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CBS to bloggers: Install our widgets, and we'll split the profits

CBS Television Stations has launched a new program to get its local news headlines onto blogs and social-media sites, the CBS division said Monday.

Called the CBS Local Ad Network, it's a way for participating region-focused blogs to pull in extra cash by embedding CBS news widgets on their sites and splitting the revenue of accompanying ads with CBS.

On Monday, the program was launched in a selection of the TV network's regional markets: Boston, Dallas-Fort Worth, San Francisco, Denver, and Chicago. Within the next few weeks, CBS has said, the CBS Local Ad Network will come to … Read more

BrightRoll brings HD video ads to the Web

If you're among the majority of Americans, you probably aren't watching high-definition on your television yet. But come Monday, you may start to see HD commercials on your PC.

San Francisco-based BrightRoll is offering advertisers the ability to run large-format, high-quality video ads across its network of Web site publishers.

The ads initially appear as banner ads on the page. When a user click on one, a large separate window opens up on top of the Web page.

There are trade-offs for serving up high-definition video in terms of time it takes for them to load, but these … Read more

eBay brings affiliate marketing program in-house

eBay was set to announce on Monday that it is bringing its affiliate marketing program in-house instead of outsourcing it to ValueClick.

Scheduled to launch April 1, the new eBay Partner Network will give eBay a direct relationship with the more than 100,000 Web sites that drive traffic to eBay through ads and links. As a result, eBay will have better insight into what ad campaigns boost traffic.

Up until now, the affiliate marketing programs for eBay and Half.com were managed by ValueClick's Commission Junction platform.

However, eBay's Tradera AB, ProStores, Reseller Marketplace, Media Marketplace, eBay … Read more

Kontera hybrid mixes ads with related content

A basic rule of thumb in traditional journalism is to keep content separate from advertising. But a new type of online ad is intentionally blurring the lines to get more people to click on the links.

Online ad company Kontera on Monday is set to launch a type of in-text ad that places ads side-by-side with related content.

The Kontera Hybrid, which really sounds to me like the name of a car, features ads hidden behind highlighted words on a Web page. When the word is moused over, the ad and related content are displayed in a separate window.

For … Read more

Google testing service to let publishers manage ads

Updated 9:25 a.m. PDT Thursday with more details from Google blog.

Google is testing a new service called Ad Manager that will give Web publishers more control over ads that appear on their site.

Google Ad Manager is a "free, hosted ad and inventory management tool that can help publishers sell, schedule, deliver and measure their ad inventory," according to a Google blog.

Publishers participating in the beta test launched on Thursday can sell their own ad space, run ads from other online ad networks, or carry Google ads. The ads can include text, display, or … Read more

Specific Media acquires U.K.-based Adviva

Online ad network Specific Media has acquired U.K.-based display ad network Adviva. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The purchase marks Specific Media's move into the European market. Specific media offers demographic, behavioral, contextual, and geographic ad targeting and has anonymous data on 365 million consumers globally.

Other companies are making acquisitions to push into the U.S. market, including U.K.-based Adconian, which announced last week it is acquiring Las Vegas-based Frontline Direct.

There is a huge amount of merger and acquisition activity in the hot online advertising space. These are tiny compared with … Read more

Google to step up its display ad business, exec says

Display advertising may be only a fraction of Google's advertising business now, but wait until later this year and next, a top Google executive says.

Google will have a "very significant position" in the online display ad market by 2008-2009, Tim Armstrong, Google's North American president for advertising and commerce, said at a Bear Stearns Media Conference in Palm Beach, Fla., on Monday, according to Dow Jones.

His prediction was only strengthened by news on Tuesday that the European Commission approved Google's acquisition of DoubleClick, which is a leader in display advertising.

Eventually, Google's … Read more

Google to penalize advertisers with slow-loading pages

Companies advertising on Google's AdWords system better fine-tune their ad landing pages.

In its automated auction system, Google will soon be looking at the length of time it takes to see an advertiser's landing page once an ad is clicked as a factor in determining ad position and minimum bid for keywords.

People are more likely to abandon landing pages that load slowly, Google explained in its Inside AdWords blog.

I want to emphasize that I agree with the Google statement that people abandon pages that load too slowly.

Adconion acquires direct marketing firm Frontline Direct

One week after announcing that it raised $80 million, U.K.-based online ad network Adconion is spending one quarter of the money.

Adconion announced Thursday that it is acquiring direct marketing firm Frontline Direct for $20 million. Las Vegas-based Frontline Direct's customers include ConsumerInfo.com and Reunion.com.

Adconion said last week that it received the funding from investors led by Index Ventures.