Microsoft Wednesday previewed a new adCenter feature that will allow search engine marketers access to MSN data that can be used to predict demographic behavior, traffic, and how keywords will perform. Microsoft will offer the feature, the Keyword Services Program, through a set of APIs, which are slated for release soon, the company said Wednesday during a conference call with reporters. Other new ad functions previewed Wednesday include a tool that predicts whether a search term is commercial or informational, and another that predicts the size of the demographic of a given keyword. While adCenter's upcoming features potentially give the service a competitive advantage over Google and Yahoo, MSN also faces serious roadblocks, including relatively low traffic, downtimes and problems with customer service, said Greg Sterling, principal of Sterling Marketing Intelligence. "They're fundamentally challenged as their search share goes down, because it diminishes the inventory they have to sell," he said. "The features that adCenter launched with were next-gen features, but you have to get the fundamentals right, and I think they're still working through some of that stuff." Earlier this week, comScore reported that MSN garnered just 10.5% of search traffic, compared to Google's 47.3% and Yahoo's 28.5%. In addition to the search marketing tools, Microsoft also previewed video hyperlink technology, which will allow marketers to create ad links on products shown in videos. The company said it will make that technology available on MSN starting in the spring. James Colborn, a product manager with Microsoft, also said the company is testing an ad network, similar to Google's AdSense, that allows search marketers to place pay-per-click ads on Web pages with relevant content. "One of the things we did want to do is offer people a content network which in principle is similar to what Google and Yahoo offer," he said. "At the moment, the content ads are in beta with a number of customers." For now, Microsoft is testing the feature on Microsoft's network of sites, but the company plans to extend it to other publishers, Colborn said.
Adding Web services through acquisition, MTV Networks has agreed to buy a professor rating-service for college students named RateMyProfessor.com. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The site will not only become part of mtvU's online presence, but will serve as a model for other college-related rating services, according to Stephen Friedman, general manager of mtvU. "Every time we asked our audience about tools they use online, RateMyProfessor always came up," he said. "Now we're talking with them about how we build on this idea--best dorms, best places to eat around campus." The move ties into mtvU's larger strategy to connect with college students "on-air, online and on campus," Friedman added. In August, MTV Networks bought Y2M: Youth Media & Market Networks, the parent company of College Publisher, an online college newspaper network. (Since then, College Publisher has grown to include 500 online college newspapers.) RateMyProfessor.com presently has more than 6.6 million ratings on more than 900,000 college professors, and is visited by more than 10 million college students, according to MTV Networks. mtvU's online channel currently consists of job listings, philanthropy projects, campus news, music and videos for college students, as well as a campus television production company. MTV Networks said the acquisition is expected to be completed by the end of March 2007. Separately, MTV Networks parent Viacom has invested in social networking site TagWorld, PaidContent.com reported Tuesday--citing multiple sources. Friedman, whose mtvU unit would certainly be affected by the deal, said he had no knowledge of the agreement. A spokesman for MTV said the company was not commenting on the report.
Internet video firm Brightcove has obtained $59.5 million from a host of investors, including The New York Times Company. Adam Berry, vice president of marketing and strategy for Brightcove, said the company intends to use the money to expand offerings to advertisers, grow internationally, and build out its consumer site, Brightcove.com. "We want to offer new capabilities and features to respond to what we think is a very large market opportunity," Berry said. The New York Times Company was one of Brightcove's earliest customers, forging a deal in February of 2006 to distribute broadband video for New York Times Co. property About.com. "Video is a very important part of our future, and Brightcove clearly has a very good opportunity to be a player in that future," said Stephen Hirsch, vice president of corporate planning for the New York Times Company. In the last year, Brightcove has signed deals with several large media companies, including Warner Music, and Sony BMG. Additionally, several months ago, Brightcove unveiled an online video syndication service. In September, Brightcove announced it had secured $5 million from a group led by GE Commercial Finance. Additional investors in this financing round include AllianceBernstein L.P., Brookside Capital LLC and Maverick Capital Ltd.
More than 60 million Americans, or 46% of Web users, went online during the last campaign season to exchange e-mails about candidates or learn about the elections. That's according to a new report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The report, "Election 2006 Online," also stated that far more U.S. adults relied on the Web for information last election cycle than during the 2002 mid-term elections. For the report, Pew surveyed 2,562 American adults late last year. When asked to name the two most primary sources of political information, 15% of respondents cited the Internet--up from 7% in 2002. That increase doesn't appear to have come at the expense of other media. On the contrary the proportion of respondents relying on television, newspapers, radio and magazines also increased from 2002. Sixty-nine percent of respondents said they relied on TV for election-related news, up from 66% in 2002; newspapers were cited by 34%, up from 33% four years ago; radio was cited by 17%, up from 13%; and magazines were cited by 2%, up from 1%. Reliance on all media except radio was higher during the 2004 presidential elections. Not surprisingly, younger Americans with home broadband connections are especially likely to rely on the Web. Pew found that 35% of respondents under 36 with broadband at home report that the Web was their main source of political news during last year's elections; just 18% of that group said the same about newspapers. Pew also reported that a small group--about 11% of Web users, or 7% of the U.S. population--are actively contributing to online political discussions, such as by posting their own commentary or forwarding others' posts, including audio and video files.
Record labels have sold an estimated $2 billion worth of music online or through mobile phones in 2006, doubling the previous year's sales and accounting for 10% of the total music market, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry's Digital Music Report 2007. The number of songs available online doubled to 4 million. Single-track downloads totaled approximately 795 million--up 89% from 2005. The U.S. accounted for the bulk of those sales, with 582 million single tracks sold online in 2006, up 65% from 2005. Mobile music accounted for half of global digital revenues in 2006, although its prominence varies by country, such as in Japan, where 90% of digital music sales are mobile purchases. The IFPI wrote that 2007 could be a banner year for mobile music, with handset makers such as Nokia and Sony Ericsson developing their music phones, as well as the impending release of the Apple iPhone. Portable players drove growth in the digital sector, while there has also been increased diversification of digital music distribution channels. iTunes and other a-la-carte digital download services remain dominant, the report found--although they have gained competition from subscription services, mobile mastertones and advertising-supported models and video-licensing deals on sites like MySpace and YouTube. The IFPI predicted that online sales would account for a quarter of all music sales worldwide by 2010. Yet these strong figures and the inclusion of advertising-funded services as a source of revenue streams for record companies failed to compensate for an overall decline in CD sales. More, the IFPI report expressed concern about the continued threat of digital piracy and the devaluation of music content, with the IFPI saying it would sue ISPs that allowed known digital music pirates to operate over their networks. "The chief winners in the rise of digital music are consumers," said IFPI chairman and CEO John Kennedy in a statement. "Yet the market remains a challenge."