Online Advertising

Instagram on Thursday gave users a taste of what its upcoming sponsored photos and videos will look like. Instagram has assured users that the posts will feel natural and not compromise the network's aesthetics. The photos and videos will appear in the same format as an ordinary Instagram Post, with...

Facebook has introduced Stories to Share, a tool to help media outlets -- from online publications to TV broadcasters to music startups -- maximize value. Appearing in the media panel of a publisher's Facebook page, Stories to Share makes recommendations based on the number of shares a post has rece...

Yahoo on Monday announced the hire of New York Times tech columnist David Pogue to lead "a major expansion of consumer tech coverage." He will publish columns, blog posts, video stories and more, starting later this year, the company said. Pogue and his team "have much bigger plans, too, for all kin...

Investors sent Google's shares soaring past the $1,000 mark Friday following its stellar third-quarter earnings report. Google reported $14.89 billion in revenue, a 12 percent increase compared with the same time a year ago, beating Wall Street expectations. It posted net income of $2.97 billion, up...

Google is planning to compensate users for letting it monitor their behavior via a mobile app currently in development. The project is part of Google's Screenwise market research program, which was launched about a year ago, said Google spokesperson Andrea Faville. "We conduct this research with sma...

Google has announced changes to its Terms of Service that will take effect Nov. 13. In short, users' profile names and photos will be served up together with content such as reviews they share, ads they +1, comments they post, or who and what they follow. Only people users choose to share content w...

Nielsen on Monday rolled out Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings, a service it says is the first-ever measure of the total activity and reach of TV-related conversation on Twitter. Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings measure not only "authors" -- or the number of people tweeting about TV programs -- but also the mu...

Over the next couple of months Instagram will begin incorporating the "occasional ad" in U.S. users' feeds, the company announced on Thursday. The ads will include high-quality photos and videos from a few brands that are part of the Instagram community, the company explained. Users will have contro...

No one expects a free lunch. So when people use a free webmail service, many assume they will be bombarded with advertising. Why? Obviously, because the webmail services make money by commercializing the content of the webmail! Actually when you sign up for free webmail, and click "I Accept," or som...

Facebook reportedly will begin providing TV broadcasters with data about the chatter their shows are inspiring on the site. Facebook is in fierce competition with Twitter to become the primary destination for second-screen users to post their reactions and engage with others while watching TV series...

After three years of wrangling with Google over its alleged anticompetitive business practices, the EU has suggested there may be some light at the end of the tunnel. "We have reached a key moment in this case," EC Vice President Joaquin Almunia, who is responsible for competition policy, said at a ...

Google may have breached federal and California wiretapping laws by machine-scanning Gmail messages in order to deliver targeted advertising, U.S. District Judge Lucy H. Koh ruled on Thursday. As a result of the ruling, a class-action suit against Google over the issue can now proceed. The suit, whi...

Google reportedly is developing its own anonymous identifier for advertising, AdID, that will replace third-party cookies as a way for advertisers to track consumers' online browsing activity. Its aim is to give consumers more privacy and control over their Web browsing. Google's AdID apparently wil...

Twitter reportedly is in talks with TV networks and advertisers in advance of its IPO, which is expected later this year. Twitter executives are meeting with TV industry reps during the AdWeek conference in New York City this week. Twitter wants to strengthen its revenue flow through partnerships le...

Tumblr has teamed up with social analytics company DataSift to provide users with information about consumer engagement and sentiment. As of Monday, DataSift subscribers gained access to both historic and real-time data about what consumers were posting about their brands in Tumblr's 5.5 billion mon...