Important to Understand How New Media Merger Deals Reflecting Changing Nature of Search, Ads, and Data Collection

We think this excerpt from Advertising Age [sub. required] on Microsoft’s recent summit for marketers illustrates where search engines are headed (and how it reflects the converging search, rich media, video and display ad markets):

“You’re in a Microsoft Windows’ Live search-results page after querying “Land Rover,” you mouse over an icon next to the sponsored results and suddenly you’re careening into what in another more offline world would be called a glossy print ad or a detailed brochure.

Want to see the fine print? Just scroll in deeper. Want to see what radio station the car’s audio system is tuned to? Zoom in infinitely until you can read the micro call letters on the stereo display. This technology is called Seadragon and will allow advertisers to push tons of extra data and images to searchers, a big improvement over today’s unsophisticated text ads.”

From: “MSN’s Online-Ad Plan: Let the Web Evolve.” Abbey Klaasen. Advertising Age. May 11, 2007

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Google Tags YouTube Videos to Make them Advertiser Friendly

via 77lab [May 17, 2007]:

“As soon as the content tags of YouTube videos are objectively verified by the new Google team, advertisers can target specific groups of people interested in certain themes, such as independent movies, videogames, or cola (and mentos). Marketers can then attach advertisements to certain tags, much like they now attach advertisements to site content keywords.

Google is putting together a team of ‘video content verifiers’, who will have the task of checking YouTube videos for having the right tags, a spokesperson for Google told 77Lab yesterday. This will make sure the videos have the content that is described by the tags and can sort the videos for marketers’ sake. It seems there is a long way to go before videos can be placed in categories automatically but Google recognizes the importance of verifying the content of YouTube’s videos.”

Microsoft’s Expanding Data Reach: We Will Know You

excerpt from New Scientist, May 16, 2007: “IF YOU thought you could protect your privacy on the web by lying about your personal details, think again. In online communities at least, entering fake details such as a bogus name or age may no longer prevent others from working out exactly who you are.

That is the spectre raised by new research conducted by Microsoft. The computing giant is developing software that could accurately guess your name, age, gender and potentially even your location, by analysing telltale patterns in your web browsing history… Previous studies show there are strong correlations between the sites that people visit and their personal characteristics, says software engineer Jian Hu from Microsoft’s research lab in Beijing, China…
Hu’s colleague Hua-Jun Zeng says the software could get its raw information from a number of sources, including a new type of “cookie” program that records the pages visited. Alternatively, it could use your PC’s own cache of web pages, or proxy servers could maintain records of sites visited. So far it can only guess gender and age with any accuracy, but the team say they expect to be able to “refine the profiles which contain bogus demographic information”, and one day predict your occupation, level of qualifications, and perhaps your location. “Because of its hierarchical structure – language, country, region, city – we may need to design algorithms to better discriminate between user locations,” Zeng says.”

“New software can identify you from your online habits.” Paul Marks. New Scientist.  May 16, 2007

Google and Feedburner: Building the Data Profile

One of the responsibilities of this blog is to track and highlight for the public the interactive ad business, especially its impact on privacy and civil society. As part of its online ad industry consolidation drive, Google may soon acquire Feedburner. Feedburner says it’s “the leading provider of media distribution and audience engagement services for blogs and RSS feeds…FeedBurner also offers the largest feed and blog advertising network…” Here’s the kind of user data Google may soon reap, according to Online Media Daily (my italics):

“Adding Feedburner to its portfolio would give Google a number of gains. The ability to roll tracking statistics on Feedburner’s reported total of more than 720,000 feeds into Google Analytics is the most obvious, as the business of online advertising increasingly gets driven by trailing and deciphering user behavior. “Google’s Analytics suite will definitely benefit over time through this acquisition,” said Brough. [vice president and search director, DraftFCB]

And while the deal may also speed up widespread integration of AdSense ads into RSS feeds (an option currently available to select advertisers during closed beta testing), its implications for personalized search may be more valuable. Should Google decide to combine knowledge of a user’s subscribed feeds with its wealth of corresponding behavioral data, the company will be able to further target both search and advertising capabilities.”

Source: “Google’s Feedburner Grab Would Impact Personalized Search, Analytics.” Tameka Lee. Online Media Daily. May 25, 2007.

Is The Open Internet Coalition About A Real Democratic Net–or One Safe for Data Collection and Interactive Advertising?

A note of caution about the Open Internet Coalition, which is working on network neutrality issues. Beyond neutrality, we need a broadband medium which fosters privacy, promotes civic engagement and–especially–an online culture where commercialism isn’t the foremost value. We are uneasy about the alliance between public interest groups and Open Internet Coalition members such as Google and Interactive Corp. (Ask.com). Google’s proposed merger with Doubleclick, as well as the unprecendented series of other new media mergers, raise critical questions about the democratic nature of the online medium. Public interest groups should not be seeking a quick fix for digital communications, such as the Open Internet Coalition. Indeed, without rules governing Google’s expansion, limits on data collection, a strong legal framework for privacy, and policies promoting meaningful open non-commercial civic space, the Internet will be “open” in name only. The Google’s, Yahoo!’s, IAC’s, Microsoft’s, etc. will be working with the phone and cable broadband monopolists on a playing field which still unfairly favors the giants. It will be “open Internet” really operated by the digital denizens working the global Madison Avenue beat. Yes, network neutrality is important to fight for. But it’s just a piece of what should be a meaningful public interest agenda.

Behavioral Targeting Comes to Online Display Ads

We have been telling regulators and others, in discussing GoogleClick, YahooRight, and MicroaQuantive, that the danger in terms of privacy (and competition) is connected to the ability to collect user data & target via the converging search and broadband video market. We think this excerpt from today’s Online Media Daily illustrates what’s here:

“The future of online marketing lies in making graphical display ads and video perform as effectively for marketers as search marketing has. And the key to that is data.

If you’re looking for a marketplace that works–search is the best model to look at. Marketers are essentially bidding on “data”–in this case keyword data–to create an economic marketplace that ties them together with consumers.

Every time you search, you’re telling marketers exactly what you’re interested in at that very moment. That’s why search ads are so targeted and perform so well. What many people don’t realize is that by merging behavioral and other data sets with real time analytics and sophisticated targeting, we can now achieve that same level of performance with display ads…
For the handful of “next-generation,” targeted ad networks capable of adding this type of value to inventory, it means we hold the keys to a market that’s potentially five times the size of the search market, measured by total available ad impressions.”

from: Online Advertising Future: Automation or Data? Gurbaksh Chahal. May 24, 2007.

YouTube Makes itself Big Brand Marketer Friendly

We suggest YouTube will be transformed as it seeks financial favors from big advertisers. Such brands will be given favorable treatment. Google’s YouTube is now in the process of building up its advertising sales staff. Here’s an excerpt from its job announcement for ad sales Reps to be based in Santa Monica, New York, Boston, Detroit, and Chicago [my italics]:

“Join the country’s leading and fastest growing advertising sales organization. YouTube, a Google company, is looking for an Advertising Sales Representative to work in our Detroit office within our sales organization.

Founded in February 2005, YouTube is a consumer media company for people to watch and share original videos worldwide through a Web experience. YouTube originally started as a personal video sharing service, and has grown into an entertainment destination with people watching more than 70 million videos on the site daily.

Main responsibility is to drive revenue for the YouTube business unit and consult with brand advertisers and interactive agencies on how to leverage the YouTube platform and participate in the YouTube community.”

YouTube and other social networks need to serve the public interest. They will likely, however, become commercial communities foremost. But that’s not a real community. So, YouTube, MySpace, Facebook and the crop of social networks on broadband (including mobile) must make their business model transparent. They need to make public what major advertisers get, in terms of access to users, data, placement, etc. Google should be playing a leadership role here, as well as Microsoft, Yahoo! and other key services.  They also should promise to always provide free and prominent civic space for candidates, issues, and public interest content.

Why is the Knight Foundation Giving a $700K Grant to Viacom? So MTV Can Sell Ads and Collect Data?

The Knight Foundation’s “News Challenge” has announced its grants. But one which raises questions is the $700k grant to Viacom’s MTV. First, the idea that one of the most financially-successful media corporations, with billions in annual revenue, requires a grant for public service boggles the mind. But beyond the pure outrage of Viacom seeking a grant (and taking money away from a well-deserving non-profit or start-up), are the questions which Knight and Viacom must address. The 700 K grant is for a MTV project that will “cover the 2008 presidential election with a Knight Mobile Youth Journalist in every state and the District of Columbia who will create video news reports specifically for distribution on cell phones. The weekly reports will be voted on by the public, and the best will be rebroadcast on the MTV television network. By enabling young adults to report on issues that interest them and distribute those reports on their most commonly used digital medium, the cell phone, MTV hopes to compel leading presidential candidates to address issues important to this demographic and to mobilize you adults to register and vote.”

What happens to all the data Viacom collects from young users? Will it be stored in Viacom’s data-mining operation for subsequent targeting? What kind of behavioral profiling or other data collection techniques will be used? Will MTV “serve” ads to these users? Will these ads be based on the data collection? What will MTV do with such revenue?

You get the picture. The Knight Foundation should be calling on the major news and media conglomerates to support projects which illustrate the potential of the new media to serve democracy and journalism. It should not be funding the fabulously wealthy to do what they long ago should have done with television–and should be now be doing with new media: financially supporting public interest programming.

PS: Note to enterprising journalists. Viacom, we believe, has pursued the foundation grant-seeking route before, to good results for it’s already fattened bottom line. There’s a bigger story here.

Two Books to Read about Behavioral Targeting and Interactive Marketing

Nothing like getting it from those that practice it. I urge all regulators, public interest consumer advocates, journalists, and others concerned about their privacy (let alone other key civil society issues) to read:

Fishing From a Barrel: Using Behavioral Targeting to Reach the Right People With he Right Ads at the Right Time. Rob Graham. Learningcraft Press.

The Online Advertising Playbook. Joe Plummer, Steve Rappaport, Taddy Hall, and Robert Barocci. Wiley.

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Congressional Dems Helping Media Consolidation?

When heavyweights like Sen. Dick Durbin, Rep. Rahm Emanuel and others in the Illinois Congressional delegation write to the FCC Chairman about the Tribune Company’s request for media ownership waivers, it’s not so subtle message is: help this giant constituent out, asap!” The May 18th letter, urged Chairman Martin and the other Commissions to act “expeditiously and to avoid administrative delay.” “We believe that prompt consideration of the merits of the Tribune Company applications is in the public interest and would be very grateful if you would give this matter your personal attention and act upon these applications in a timely fashion.” They were joined by former Speaker Rep. Denny Hastert (a total of 14 out of 19 members of the state’s delegation signed the letter). Broadcasting & Cable magazine explained [reg. may be required] that “Tribune has to file for transfer of control applications for its TV stations as it moves to take the company private. Some of those stations have been operating under a waiver of the FCC’s newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership rule.”

While the letter says the lawmakers don’t take a position on the merger-related request, it serves as placing pressure on the FCC to help out Tribune. Such a request, of course, should receive a complete and in-depth review by the agency, and not be rushed through. But the Durbin/Emanuel/Hastert letter suggests that many from both political parties–as usual–are inclined to help out powerful media companies. The letter from Durbin and the Dems should have said: FCC, we’re worried about media consolidation and you better take your time and do this right!

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