently widely carried by the New York Times, PC Mag Online, Wired and … |
 | In what must go down as one the biggest tech u-turns of the century so far, the ISP that was quite happy to undertake Internet snooping trials without informing those customers being spied upon has changed its mind about Phorm WebWise. BT, the biggest Internet Service Provider in the UK, … |
| | [URL="http://www.comscore.com"]comScore[/URL] has just published data from the Video Metrix service which shows that the number of online videos being viewed here in the UK is up 47 percent on a year ago and fast approaching 5 billion in April 2009 when the measuring period ended. Google did best out of … |
| | Over the last year, Microsoft ads have been simply bad on one end of the spectrum and horrible on the other. It's really time for the company to reconsider their ad agency choices and their overall strategy because right now they are throwing good money after bad. I had one … |
 | I've been doing a lot on social networking lately, mostly because of the book I've been writing on the subject. Social media is a real market-changer. Something else that's been happening quietly and in the background is the emergence of games as a serious computing application. A [URL="http://www.revolutionmagazine.com/DigitalPM/News/914688/Official-gaming-not-just-geeks/?DCMP=EMC-Media-PM-Bulletin"]new study[/URL] says … |
| | One of the big rules of online advertising as I understand it is that you count success to a great extent based on how many people click through to your site. It's really the basis of how people get paid by Google for [URL="https://adwords.google.com/select/AdSenseLoginToAdWords"]Google AdSense[/URL]. If you get click-throughs you … |
| | [URL="http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=136847"]Ad Age reports[/URL] that Microsoft is ready to spend $80M to try and turn people's attention away from Google, the dominant search market leader, and toward Bing, Microsoft's latest search engine offering. Much like Microsoft's attempts last summer to prop up Vista, trying to turn consumers to a new product …  |
| | I've never been a big fan of American Idol or reality TV in general, but the tit for tat going on between Microsoft and Apple ads reminds me a bit of a reality TV competition with bloggers acting as Simon and Paula and the gang. We watch. Sometimes we laugh. … |
| | It is usually the Apple adverts which get the positive column inches both online and off, even when they go [URL="http://www.itwire.com/content/view/21257/53/"]straight for the Vista jugular[/URL] perhaps because they do so with no small dose of humour. Microsoft has done less well in garnering media support for its campaigns. Who can … |
| | I've been fascinated by the recent series of Microsoft ads that go after Apple. On one hand I commended Microsoft for having a unified message in [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4186.html"]Microsoft Gives Apple the Full Court Press[/URL]. On the other, I think the message is off kilter as I wrote in [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4212.html"]Apple's Value is … |
| | It's with more than idle curiosity that I've watched the recent [URL="http://news.cnet.com/microsofts-lauren-ad-follow-up-disses-mac-power/?tag=rtcol;pop"]Microsoft ads[/URL] that attack Apple, subtly suggesting that it's too expensive and that it's all glitz with no real computing power. There is so much wrong with these assertions that it's hard to know where to begin. There is … |
| | Microsoft has been active lately, showing some signs of spunk. I reported last week that Steve Ballmer was going straight after Apple at the McGraw Hill Summit (as I wrote in [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4155.html"]Ballmer Wastes No Words Going After Apple[/URL]). This week we see the release of an [URL="http://byronmiller.typepad.com/byronmiller/2009/03/new-microsoft-ad-goes-after-high-price-of-apple.html"]ad campaign comparing Apple … |
| | The [URL="http://www.asa.org.uk"]Advertising Standards Authority[/URL] here in the UK has ruled against Microsoft concerning a television advert for the Xbox 360 which featured a woman with half a head watching a movie being streamed via the games console. So what could possibly be the problem with that? Maybe there should have … |
| | There is of course nothing wrong with Apple getting a slapped wrist because of its current advertising campaign for the iPhone in the UK. Essentially the ad demonstrated how simple it is to download and install applications to the phone, followed by how easy it was to surf the Internet … |
 | What can your IT department learn from Microsoft's latest advertising bungles? Plenty. When the company released its "Mojave Experiment" ads (which I'd link to but the site forces you to install Silverlight to view them), the premise was rather sad. It seemed to suggest that at least one of the … |
 | Why prebuying Google sponsored ads might be a bad idea. Google "lieberman mccain." Or, click [URL="http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=lieberman%20mccain&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8"]here[/URL]. The result, at least as of this writing? Sponsored Link Lieberman & McCain JohnMcCain.com/lieberman Senator Lieberman Joins McCain's Team. Learn Why You Should Join! Clicking the link takes one to "Citizens for McCain," an … |
| | The Advertising Standards Authority is an independent body, established by the advertising industry in the UK, to self-police rules laid down within advertising codes. It has just issued an adjudication against Apple (UK) Ltd over what have been referred to as misleading advertisements for the iPhone. The [URL="http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/adjudications/Public/TF_ADJ_44891.htm"]adjudication[/URL] comes as … |
| | Anyone remember all the fuss back at the end of 2005 when, in December of that year, it was revealed that Google had managed to beat off the attentions of Microsoft to ensure that its relationship with AOL remained good? The [URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/16/technology/16cnd-aol.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1218404764-tWD3Cl9qLyg5YnYCxoIULw&oref=slogin"]New York Times reported[/URL] at the time how Time … |
| | According to [URL="http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/07/25/microsoft-inks-deal-facebook"]reports[/URL] it looks like Facebook and Microsoft have agreed a deal which will see Microsoft Live Search integrated into the Facebook service. Along with the related advertising of course. This should come as no great surprise to anyone who watches the technology market for trends, as Microsoft had … |
| | It seems that botnet usage could have been behind an increase in the number of click fraud clicks cited in the latest [URL="http://clickforensics.com/Pages/click-fraud-index.asp"]Click Fraud Index[/URL] which monitors such things. Running for three years now, the index monitors and analyses data from more than 4000 online advertisers and advertising agencies. The … |
| | According to an [URL="http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=208401867"]Information Week[/URL] article, it would appear that gamers actually like the in-game adverts that they see while they play. Or rather Massive Inc, a Microsoft subsidiary that handles in-game advertising, has said as much. Gamers were surveyed and the results suggest that they will happily accept such … |
| | According to the [URL="http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB120776803032602423-lMyQjAxMDI4MDA3OTcwNjk4Wj.html"]Wall Street Journal today[/URL] Yahoo could be talking Google about the outsourcing of search advertising sales. This comes as, so the report suggests, as part of two pronged strategy to fight off the Microsoft acquisition threat. The other prong being a deal with AOL to combine Internet … |
| | [URL="http://www.dailytech.com/Apple+Sued+Over+Deceptive+Millions+of+Colors+Advertising/article11348.htm"]The word online[/URL] is that Apple is facing legal action over its claims the MacBook range supports millions of colours. This might actually be true were it not, say the reports, for the small matter of Apple ditching the old 16,777,216 colour supporting 8-bit displays used in MacBooks and replacing …  |
| | According to security researchers at [URL="http://news.bitdefender.com"]BitDefender[/URL] a new Trojan has been discovered which hijacks text based Google adverts and replaces them with ads from a totally different provider. Trojan.Qhost.WU acts by modifying the infected computers' Hosts file to include a line which redirects the web browser from the expected .googlesyndication.com … |
| | Yahoo! has complained to the [URL="http://ec.europa.eu/comm/competition/mergers/cases/index/m94.html#m_4731"]European Commission[/URL] that Google's $3.1 billion acquisition of Doubleclick, the online advertising business, could reduce competition and ultimately push up pricing for European customers. The fear, naturally enough considering that Google has always been in the advertising business just as much as it has the …  |
| | [URL="http://www.comscore.com/"]comScore Media Metrix[/URL] has published its monthly analysis of US online consumer activity showing that education related sites spiked during August as schools and universities began another academic year. With lottery jackpots reaching record highs, lotto and sweepstake sites also proved popular as did the sports genre what with the … |
| | [FONT="]Unless you happen to have been one of the people who authorized payment of around $800,000 for the design, or were on the receiving end of it, then the chances are you will agree with the momentum of public opinion that the [URL="http://www.london2012.com/index.html"]London 2012 Olympics branding[/URL] sucks. In fact, it …  |
| | The [URL="http://www.comscore.com/"]comScore Media Metrix[/URL] monthly analysis of U.S. consumer activity at top online properties for March 2007 has been released, and shows a change at the top of the rankings. Several key players in the social networking space experienced gains, as did those looking to both make and save money … |
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