Google makes a point of not being a traditional multi-billion dollar company. Part of what that means is leaning heavily on small ad agencies to help promote many of their products. To wit: the bizarre Google Mobile ad above in which a man says the word ‘Pizza’ for nine and a half minutes. Wait for it, wait for it, hotdog.
Google doesn’t work exclusively with small shops, however, you probably remember the fantastic Speed Test ads for Google’s Chrome browser done by BBH.
Nielsen confessed yesterday that a bug in their NetView product, and possibly other products, has created the appearance of a 22% decline in time spent online. The error is triggered by visiting a url with more than 2,000 characters which then caused the rest of a user’s session to stop being tracked.
Anyone with a modicum of experience with web publishing knows that counting web traffic is never as precise as you would expect. Quantcast, Google Analytics, Compete.com, comScore and Nielsen report different numbers for the same site, sometimes by a huge margin.
You would think by 2010 we would have this figured out, but it turns out you better count your traffic twice. When someone asks you can always give them the bigger number.
Yahoo has relaunched its ad network as Yahoo Network Plus and is pushing its new retargeting technology integrated from acquired company Dapper. They say some clients saw improvements of 100% on previous campaigns without the retargeting technology.
It’s a good play for the company who is fighting upward at the market-leader Google. No doubt there are lots of marketers who would be happy to buy into a high-performing low-cost ad network if that’s really what Yahoo is offering.
It looks as if Santa Monica, CA based Demand Media is nearly ready for an IPO. The valuation they’re looking for is a staggering $1.5 billion. That’ll buy a lot of spammy content. The company’s performance is on the rise, $41 million this year vs. $18.9 million last year.
Nielsen confessed yesterday that a bug in their NetView product, and possibly other products, has created the appearance of a 22% decline in time spent online. The error is triggered by visiting a url with more than 2,000 characters which then caused the rest of a user’s session to stop being tracked. 
