Online Advertising

Google on Monday announced a restructuring that will make it a wholly owned subsidiary of a new umbrella company called "Alphabet." Product Chief Sundar Pichai will take over as CEO of Google, while Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergei Brin will be CEO and president, respectively, of Alphabet. Pi...

Viewability -- that is, a display or video ad's ability to be viewed effectively on a Web page -- is the most critical factor in any video or display ad campaign. However, a surprisingly large percentage of display and video ads lacked either visibility or longevity, the two most important pieces of...

Yahoo's ad network suffered an attack that lasted for almost a week, Malwarebytes reported mid-day Monday. Malwarebytes earlier notified Yahoo of the attacks, which began July 28. Yahoo had stopped them by the time the report was published, Malwarebytes said. The attackers used the Angler Exploit Ki...

We have just seen quarterly earnings reports from AT&T and Verizon, and they continue to grow at a healthy pace. Sprint and T-Mobile also have started to grow once again. However, the larger wireless marketplace is splitting into smaller segments. Understanding this is one of many keys to succes...

Facebook on Thursday slammed the hood, wiped its hands, and introduced the latest set of upgrades to its News Feed engine. The all-new 2015 Facebook News Feed gives users more control over the content they see when they cruise the world's largest social network. The new tools allow users to set thei...

Some aspects of CEO Satya Nadella's vision for Microsoft are becoming more clear. For one thing, the company's interest in advertising is seriously on the wane. Microsoft reportedly has handed off most of its digital advertising sales business to AOL. Microsoft will retain control of its search adve...

Some of those annoying ads that pop up when you visit a site on the Web or do a search may be served up by, for want of a better word, "hijackers." They use binaries, extensions, or network ISPs to modify a page's content to insert or replace ads with or without the user's consent. It's called "ad i...

Facebook on Tuesday introduced Instant Articles, a feature that lets publishers place their stories directly on its site. Nine major media outlets have signed on. The content is optimized for mobile devices, and Instant Articles currently is available only on iOS. Publishers get 100 percent of the r...

Verizon will make a tender offer of $4.4 billion for AOL, the companies announced Tuesday. AOL will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Verizon upon completion of the merger agreement this summer. The deal drives Verizon's LTE wireless video and over-the-top video strategies, and provides support an...

Twitter's stock took a hit when investors got an early look at first quarter earnings, leaked just ahead of closing time on Tuesday, ahead of the company's Wednesday announcement. Shares plummeted about 18 percent from Tuesday's opening price of $51.84. The slide continued on Wednesday, with the los...

Consumers have gotten on board with the concept of buying apparel online. Especially in this era of free returns and nifty sizing tools, buying clothing and shoes off the Web has become mainstream. However, some advertisers have been slow to respond. While most of us have at some point been served a...

Microsoft and Yahoo on Thursday announced they were altering a search partnership that has been in place since 2009. Under the amended agreement, Yahoo no longer will exclusively serve Bing ads and search results for its desktop traffic. That means Yahoo can sell some of that desktop traffic to anot...

Facebook reportedly has been talking with multiple news organizations about hosting their content on its network, rather than linking to their websites. No deal has been finalized, but The New York Times, BuzzFeed and National Geographic are among its first likely partners. Although they're still st...

Facebook has launched Topic Data, a new service that reveals to advertisers the subjects users discuss, the brands and products they use, and the activities they follow. Marketers will be able to sift through data compilations of what users say about events, brands, subjects and activities. Facebook...

Autonomous vehicles are on a roll, suggests a new report from McKinsey & Co., released last week during the Geneva Motor Show. Acceptance will increase substantially by 2050, accounting for as much of 20 percent of new car sales. The shift to self-driving technologies could reduce auto accidents...