In an effort to better understand the impact of digital advertising, Google will be investing money to research the trend. Google will not be conducting the research alone. Instead, the Internet giant will join ranks with WPP, which is an advertising company based in the United Kingdom.

Together these two companies will contribute around $4.6 million into the research, which will take place over a three-year period. Google and WPP hope to gain a better understanding on how to balance web advertising with the more traditional forms of advertising.

It is not difficult for online advertisers to determine the impact of their ads because they can count the number of clicks that each one might receive. Despite this, several of the larger companies are still hesitant to turn to the web for advertising purposes. A group called Forrester Research determined that advertisers spend less than 10% of their budget on the Internet.

Google and WPP are hoping that they can determine what the key ingredients are for a successful online marketing campaign. Once they have a better feel for this it is thought that they can use the information to encourage more companies to spend additional money on web advertising.

This is certainly not the first time that Google has embarked on a mission to research web advertising. In the past they teamed up with a group called Publicis Groupe in an effort to learn more about web advertising.

Mobile web advertising growing rapidly

Ewdison Then

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Technology

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Over the last year, the number of people in the US who turn to their mobile devices to search the web on a daily basis has doubled. In January nearly 22 million people were taking advantage of the mobile web. This means that companies like Google have probably not been able to fully capitalize on the sudden growth. It was also revealed that more than 60 million people also use the mobile web to check the news from time to time.

The results of the poll were provided by ComScore. An analyst with the company, Mark Donovan, said “We have seen use of mobile Internet evolve from an occasional activity to being a daily part of people’s lives. This underscores the growing importance of the mobile medium as consumers become more reliant on their mobile devices to access time-sensitive and utilitarian information.”

Some of the most popular activities conducted on the web by mobile users include blogging and visiting social networking sites. The ComScore survey showed that males between the ages of 18 and 34 were the heaviest users of the mobile web with around 50% of them taking advantage of the service. Within that same age bracket, around 40% of the females surveyed said that they occasionally use the mobile web.

As the mobile web continues to grow in popularity, the revenue from mobile web advertising continues to grow. Over a one-year time span there was an increase of 17% in ad revenues, which grew to $760 million. These figures are expected to reach $3 billion within five years.

TACO – A Firefox add-on to protect web surfers from targeted web advertising

Ewdison Then

The Web

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A developer named Christopher Soghoian at Harvard University created an add-on for web browsers that will prevent advertisers from being able to monitor a user’s web surfing activities. This includes the various searches that a browser on the web might conduct and even the sites that they might visit. For those who might be worried about their privacy on the internet, this new web extension could prove to be very useful.

The add-on has been named TACO, or Targeted Advertising Cookie Opt Out. Anyone that installs this extension will be able to prevent 27 companies who engage in behavioral targeting from monitoring their web usage. Although this is certainly a start, there are plenty more web advertisers that could still be targeting your web usage.

TACO was created by altering a Google web extension which was possible because of an open source license. The extension works by creating a permanent cookie that allows the web user to opt out of the behavioral tracking programs. This includes Google’s new behaviorally based web advertising program as well. Even if your cookies are cleared, the cookies added by TACO will remain.

Soghoian, who created the browser extension, said that this was only a temporary solution for a much bigger problem. He suggested that all behavioral web advertisers should adopt a universal cookie which would allow a person to opt out of their programs instead of having an opt out cookie for each different advertiser. Soghoian also said that coming up with an agreeable solution by all web advertisers would be a difficult task.

Bill focused on web advertising meets its demise

The State Senate in Utah killed a bill which was attempting to regulate the way in which web advertisers used trademarks. This particular bill would have made it illegal for a company to use the trademark of another company as a trigger for one of its own web advertisements.

This was not the first time that the State Senate had attempted to pass similar bills. There are at least four previous attempts which produced a variety of outcomes. In some cases, the laws were declared unconstitutional while in other cases the writing of the bills was simply too poor.

Utah is the home of a couple large websites including Overstock.com. This site has already filed a lawsuit over this type of trademark infringement. Their claim was that a competitor was improperly using the Overstock trademark to bring attention to its own web advertisements.

A number of internet based companies campaigned against the bill. They suggested that if it became law, businesses that were focused on web advertising would be the ones that were hurt. They also claimed that ordinary web browsers would also be unfairly punished because they would miss out on an opportunity to see web advertisements that might of interest to them.

The director of the High Tech Law Institute, Eric Goldman, said that the bill was a disaster. He also noted that it was very probable that the State Senate in Utah would introduce another bill with a similar focus in the future.

Behavioral web advertising sparks concerns about privacy

A new survey published by TRUSTe shows that Americans view their privacy on the internet as a primary concern. Over 90% of the people that responded to the survey commented that privacy was at least somewhat of a concern to them.

One form of web advertising called behavioral targeting, which produces advertisements based on a web browser’s activity, was a cause for concern among those who participated in the survey. Less than 30% of respondents said that they did not mind this form of web advertisement. When asked if people could be taken advantage of if they were not careful, 75% said yes.

As behavioral targeting grows in popularity, the controversy that surrounds it continues to grow as well. Several groups are concerned about regulation in the industry and they are working hard to establish standards on their own before the government is forced to intervene. Even with the extra effort, not all government officials are convinced that self-regulation is the answer.

Jon Leibowitz, who is a commissioner with the Federal Trade Commission, said of the developing situation that “Put simply, this could be the last clear chance to show that self-regulation can — and will — effectively protect consumers’ privacy.” If self-regulation fails, Leibowitz added that “it will certainly invite legislation by Congress and a more regulatory approach by our commission.”

Some companies like Google and Yahoo have already begun to refine their web advertising practices. This includes giving web browsers the ability to see what type of data they are collecting as well as better explaining what happens to that data.

[via NY Times]

The end of Microsoft’s adCenter Analytics is quickly approaching

For those of you that are familiar with Microsoft’s adCenter Analytics, it is time to say farewell. The software giant has announced that it will be ending the program which is currently in a beta phase and being tested by a number of people. Those who were participating in the beta phase will be able to use adCenter Analytics till the end of the year.

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Microsoft’s adCenter Analytics was touted as a way to allow web advertisers to get more in touch with their target market while at the same time increasing the effectiveness of their advertisements. Microsoft claimed that clients who chose to use the service would be able to get their advertisements out to a larger audience which would produce greater returns. There are a number of tools inside of adCenter Analytics that were designed to provide demographical information about the web advertiser’s audience as well.

Apparently Microsoft has decided that adCenter Analytics was not exactly producing the results that they were hoping for. In a brief messaged posted on their website they have informed users that they were appreciative of their efforts. It said “You’ve helped us work towards making an informed decision about building a general Web analytics solution, and despite the end-of-life plan, the beta was very much a success. It enabled us to confidently determine that we can be of most value to advertisers and publishers by offering a tailored solution that meets more specialized needs.”