Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.
IE 9 To Block Cookies
The next version of Microsoft’s web browser, Internet Explorer 9, will include a feature which will empower users to block cookies being set by ad targeters. The new IE is scheduled to be released some time next year. The Wall Street Journal reports, “Users will be able to subscribe to something called ‘tracking protection lists’—lists of the Web addresses used by tracking companies. Internet Explorer would then automatically block those companies from the user’s computer.” Read more. The FTC’s Jon Leibovitz applauded the move by Microsoft while the Internet Advertising Bureau’s Randall Rothenberg wondered about its impact. It will be interesting to see how updates occur for the “tracking protection lists.” The Journal says “Users will need to rely on lists compiled by privacy groups and other outsiders. To use Tracking Protection, a user would need to select a list and turn the feature on. The list would automatically be updated every week. While the feature would be off by default, once a user turned it on, the protection would remain in place.” Visit the IE 9 beta website.
Proximic Gets Funds For Contextual
Semantic targeting firm Proximic announced that it has secured $4.4 million in Series C funding from existing investors Wellington Partners and Holtzbrinck Group. Proximic’s website lists partners such as GroupM, eBay and Adnetik. In the press release, the company says iits “services enable its clients to target ads precisely against page-level context or user interest.” Read it.
Big Data Gets You Big Check
One of Metamarkets’ (AdExchanger.com Q&A) and Datapop’s (AdExchanger.com Q&A) key investor, Roger Ehrenberg from IA Ventures, is featured in a Wall Street Journal Venture Capital Dispatch blog post. Ehrenberg tells the WSJ that his fund is focusing “around ‘big data’–the growing mass of information being collected online. The firm will target companies working on machine learning, anomaly detection, high-performance computing, predictive analytics, data visualization and related fields. Investments will range between $250,000 and $750,000.” Read it.
Adnetik and AdBrite announced a strategic partnership centered on video advertising inventory into addition to display and what AdBrite says is 1 billion daily impressions from more than 120,100 websites. Read the release.
M&A Gettin’ Busy
Investment bank Petsky Prunier reports that mergers and acquisitioins momentum continued in November as “a total of 143 deals worth approximately $6.5 billion was announced in November 2010. Transaction volume for the month was up 120%, while aggregate deal value was up 27% from November 2009. On a month-over-month basis, transaction volume was up 68% and value was up 150% from October 2010. Digital Media/Commerce was the most active segment for the month with 49 transactions for approximately $1.1 billion, and Advertising & Promotion was the highest value segment at approximately $2 billion.”
Mobile Display Numbers
All Things D’s John Paczkowski reads the tea leaves of recent data from analyst firm IDC and finds, “The mobile advertising market is ballooning, as is Google’s share of it. Of the $877 million spent on mobile advertising in the United States this year, 59 percent of it went to the [Google].” Read more. And in mobile display Paczkowski writes, “Apple claims an 18.8 percent share, which basically puts it neck and neck with Google with its 19 percent share.” Read more and see a pretty pie chart.
Walrath Returns
Former RMX’ers Mike Walrath (woohoo! Mike made the news round-up two days in a row -he’s back!) and Pat McCarthy among others have begun a new startup that isn’t advertising-focused (WA-waaa). It’s called GuideMe and The Business Insider’s Nicholas Carlson writes, “It seems to be a be a recommendation engine, powered by Twitter. It’ll start with restaurants.” Read more.
The Cloud And Big Data
Salesforce.com, a stealthy player in the world of big data (as opposed to the Oracle’s and Cisco’s of the world), announced the launch of Database.com which TechCrunch’s Leena Rao describes as a “plug-and-play storage infrastructure for any developers, using any language, platform or device. (…) As Salesforce’s primary database in the cloud, the company touts Database.com as one of the largest enterprise databases, containing more than 20 billion records and delivering more than 25 billion transactions per quarter at an average response time of less than 300 milliseconds.” They could use a DSP. Read more.
Flurry Gets $15 Million For Mobile Analytics
Mobile advertising remains red hot as mobile analytics firm Flurry announced a $15 million Series C financing ed by Menlo Ventures with participation from existing investors, including DFJ, InterWest, First Round Capital and Union Square Ventures. Menlo Ventures Sonja Hoel Perkins will join Flurry’s board and is quoted in the release: “Flurry has positioned itself like no other company to help mobile app developers solve critical audience segmentation, distribution and monetization challenges.” Read it.
Good CMOs Are Quants
Byron Deeter, a partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, thinks he knows what makes a good chief marketing officer and says that from his company’s viewpoint, ” we see many of the best CMOs as ‘quant jocks’ – not creative types ordinarily concerned with creating attractive print ads or snappy videos. Top CMOs get the creative, but also understand how to use the latest high-tech tools to maximize marketing programs and convert potential customers into buyers.” Read more on VentureBeat.
SERP Scum Usurped
The guy who deliberately tried to get people to write bad things about him online so that Google would rank his website higher in the search engine result pages is now, officially, in trouble with the law. After unwisely deciding to tell his incredible story to the New York Times, Vitaly Borker – a.k.a. Tony Russo and Stanley Bold – has been arrested and “charged with defrauding customers of his online eye wear company and making repeated and violent threats to customers who attempted to return defective goods.” Read more from Kathy Kristof on moneywatch.com.
It’s The Right Media Holiday Game!
No really, it’s the Right Media Holiday game!… play it now and find out what is meant by the “DSP Dive.” Start here. After you’re done playing the game, please tweet your high score and use the hashtag #rmxgame. We’ll see who the big liar, er, um, I mean winner is!
