Free Software Linux

Of late it's been nothing but doom 'n gloom here in the publishing business. Many are hurting and many heads are already rolling. To say the least, most organizations are skeptical of big marketing and advertising spends in these lean times. That tends to hurt us where it counts most. Lately there's been much dialog about what to do, how to act, how to survive or how to just get away from it all. Publishers are frantically trying to cut costs without having to throw the baby out with the bath water. Are we to be reduced to blogging for food, one asks? We think not. By the numbers, the smart money stays put. Here's why.

All we've been hearing lately is how bad the economy is, how bad the advertising industry is, how much publishers are going to suffer. However, amid uncertain times, Dapper hopes to break through the pack with Dapper MashupAds, which takes a few pages from Google AdSense and a few pages of its own. It results in a fresh product that might stir up some needed innovation for display and contextual advertising.

Obama takes the lead with another emerging technology: temporarily embedding advertising inside video games. The technology is only 18 months old, and Obama is the first presidential candidate to buy space for the Xbox Live system. "The ads — appearing on billboards and other signage — remind players that early voting has begun and plug a campaign Web site that encourages people to register for early voting." The video game ads are targeting 10 battleground states that allow early voting, including Ohio, North Carolina, Nevada and Florida among others.

The once financially-juggernaut world of online advertising seems to be coming face to face with these mortal times. In March, back in happier times, a report by eMarketer projected that online ad spending would rise by 23% this year. A few days ago, eMarketer reported about the online ad spending data for 2008. Though the numbers seem "generally strong," showing sustained growth in a variety of advertising categories, classified ad spending was down by more than 5%.

While most social networking sites struggle to find advertisers to fill their niche consumer bases, LinkedIn proves that it's a good place not only for professionals to show off, but for advertisers as well. LinkedIn, the social network for business folks, has decided to launch its own advertising network in collaboration with ad network Collaborative Media to secure ads from high-end websites.

On Open Enterprise blog.

Where women go, advertising follows. The web is no exception. As we've mentioned before, women appear to outnumber men online, with many writing, reading or otherwise contributing to blogs. And advertisers are finally getting hip to their jive. ComScore results, as highlighted in a recent New York Times article, indicated that advertisers served up "4.4 billion display ads on women’s Web sites in May" and that women’s sites had recorded 84 million visitors in July 2008.

NITrades is an advertising resource and information portal helping Tradesmen in Northern Ireland.

Ah! A fresh issue of the “Linux Format” magazine. I rip off the plastic wrap and open up to a random article. This article is about the newest piece of proprietary Grubby Games software. I immediately realize something isn’t right. My eyes slowly make their way to the bottom right side of the page. There is an advertisement for the Free Software Foundation staring right back at me.

Think about the last time you saw an ad in a newspaper and went online to learn more about it. Come to think of it, think about the last time you read a print newspaper. New research suggests it more common than you think. Actually 50 percent more common.

Does Microsoft think we the Linux and Open Source user base are just a bunch of morons? In the latest advertising campaign of the closed sourced software giant that’s exactly what they are hoping for. Go ahead and check out for yourself.

Microsoft, who has been on quite the buying spree as of late, confirmed its purchase of Seattle-based airfare prediction and travel site Farecast earlier this month for what is believed to be around US $115 million.

A collection including adverts from Red Hat, IBM, a Chinese ad that is apparently for Linux, a homemade advert that was possibly made with Blender.

Never one to settle in and savor the moment, Microsoft has gone out and done it again. They recently bought Rapt Inc., a web publishing vendor out of San Fransisco. This acquisition is just the latest in a number to fill Microsoft's suite of publishing and advertising tools.

The move “puts us way ahead of what other offerings are available in the market,” Scott Howe, a general manager in Microsoft’s advertiser and publisher solutions group said, likening Microsoft with Rapt to a jet plane, with rivals, including Google, being a bicycle.

Ooh! Burn to Google.

But did they really put their money where their mouth is?

Ok, what is Google thinking? Just a day after announcing they acquired Advertising Guru DoubleClick, Google announced they are offering a "free" ad serving platform.