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Top Stories
Outstanding Achievement
The Van Gogh Vodka promotional micro-site TwoTimed.com created and launched as a fun way for users to explore the newest flavor from Van Gogh Vodka, Double Espresso with Double Caffeine by .Com Marketing has been awarded “The Outstanding Achievement in Internet Advertising” in the Web Marketing Association's 2006 Internet Advertising Competition (IAC) Awards.
The Internet Advertising Competition expert judges reviewed all of the entries and scored them on seven criteria: creativity, innovation, design, copywriting, use of medium, memorability, impact.
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Another Browser War!
We are about to witness another full scale browser war! With billions of advertising dollars at stake new and established companies are clamoring to get a piece or even maintain their share of the Internet advertising gold mine. New technologies, business models and personalized ad placement are becoming mandatory components if a broswer wants to survive in a demanding and critical landscape.
Firefox is getting bigger and a lot more attention while the recent release of Windows Live Search is Microsoft's latest move in a major strategy shift that has the world's largest software company focusing more heavily on Internet-based software and services.
Keep reading those blogs for any new information or beta version browsers because this gets more interesting every day. And if you're wondering how many browsers have ever hit the market here is a great archive of existing and extinct browsers of the likes we've never even heard of: Browser Archive
Imagining the Google Future
What kind of company will Google become in the coming decades?
Will it succumb to hubris and flame out like so many of its predecessors? Or will it grow into an omnipresent, omnipotent force--not just on Wall Street or the Web, but in society?
The question was presented to scientists, consultants, former Google employees, and tech visionaries like Ray Kurzweil and Stephen Wolfram. They responded with well-argued, richly detailed, and sometimes scary visions of a Google future. On the following pages, we've compiled four very different scenarios for the company. Each details an extreme, but plausible, outcome. Full Story
(CNN Money)
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.Com
Marketing Anniversary
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April 1st marks the 9th anniversary of .Com Marketing. A phenomenal achievement given an ever-changing market and industry standards that change at the speed of light. Hillary Bressler has led her team with intuition, business saavy, and a passion for Internet marketing since 1997. Not only is she a sought after speaker for internet / new media conferences around the globe but she continues to be a positive role model for her employees and the local business community. Here's to another 9 years!
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LED Car Rims - The Next Level For Mobile Advertising:
The PimpStar is a huge leap forward in the evolution of the wheel. With the PimpStar's built-in full color LED lights, microprocessor and wireless modem, you can display virtually any image, including text, graphics, logos, and even digital photos!
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CustomWheel.com
iPod Phone Confirmed!
Yujin Robotics developed a prototype robot, Jupiter, to be used in conjunction with a project organized by the Korean Ministry of Information and Communication ("MIC"). Jupiter has been used for this pilot — testing it in ordinary households — since October 2005. iArticle
Concept Photos
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Quotes of the Month
"The ultimate search engine would basically understand everything in the world, and it would always give you the right thing. And we're a long, long ways from that."
- Larry Page (Google Cofounder)
"Cyberspace undeniably reflects some form of geography." - Justice O'Connor
"Great things are not done by impulse but by a series of small things brought together." - Van Gogh
"Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare..” - Japanese Proverb
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WildTangent Introduces Digital Ad Game Currency
Online game maker WildTangent is connecting advertisers to gamers through a token system to pay for online games. Coca-Cola Co., a longtime advertiser throughout WildTangent’s network of games, is the charter sponsor.
The token system, called WildCoins, lets users extend their game play as long as they wish without having to spend the typical $19.95 to buy the game. Coke is offering tokens as prizes through a loyalty program on its MyCoke Rewards site. Redmond, Wash.-based WildTangent is also for the first time releasing software to game developers that will let developers create spaces for ad units inside games. When the user begins playing a game online for free, the ad is served dynamically. If the user actually buys the game, the advertising is shut off.
Full Story
YouTube Caps Video Lengths To Reduce Infringement
You may already know all about YouTube. Founded a year ago, YouTube has become a prime online destination for streaming video entertainment. It has also become a prime destination for copyright infringement, as many of the videos uploaded are video captures of copyrighted material originally shown on television. This makes the copyright holders upset from time to time, and they start sending threatening letters. NBC demanded that YouTube stop hosting "Lazy Sunday," a rap video spoof done by Saturday Night Live's Chris Parnell and Andy Samberg. The clip originally aired in December, but it a was captured and uploaded to YouTube without NBC's authorization. It was an online hit.
Read on...
Samsung Develops 'Smell Tones'
Samsung Electronics has developed a perfume spraying cell phone to release "smell tones" when incoming calls are received.
According to the recently filed patent application, controls are also available to adjust the type or amount of perfume sprayed. And when the perfume is used up, exchangeable cartridges can be reloaded.
The invention uses a pressurized heating chamber to store one or more scents. Using an ultrasonic controller triggered by the press of a button or an incoming call, perfume is excited and released into the air. Need more?
.03 Term of the Month: "LINK DUMPING "
Link Dumping: Link Dumping: Link Dumping is the Black Hat art of dropping a link to your sites everywhere that is humanly possible for little to no money. Common link dumps include guestbooks, comment sections, and link exchanges.
Source: SEO Black Hat
.04 OPA: Online Paid Content Spending Tops $2B
Led by digital entertainment, online paid content revenue in the U.S. grew by 15 percent last year to top $2 billion, according to the Online Publishers Association.
OPA's 2005 Online Paid Content U.S. Market Spending Report, conducted in partnership with comScore Networks, measured record revenues and record numbers of consumers paying for content.
In 2005, the average annual spending per consumer crossed the $100 threshold for the first time, while the number of paid content consumers rose to 20.6 million at the end of 2005, indicating revenue growth is coming from increased spending by individuals and more consumers buying content.
"All signs point to very strong and steady growth for paid online content," said Pam Horan, OPA's VP marketing and membership. "With only 12 percent of the total Web population purchasing online content, enormous opportunity for growth continues to exist." Full Story
.Source: ClickZ
.05 Online Ad Start-Up Raises $48 Million With Eye On Google, Yahoo
With help from the former president of Intermix Media Inc., an online contextual-advertising start-up has raised $48 million in venture capital to quickly take a bite out of market giants Google Inc. (GOOG) and Yahoo Inc. (YHOO).
Adknowledge Inc., which places behaviorally targeted ads in Web pages and emails, aims to provide an alternative to text ads tied to keyword searches.
Brett Brewer joined the company last fall as president, after leading Intermix - the publicly traded parent of social-networking marvel Myspace.com - through a $580 million sale to News Corp. (NWS).
Together, Brewer and Adknowledge Chief Executive Scott Lynn talked with a half-dozen venture capital firms before settling in with Technology Crossover Ventures, the sole investor in the Series A round. . Full Story
The most effective online creative engages the audience and encourages them to spend time interacting with the advertisement. One format where interactivity is being maximized and online’s marketing potential is being fully explored is Rich Media. Using advanced technology and often audio visual elements, rich media formats aid the advertiser in providing a richer experience for the user. These advertisements are often animated or richer versions of standard display formats or they appear over the website content grabbing user attention and holding it with involving creative and features that draw them into further interaction with the brand.
Macromedia Flash is the web’s leading platform for interactive multimedia authoring and delivery. Flash is
quickly becoming the premier platform for streaming media on the web. It offers a number of key features that
set it apart from competing streaming platforms:
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Reach: More people can view Flash content with their current configuration than any other video format in
both the consumer and enterprise markets.
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Cost savings: Producing and delivering Flash multimedia and video costs less than using other formats.
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Technical superiority: Flash offers the most flexible delivery options, custom programming options, and the
most advanced streaming server in the industry.
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Multi-market: Flash provides the most effective video platform for business communications, consumer
marketing, and training applications.
The creative lab at .Com Marketing is always looking for and utilizing best-of-breed applications and technologies that enable better communication through media as part of your business goals. Streaming media through Flash has finally broken the file size barrier and will be integrated in a variety of exciting marketing techniques for all of our existing and upcoming clients.
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