Adify Challenges AdSense

Adify, the small ad network company that is powering blog networks for larger “old” media companies such as Washington Post just raised $19 Million in funding from USVP, NBC and Time Warner. In my Giving Up on AdSense piece, I referred to the WPNI program, which is powered by Adify. Amit Agarwal reports: ComputerWorld, the

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Monetize the MySpace Parasites

I recently wrote a piece called News Corp: Bewildered Pioneer, where I discussed the rather low rate of monetization of MySpace, News Corp’s crown jewel in the online space. Following that, MySpace blocked Photobucket, Photobucket whined, the media went up in arms against News Corp. This is exactly what I would have done if I

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BusinessWeek: Crown Jewel or Achilles’ Heel?

In my post, “McGraw-Hill: Beating the Street” I have discussed McGraw-Hill’s overall business prospects, which looks good with lower double-digit growth in 2007. However, BusinessWeek, McGraw-Hill’s crown jewel is struggling and I am going to talk about it here. BusinessWeek, is one of the most widely read business magazines, with more than 4.7 million readers

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Google Acquires Doubleclick for $3.1 B

Good! Just as I was complaining about Google’s absense of CPM-based display advertising options, they have picked up Doubleclick. :: “DoubleClick’s technology is widely adopted by leading advertisers, publishers and agencies, and the combination of the two companies will accelerate the adoption of Google’s innovative advances in display advertising,” said Google CEO Eric Schmidt in

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Giving Up on AdSense

I am a painful critic for Google’s AdSense program, as it pertains to Content (not Search). My beef is that it doesn’t take into account any understanding of the target audience of a publisher, nor does it take into account Context or Intent.

Yahoo! One Up On Google

This week, Viacom announced a multi-year partnership under which Yahoo! will serve as the exclusive provider of sponsored search and contextual ads to all of Viacom’s 33 broadband sites, including MTV.com, VH1.com, Nickelodeon.com, comedycentral.com and BET.com, with potential expansion to more than 140 additional Viacom websites across the globe. The ads will be powered by

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McGraw-Hill: Beating the Street

McGraw-Hill is a leading provider of information services and serves the education, financial services, and business information markets. The Company is a major publisher of newsletters, magazines and printed books. It also distributes its information services over the Internet and other digital platforms, through trade shows and conferences and also through wireless and on-air broadcasting.

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Stupid AdSense Ads

For a long time now, I have been watching how badly AdSense judges what Ads my audience might be interested in viewing. Today, this has reached a level of hilarity that I couldn’t resist commenting on! Google has pushed Exotic Hardwood Flooring to my business audience of entrepreneurs, technologists, investors and analysts. Talk about a

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