• Baltimore Sun, Monday, September 24, 2007 11:15 AM

After discreetly disappearing from Advertising.com more than a year ago, 33-year-old founder and former chief product officer John Ferber has emerged in Florida with a string of new ventures. At first glance, it's not exactly what one might expect from the onetime Owings Mills whiz kid, who built a wildly successful Baltimore company based on game technology he created in college, then sold it to AOL for $435 million. (AOL has since rebuilt its own business strategy around the company, Advertising.com, whose technology places relevant ads on Web sites).

In 2005, the Federal Trade Commission determined that Ferber had violated federal law by surreptitiously bundling adware, which can cause annoying ads to pop up on a computer user's screen, with security software offered by Advertising.com. Ferber was ordered to notify the FTC of all new business ventures or changes in employment through 2015 and said he has complied.

Ferber says he has a "multitude" of things going on, including an incubator for various businesses called Vandelay Industries, in a nod to the phony latex company featured on "Seinfeld." Ferber said he preferred to keep the details secret for now. One of Ferber's projects is an online beauty, launched Sept. 1, which allows women to post pictures and videos online at www.missinternetpageant.com. It's one of many pageants to come under an umbrella company and brand-building project called Internet Pageantry, Ferber said.

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