Google nabs CNN ad deal from Yahoo
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Blog: The search giant says it signed a multiyear agreement with CNN.com, in a blow to rival Yahoo.
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(InfoWorld) - Google has acquired FeedBurner, a provider of publishing and advertising services for blogs and content syndication feed. FeedBurner's technology will boost Google's ad network and Web publishing services, Google said. Terms of the deal, which has closed, weren't revealed. FeedBurner will continue operating as it has until now, so existing customers shouldn't experience any interruptions in service. New customers will be able to continue signing up for FeedBurner services as well. Meanwhile, Google will work to integrate FeedBurner's technologies with a number of its own products. The volume of Web content and advertising delivered via RSS and Atom feeds has increased significantly in recent years, and Google feels that by acquiring FeedBurner it will be able to capitalize on this growth and expand its advertising reach. FeedBurner, which has more than 400,000 publishers on its network, will beef up Google's own AdSense publisher network, particularly among blogs, where FeedBurner is stronger than Google, said Susan Wojcicki, vice president of product management at Google, during a press conference. Likewise, Google advertisers will benefit from an expanded ad inventory and ad distribution platform. Finally, FeedBurner shares Google's philosophy of helping end-users find information online with FeedBurner focused on blogs and feeds and Google on search. "We think this will be a win for users, publishers, and advertisers on the Internet," she said. FeedBurner, a privately-held company founded in 2003, helps publishers and advertisers with "the spiraling complexity" of online media distribution compounded by RSS feeds, widget applications, and mobile devices, said Dick Costolo, FeedBurner's CEO and co-founder. "FeedBurner's focus on delivering the right media to the right end point and measuring all that for the publisher means we've got a great opportunity to combine our vision with Google's vision for organizing the world's information," he said. Despite the executives' enthusiasm, they acknowledged that prior to the acquisition, neither Google nor FeedBurner blocked their respective publishers and advertisers from signing up for each other's services. Because nothing has prevented publishers and advertisers from taking advantage of both companies' offerings, the real benefits will not materialize until concrete integration happens between the companies' services and operations. "We're working on how the products will be integrated, but we want AdWords advertisers to very easily have access to the feeds, and we want the FeedBurner publishers to potentially have access to other Google services," Wojcicki said. Google hasn't been as active as it should have been in the area of syndicated feed advertising, she said. Beyond the obvious synergy with the Google ad network, FeedBurner services and products could be complementary to Google's syndicated feed manager Reader and Google's Analytics service for tracking sites' usage, she said. FeedBurner, which has about 30 employees and raised about $10 million in venture capital funding, will keep its operations in Chicago, Costolo said. This story was updated on June 1, 2007
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(InfoWorld) - EBay has pulled all of its paid search ads from Google AdWords network in the U.S inÂ an eyebrow-raising move likely to be interpreted in the industry as a sign of deteriorating relations between the two Internet giants. However, eBay has kept its AdWords campaigns outside of the U.S., eBay spokesman Hani Durzy said Wednesday. Durzy characterized the decision to pull the U.S. Google ads as an instance in a continued experiment eBay does to determine the best allocation of its advertising and marketing budget. ButÂ a source familiar with the situation said the move is an angry reaction by eBay's management to Google's decision to hold a protest party concurrent with the start of eBay Live, the company's annual conference for merchants. Google has been reaching out to media to promote the party, aimed at eBay merchants who are upset that eBay doesn't allow them to use Google's Checkout online transaction system. eBay Live begins Thursday eveningÂ in Boston, which is the time and place Google has chosen for its protest party. ThisÂ source also said the situation is fast-developing and fluid, with high-ranking eBay executives holding meetings right now to discuss the extent of the decision. EBay has said that Checkout, introduced about a year ago, doesn't have enough of a track record yet, while Google argues that eBay is just trying to protect its own PayPal online payment system. Durzy said the decision to "reallocate" the Google ad budget elsewhere isn't tied to the Checkout protest party, but he acknowledged that the Google event hasn't gone down well inside of eBay. "This is a regular thing we do across the different channels we use for marketing, but, having said that, we are disappointed that Google has chosen this time to detract from our annual event that gives online sellers a chance to learn how to grow their business in eBay and in other channels," Durzy said. "It's not the kind of activity one partner normally does with another." Relations between eBay and Google have been strained in recent years, as Google has morphed from a partner into a partial competitor with new products like Checkout and its Google Base listings service. In May of last year,Â eBay and Yahoo struck a wide-ranging partnershipÂ that, among other things, made Yahoo the exclusive provider of search and display ads within U.S. eBay sites. Although Google performs a similar function for eBay sites outside of the U.S., the eBay-Yahoo tie up was seen as a defensive move by eBay and Yahoo against Google. EBay doesn't have a timetable for when it might reinstate its paid search ads in Google's U.S. AdWords system, Durzy said. "We need time to evaluate the impact" of the pullout, he said. "We don't have a time for when we might turn them back on." EBay pulled the ads "a couple of days ago," he said. "We're in the midst of an experiment and we'll see how it goes," he said. Â
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Microsoft's bid for Yahoo could provide more choice for big online advertisers living in a Google-centric universe but could hurt small- and mid-sized Internet publishers by taking away one of their options for selling ads on their Web sites.
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CNNâs decision to end its 27-year relationship with Reuters last week hindered its ability to cover the latest Osama bin Laden video message as breaking news.
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Google Inc.  said on  Friday it is acquiring Feedburner Inc., bolstering the Internet  advertising leader's capacity to distribute both media and  advertising to blogs via Web syndication technology.
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The search-engine giant, which was expected to go public as early as Wednesday, instead has slashed the deal&#39;s expected price range and cut the number of shares being sold by existing shareholder in half. The new parameters suggest a newly public Google ...
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Internet media giant Yahoo Inc.   YHOO.O said on Wednesday it had acquired Jumpcut, a site that   provides simple-to-use online video-editing tools, its latest   bid to enhance its Web video services offerings.
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VentureBeat is reporting that Google is taking the first rumored moves in its obvious next step to bring Google Video Ads to the masses by signing a major advertising deal with Dish Network, the second largest satellite TV company in the US. The latest reports are significant because they suggest Google may be on its way [...]
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NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO  - Yahoo Inc is reportedly in talks with News Corp to combine their Web properties, but Wall Street analysts rained scorn on the likelihood of a deal that can fend off Microsoft Corp's $42.1 billion bid for Yahoo.
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The NY Times reports (via LostRemote) on how Google is boosting video content syndication from major media partners like Dow Jones: Google is working with Dow Jones &#38; Company, Cond&#233; Nast, Sony BMG Music Entertainment and other large content companies to syndicate their video content on other Web sites. The videos appear inside Google ad boxes [...]
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Yahoo Inc. said on Friday that it will offer BBC News video on its news site through an agreement with ABC News.
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(InfoWorld) - Yahoo continued its pursuit of online ad rivals with a $300 million purchase of private online advertising firm BlueLithium, the Internet giant announced Wednesday. San Jose, California-based BlueLithium offers banner advertising on a network of about 1,000 sites, which will help toÂ extend Yahoo's ad reachÂ as it continues to challenge rivals Google and Microsoft's online ad offerings. The deal is for cash and is expected to close at the end of the fourth quarter of 2007, Yahoo said. BlueLithium will become a Yahoo subsidiary once the acquisition is completed. It will be integrated with other Yahoo ad offerings, including the Yahoo Publisher Network and the Right Media Exchange. IncreasedÂ competition in the online advertising marketÂ between Yahoo, Microsoft, and Google has led to a series of acquisitions by all three companies. Yahoo has struggled over the past year, reporting disappointing second-quarter financial results and a decrease in net income over the same period in 2006. The company has alsoÂ spent almost a year reorganizingÂ both its top management and its business divisions. Â
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Yahoo Inc.  on Tuesday reported its quarterly profit nearly quintupled as online advertising took business from television, search services grew and Yahoo sold a stake in rival Google Inc.
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Google Inc.  on Monday again  boosted the number of shares it plans to sell in its initial  public offering, saying it will issue 2.7 million shares to  Yahoo Inc.  to settle a lawsuit over technology used to  display ads.
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Google Inc. raised the specter of Microsoft Corp. using its proposed $42 billion acquisition of Yahoo Inc. to gain illegal control over the Internet, underscoring the online search leader's queasiness about its two biggest rivals teaming up.
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(InfoWorld) - Google has lost the services of the co-founders and top executives of dMarc Broadcasting,Â the radio advertising company Google acquired one year agoÂ to push into that market. Chad Steelberg, dMarc's chairman and CEO, and his brother Ryan Steelberg, dMarc's president, no longer work at Google, a Google spokesman said on Friday. The spokesman declined to answer further questions, so it's not known when was their last day at Google, whether they resigned or were fired, and who is in charge of Google's radio ad operation now. The short and terse way in which Google is dealing with the news of the Steelbergs' departure seems to indicate that tensions and disagreements played a part in the situation and that the rift wasn't amiable, an analyst said. "It could have been handled differently. This is suggestive of a deeper problem," said Greg Sterling of Sterling Market Intelligence. The Steelbergs founded the company in 2002, and Google acquired it in February of last year as part of its attempts to diversify from paid search advertising into other forms of advertising. DMarc's technology links radio stations and advertisers and automates various aspects of the radio ad-selling process in a way that Google has said is very similar to the way it matches ads to the users of its search engine. The Steelbergs' decision to abandon the company they founded could stem from problems Google may be having in carrying out its plan for radio advertising, Sterling said. "This may set back the effort to some degree if there's a larger problem with executing the strategy," he said. Moreover, when founders leave their company, it often happens that loyal employees follow them out the door, and if this happens with dMarc, it could further destabilize the operation, Sterling said. Google paid $102 million in cash for all outstanding equity interests in dMarc and agreed to make up to $1.136 billion in additional payments when and if certain performance goals were met. Google has been integrating dMarc's technology into its AdWords advertising platform to open a new radio ad distribution channel for Google advertisers. Google recently began testing its radio ad system with some advertisers and radio stations. "Google is committed to the audio business. We will continue to gather feedback during the Audio Ads beta test and are happy with the progress to date," a Google spokesman said. "We remain focused on delivering value to the radio industry as we continue to expand radio station inventory and enhance the product so that it's ready for all advertisers."