More than a year ago, some in our industry began to lament the dearth of innovation in rich media. Nate Elliott of JupiterResearch complained the loudest in MediaPost's "Rich Media Insider." I thought he made some valid comments, and not just about rich media; I thought what he said was true about our industry as a whole. Some of what we've seen in the markets since then has only proven how valid those complaints remain. In fact, I think there is little meaningful innovation in all areas of our business today, except for Google. Many interactive companies today are …

Internet search engines have become an essential part of American life. In fact, in addition to getting breaking news and retrieving e-mail, search is an integral part of the Internet user's daily routine, as confirmed by recent studies by Hitwise usa, The Pew Internet & American Life Project, and comScore Networks. More than 50 million people on any given day use search engines, and at least two-thirds of Internet users use them several times a week. ComScore found that in a single month in 2004, almost 4 billion searches were conducted. During that month, the average user …

Word of mouth, or WOM, just happens to be the most misunderstood medium on the planet. It's not your fault. What you've been told about it is generally inaccurate. I don't want to pretend to be some sort of soothsaying genius or anything. I was just like you: I too once believed what I'd read and what everyone else had told me, most of them ideas that were sexier than reality. But when it comes to understanding WOM, I do have a leg up on most. I've spent the last few years reviewing more than 250,000 authentic WOM narratives …

Imagine if e-mail spam didn't exist anymore. Minus the clutter, more legitimate e-mail would get delivered. Consumers would more readily welcome, read, and respond to relevant e-mail from companies they trusted. And that, in turn, would fuel more use of targeted e-mail as a customer communication tool. That's the goal of e-mail service providers (ESPS), Internet service providers (ISPS), and marketers, who are adopting two new types of e-mail delivery protocol standards, authentication tags and accreditation, which results in a "reputation" score very similar to a credit score. Microsoft, Yahoo!, Bigfoot Interactive, DoubleClick, the Direct Marketing Association, the E-mail …

If my mailbox is trying to tell me anything (which I hope it isn't), it's telling me that the holiday season is here. The cover of my Pottery Barn catalog is gracefully directing me to "Let the season begin." My Elle and Vogue magazines are walking me through the "fall fashion fundamentals." I'm no fashion icon, but I am usually ahead of the trend before something becomes a "fall fashion fundamental." Can I just jump ahead to my "wonderful winter wardrobe"? In much the same way, it is time for all our hard work and planning for the holiday …

Redirects -- a common and legitimate practice -- can get you in trouble when combined with the actions of search engines. It's important to use the right method for the result you want, or you could wind up having your URLs hijacked by unscrupulous spammers or even inadvertently hijacking someone else's link popularity and page-ranking yourself. The reason redirects are so common is that the web is a dynamic environment. Webmasters are constantly reorganizing sites and changing domains, so they need a way to make sure that users and search engines can find their new locations. There are a …

As director of media and analytics for AKQA in San Francisco, Christine Bensen is responsible for all of the agency's media clients and for identifying new business opportunities. She plays a hands-on role on the Visa International, MobiTV, UGS, and Pinnacle Systems accounts. Most recently, Bensen developed and deployed a global print plan targeted to international travelers for Visa in the Asia-Pacific region and Latin America. Earlier in her career, she ran an information department for Bank of America's retail brokerage business. OMMA's Tobi Elkin lobs some questions at Bensen. Are you a triple threat -- a media director …

Internet-savvy 18- to 24-year-olds remain notoriously resistant to marketing. But Boston, Mass.-based Experience, Inc. has a new solution that may help marketers trying to crack this tough demographic. BrandExperience, a suite of integrated marketing services, can deliver advertising messages and resources directly to users of Experience.com, a popular job-search site for college students and recent grads. With a Web-based recruiting platform currently encompassing more than 3,800 universities, 3 million registered candidates, and 100,000 employers, a foray into online ad services was a natural for Experience. BrandExperience has developed multiplatform capabilites and standardized its services to accommodate the needs of …

Short films from JibJab.com have found a home on Microsoft Corp.'s MSN. JibJab, known for the online cult hits "This Land" and "Second Term" during the 2004 Presidential election, had an exclusive content deal with Yahoo! which expired in January. Under the new deal, MSN will sell online video advertising on both MSN Video and JibJab.com and both parties will collaborate on product placement in future JibJab shorts. Brands that enter into placement arrangements with MSN and JibJab will be featured in the shorts -- and possibly mocked a bit. "The notion with JibJab is that they're …

Your mama may have told you, "Don't talk smack to me, young man." But now every fantasy football fan can talk all the smack they want at McDonald's italksmack.com. Via the Web site, fans can spew interactive insults, or "smack," about the various teams and then e-mail them to their buddies. McDonald's launched the site in August with the 2005 fantasy football draft. In the upper right corner of the screen is the arched "M" logo, an image of a Big Mac, and the phrase "Brought to you by Big Mac at McDonald's." Beyond that, the site is all …