Microsoft Corporation has acquired aQuantive Inc (for $6 billion). This is a move that Microsoft hopes will provide the industry with a world-class advertising platform on all devices and media, creating the best experience for everyone - users, advertisers and publishers.

Advertiser and Publisher Solutions Group (APS), created by Microsoft, will be responsible for building Microsoft’s monetization engine to serve the advertisers and publishers. The APS will assume responsibility for building and marketing efforts on all ad platforms - Atlas, DRIVEpm, MSNDR and Microsoft AdCenter, as well as on emerging media types such as in-game ads and mobile ads, the two advertising platforms that seem to be gaining much attention over the past months.

Today we take a significant step forward in our ability to capture share of the $40 billion online ad opportunity and the larger $600 billion ad market, which is rapidly shifting to the world of online and IP-served platforms, including TV and gaming…

The addition of aQuantive’s technologies and people to the Microsoft portfolio is a core, strategic investment and step forward in our plans to become one of the top two online advertising platforms in the industry.

aQuantive was founded in 1997, and has soon risen to be a leader in digital marketing services. This acquisition by Microsoft is a move that just may put the big M in line with its two main competitors, Google and Yahoo. Google is already far ahead from the two, but with recent efforts from Microsoft regarding search technology improvements and redesigns, and now a creation of what may prove to be a very powerful ad delivery platform, Microsoft just may be able to get back into the advertising space and gain significant improvements. These improvements just may be what it takes for Microsoft to get back into the game.

Share This

Starting as an innovative solution for easy video content creation, distribution and sharing, VideoEgg has evolved into a leading provider of rich media ad content delivery. Right now they provide content on more than two dozen leading social network sites, with over 20 million ads served daily. Its network of distribution sites is now one social site richer. VideoEgg has added Facebook to its list of content delivery sites.

With the rapid Facebook expansion taking place, a move such as this was only to be expected. After all, Facebook is a social network inhabited by mostly young, college educated people, who share content while participating in various groups according to interest. As VideoEgg points out “you have huge reach into a young, social online market”.

With more Facebook applications emerging every day, VideoEgg is hoping to arise interest in third party developers to use the VideoEgg content delivery platform and enrich their Facebook applications with an innovative, unobtrusive ad content delivery system (the visitor is not interrupted unless she expresses interest in the ad content by clicking or putting mouse over). There are examples of VideoEgg’s Facebook projects, such as the promotion for the movie Bourne Ultimatum:

Before putting mouse over…

After putting mouse over…

Will the Facebook community be receptive to such ad content? Well, that remains to be seen. Facebook has been and is being used by companies for social network promotion (for example the Wal-Mart campaign), so the VideoEgg move is something that will add to the already existing social network advertising momentum for sure. It will attract even more companies wishing to show their advertising messages on social networks such as Facebook. Although there are something like 30 million Facebook users, VideoEgg delivers ads on a CPM basis. According to Techcrunch, VideoEgg CEO Matt Sanchez said ad packages are selling at above $10 CPM, with a 60/40 split of revenue in favor of application providers. Ads will at some point be demographically targeted, when Facebook makes available the necessary user data.

Some early advertisers are already taking advantage of this, such as Rock You, Inc., whose CTO, Jia Shen said:

“The Eggnetwork ad units work very well with the Facebook platform…  RockYou is excited to partner with VideoEgg and share monetization strategies that tap millions of users who access our applications across Facebook.”

Jia Shen is co-founder of Rock You, Inc., and a leading developer and publisher of Facebook applications and widgets on the web.

In further support of the growing community of Facebook application developers, VideoEgg will be hosting the first ever App-Camp in San Francisco on October 20th and 21st, 2007. The event will offer developers an entertaining relaxed environment for exploring different ways how they can monetize their applications. Marketers and venture capitalists will also attend to delve into the financial stuff for supporting further developement.

Share This

This is fun! Simple, but made me fool around for a while. It’s a Flash “be a DJ” application/game on GamesGames.com, called DJ Mixer . You have to fiddle with all the various controls on the screen first to get the feeling of what everything does, and the kind of beats and samples you can get. Then the fun starts. After a while, I actually managed to perform for a straight couple of minutes. My girlfriend actually asked me if I was listening to a DJ session on the radio.

I would have loved to see a capture control (although you can do this through separate software), maybe a pre-composition function (program melodies into samples; upload XML file with values and samples from own computer) and maybe some visual effects to complete the experience. Also, more samples of course. Hope the author takes this to the next level in the future. Then, all you have to do is book an online party session for a friend across town, and stream live!

Check it out - DJ Mixer !

Share This

I posted already about the Wal-Mart campaign on Facebook and gave my opinion that it was a good idea. I still stand by the fact that Facebook is a good platform for connecting with individuals and groups, but having followed the progress of Wal-Mart’s campaign on Facebook, I have to say there are certain details that have come to my attention, that may not work for the benefit of Wal-Mart at all.

I found the Wal-Mart group on Facebook after a short search. The quiz that tries to identify you and your style is actually interesting. I took the quiz and came out as the free spirit type, with the appropriate illustration of what my dorm room might look like. Naturally, other illustrations were offered, I guess each corresponding to a profile someone may get after taking the quiz. Something was missing though…

There were links available all over the place taking me to the Wal-Mart online store, but once there I could only access particular product groups (bedding, beds, desks, chairs, etc). What I was expecting was complete collections of products tied directly to the profiles from the Facebook app quiz. For example, I would love to have seen a customizable product collection already designed for the free spirit profile, or any other profile mentioned on Facebook for that matter. The way things are now, apart from being labeled as College ‘07 stuff, you get access to product categories the way you would if you simply came to the site and started going down your own prepared shopping list. I think this may turn out to be a significant conversion no-no. What’s the point of the quiz, if you don’t find matching setups on the vendor site? To be fair, many of the products offered on the pages are pretty cool though. Wouldn’t mind having many of them in my flat.

The other thing is that there is actually an Anti-Walmart group on Facebook (actually one big, and two small groups). Combined they number about 1600 members. That’s a lot more than about a 100 Wal-Mart Roommate Style Match group members. Actually, at the time of writing this post, that’s 16:1 in favor of the anti-Walmart group.

Is Wal-Mart’s Facebook campaign backfiring? Judging by the numbers so far it seems it is.

Draw your own conclusions:

Wal-Mart Roomate Style Match (about 100 at the time of writing this post)

Anti Wal Mart (the big one with about 1300 members, at the time of writing this)

Have an opinion about this? Please leave a comment.

Share This

Wow, the Facebook train is really building speed! This time Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has introduced its Facebook application allowing college students an easy way to design their dorm rooms with their roommates. Facebook users would join the group and take a quiz to determine their decorating style, followed by a list of recommended products they can order from Wal-Mart, and mix with those selected by their roommate.

We realize that this is an audience that we need to be talking to, and that this is a channel we need to be on…

That’s not all though… Group members can download a complete dorm room shopping list, link to the Wal-Mart earth-friendly promotion web site, or visit Soundcheck, Wal-Marts web site featuring performances by artists such as Bon Jovi or Madonna.

Wal-Mart has done this as part of an effort to gain more sales from the US back-to-school season. This is a nice example of social network platform usage for a marketing campaign. There have been opinions that Facebook may soon run out of steam. Wal-Mart obviously didn’t think so.

Read the whole story on Reuters.

Share This

How many times have you blown it with a potential visitor because your article or blog post title sucks? Well, now that’s over, because the secret to writing great headlines has been revealed.

It is really quite simple - all you really need to do is read through some very interesting posts and articles and spend a couple of hours reflecting on this. The result will be a surprising improvement in your headline writing skills. I am not going to write too much about this, although I have had experience over the years from writing headlines in PPC ads. Instead, visit ImproveTheWeb.com where Yuri has compiled an excellent list of resources for learning how to write great headlines.

Share This

Live.com will get a new home page look very soon. As reported on Liveside.net , the new home page was revealed in Japan at a press conference by Tetuya Onoda, Windows Live Director. The new design will feature the Wave 2 UI, and will incorporate various live services allowing users to monitor their favorite source of information. A few examples of integrated services:

• Providing access to your emails and contacts through Windows Live Hotmail
• Showing the upcoming calendar items from your Windows Live Calendar
• Allowing blog and photo publishing direct to your Windows Live Space
• Showing the status of Windows Live OneCare installed on your home pc

Looks pretty good. What do you think?

Share This

While attending the Seoul Digital Forum, Google CEO Eric Schmidt was asked to define Web 3.0 by a member of the audience. He said after having seen Web 2.0 based on Ajax, Web 3.0 would probably be “applications that are pieced together” from small bits, functional on any platform (PC or mobile), with data in the cloud, and applications that are very fast and highly customizable, and are available for distribution virally through social networks and email.

While his interpretation of Web 2.0, which he calls a “marketing term”, is somewhat simplistic, his vision of the next evolution of the Web (let’s call it Web 3.0), is right on the spot. With recent developments, especially in the social networking arena, it seems that the kind of applications Schmidt is talking about are already emerging (Facebook applications), although these applications for now reside behind a fence, most probably because their development is still in quite an immature stage, so with time I expect these applications to reach a standardized form and hit the open community in a much larger scale.

I must react, though, and say that we cannot look at the evolution of the Web simply from the technical point of view. Web 2.0 has only touched the social dimension through technical advancements opening new doors and making social interaction on the Web possible on a whole new level. Web 3.0 would than have to be not only a technical improvement, such as those mentioned earlier, but also a major social improvement - even more control to the people, better social interaction models, improved online privacy and safety. Would you add anything to the list? Leave a comment.

See the video

I found this via Read/Write Web .

Share This

This is a new addition to the evergrowing portfolio of Facebook applications. Buy.com brings an application that enables Facebook users to extend their profile pages beyond information sharing, allowing everyone who opts-in to use the service to actually sell stuff on their page(s). This is a significant move on the part of Buy.com, one that is probably result of an effort to counter its main rival eBay.

We see tremendous growth opportunities in providing the millions of users on business and social networks with an alternative to eBay, and the ability to transform their personal profile pages beyond information-sharing.

Buy.com said it aims to extend availability of their service to other online network sites in the future.

Share This

I just came across a great post on Photoshoproadmap.com ! It’s called The Best 80 Photoshop Text Effects on the Web , and it features a neat way for everyone to learn how to produce some very useful Photoshop effects. The picture you see on the right is actually a small portion of an 80 piece collage where each small picture actually represents an illustration of the Photoshop effect in question and links towards the corresponding tutorial on the source site.

This is a great resource, I’ve added it to my Bookmarks and have already found a couple of interesting tutorials for some cool effects I’ll be using on a current project.

Share This