Mozilla's Firefox browser will soon block some third-party cookies by default, privacy advocate Jonathan Mayer announced on Friday. The upcoming Firefox 22, set for release in June, will include a patch that blocks some third-party cookies -- like those set by ad networks. Firefox's default settings will still allow first-party cookies, as well as cookies from third parties that users have a relationship with. "Only websites that you actually visit can use cookies to track you across the web," Mayer writes in a blog post explaining the patch, which he developed. Those settings are similar to the defaults in Safari, although Mayer characterized the Firefox cookie defaults as a "slightly relaxed version" of Safari's settings. Firefox currently commands around 20% of the desktop browser market -- four times as much as Safari. Online ad companies will almost certainly try to rally opposition to the move. Mike Zaneis, general counsel at the Interactive Advertising Bureau, tweeted on Saturday that the setting "would be a nuclear first strike" against the ad industry. The move comes around 18 months after the World Wide Web Consortium -- a group of computer scientists, industry representatives and privacy advocates (including Mayer) -- began trying to develop standards for responding to do-not-track headers. Those headers, now offered by all the major browsers, are aimed at letting people permanently opt out of online behavioral advertising. But the headers don't actually prevent tracking. Instead, they send signals to publishers and ad networks, which those companies decide how to interpret. So far, the W3C hasn't been able to agree on how to interpret the signals. Some privacy advocates previously warned that if W3C fails to reach a consensus, browser manufacturers might follow Safari's lead and simply block third-party cookies.
For the second consecutive term, the Interactive Advertising Bureau has selected a top executive from a video-centric company as its chairman, naming Randy Kilgore, Chief Revenue Officer of Tremor Video, chairman of its board of directors for the 2013-14 term. Kilgore succeeds Peter Naylor, executive vice president-ad sales at NBC News Digital. The announcement, which was made Sunday during the IAB’s Leadership Forum in Phoenix, also appointed Ziff Davis CEO Vivek Shah IAB Vice Chair, and named 11 new members. As chairman of the IAB, Kilgore will take on five major industry objectives this year, including: * Shifting brand dollars to digital* Industry professionalism and promotion* Protecting consumer privacy* Making digital easy to buy and sell* Promoting mobile video and multi-screen advertising “In a fast-paced industry that is constantly in flux with new digital technologies, it is vital that we come together to cut through the complexity to offer brand marketers the types of multi-platform opportunities that drive real world results,” Kilgore stated. The other new IAB board members include: * Greg Clayman, Executive Vice President, Digital Strategy, NewsCorp* Curt Hecht, Chief Global Revenue Officer, The Weather Company* Mark Howard, Senior Vice President, Digital Advertising Sales, Forbes Media* Cella Irvine, CEO, Vibrant* Eric Johnson, Executive Vice President, Global Multimedia Sales, ESPN* Neal Mohan, Vice President, Display Advertising, Google* Mike Peralta, CEO, AudienceScience* Tad Smith, President, Local Media, Cablevision* John Trimble, Chief Revenue Officer, Pandora* Jacob Weisberg, Chairman, Slate* Mike Welch, President, AT&T AdWorksReturning board members include: * Joe Apprendi, CEO, Collective* Tom Arrix, Vice President, U.S. Sales, Facebook* Ned Brody, CEO, AOL* Paul Caine, Executive Vice President, Chief Revenue Officer and Group President, Advertising, Time, Inc.* Jean-Paul Colaco, Senior Vice President, Advertising, Hulu* Kevin Conroy, President of Interactive, Enterprises, Marketing and Research, Univision Communications, Inc.* Henrique de Castro, COO, Yahoo* Jory Des Jardins, Co-Founder, President, Strategic Alliances, BlogHer* Joan Gillman, Executive Vice President and CEO, Time Warner Cable* Walker Jacobs, Executive Vice President, Turner Digital, Turner Broadcasting Inc.* Mike Keriakos, President, Everyday Health* Dave Madden, Senior Vice President, Global Media Sales, Electronic Arts* David Morris, Chief Client Officer, CBS Interactive* Paul Palmieri, President and CEO, Millennial Media* Drew Schutte, Executive Vice President and Chief Integration Officer, Condé Nast* Evan Sternschein, Executive Vice President, Discovery Communications* Lisa Utzschneider, Vice President, Global Advertising Sales, Amazon.com* Grant Whitmore, Vice President, Hearst Magazines Digital Media
Google has released a feature combining search advertising on AdWords with coupons and discount offers. Originally in beta, marketers expect a full rollout by the end of the month. The AdWords extension serves daily deals under the ad as a clickable, coupon, rebate or discount to any standard Google paid-search ad. The feature, part of the Enhanced Campaigns tool rolled out last week, is intended to drive additional attention to the search ad. When someone clicks on the ad they are directed to a landing page to print out a coupon or offer they can take to a physical location for in-store redemption. It’s not clear whether the tool allows consumers to save the coupon to Google Wallet to provide proof of the coupon. Larry Kim, WordStream founder and CTO, said the tools enables advertisers to track the click to the sales, allowing local businesses to connect the dots between online marketing and in-store purchases. “It’s a better deal than Groupon, which requires between 50% and 90% discounted pricing, then takes 50% of that for themselves,” he said. Kim said the Offer Extensions click cost remains the same price, whether a user clicks the offer extension link or the ad text link. The cost per click remains the same. The ad extension also can appear on mobile devices. The AdWords feature offers potential, such as tying the coupon to grocery or clothing store loyalty cards or credit cards. The consumer could click on an ad, add their frequent buyer number, and the discount would apply at checkout in the store or online. This isn’t Google’s first foray into coupons. Aside from Google Offers, Kim counts two other attempts such as Google Wallet. As with Offers and Wallet, Kim expects Google to roll out the feature to support local deals in Google Maps, making it available to millions of marketers by providing it as a free service. Separately, Google has sold the German Daily Deal site back to the co-founders; it was bought in 2011.
The consumer shift from desktop PC to mobile devices is underway, but the marketing efforts of most high-tech companies aren’t following suit. Fewer are employing mobile marketing now than a year ago. A study by the Software & Information Association surveyed 100 marketing executives from member and other companies in the fourth quarter, focused on social media, mobile and email use. It found only a quarter are including mobile in marketing programs, down from 29% a year earlier. That’s partly because mobile isn’t a priority for their customers. Nearly half say the mobile solution they offer is being used by 5% or less of their customers. “Mobile is unquestionably changing the way people live and work, but has yet to significantly change the way companies market,” said Rhianna Collier, VP of the SIIA software division. Still, about a third say they plan to spend more of their marketing budget in mobile this year. One SIIA member that recently announced its intention to focus more on mobile is IBM. Through its MobileFirst initiative, the computer giant plans to double its investment in mobile technology this year. Executives were more bullish on social media. Virtually all are using social platforms in marketing efforts, and 69% say it’s having a positive impact on their business. That’s down from 74% a year ago, but still a high proportion. Almost six in 10 (58%) plan to spend more on social marketing in 2013, with LinkedIn, Twitter and blogs/wikis the biggest beneficiaries. The majority (63%) said social media hadn’t changed overall marketing costs, while for 30% it increased costs. How to best measure ROI in social media is an ongoing industry debate. Among those surveyed, Web traffic, the number of connections or conversations, and lead-generation were cited as the key ROI metrics for social campaigns. When it came to email marketing, click-through rates, open rates and post-click conversion rates were the top ways to measure ROI. About 40% said open rates were in the 11% to 25% range, with roughly a third reporting rates of 6%-10%. The average click rate for almost half was 2%-3%. Overall, only 55% said they feel they can measure online marketing returns effectively. Looking ahead, marketing executives pointed to cloud-based marketing as the next big trend (27%) in the software and services industry, followed by Big Data/Analytics (19%), target marketing (16%), mobile use expansion (13%), customer experience (10%), social adoption (7%), and internal business operations (5%). Most of the companies covered in the SIIA survey ranged in size 1 to 99 people (65%), with a quarter employing between 100 and 999 people, and 10% employing over 1,000. SIIA’s more than 500 members include Accenture, Google, McGraw-Hill Companies, and Qualcomm Wireless.
Organizations representing songwriters, illustrators, playwrights and other writers are asking a federal appeals court to uphold an order allowing the Authors Guild to bring a class-action against Google for its book digitization project.The groups say in a friend-of-the-court brief filed last week that a class-action lawsuit is the only realistic means for many content creators to enforce their copyrights when their works are digitized without permission. The organizations add that a ruling denying the Authors Guild class-action status could "encourage technology providers to simply take first, and worry about the consequences later."The coalition argues: "Without the ability to aggregate their claims against infringing technology providers, [we] fear that the exclusive rights that the copyright act promises will be illusory to all except the largest and best-heeled copyright owners."The groups to join in the friend-of-the-court brief include the Dramatists Guild, National Writers' Union, Romance Writers of America, Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, Songwriters Guild of America, and the Text and Academic Authors Association.They are asking the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold an order entered last year by U.S. Circuit Court Judge Denny Chin, who rejected Google's contention that copyright infringement requires case-by-case evaluation.The dispute dates to 2005, when the Authors Guild sued Google for digitizing library books and displaying snippets of them in response to search queries. Last year, Chin certified the Authors Guild's lawsuit as a class-action, ruling that it would be unfair to require authors to bring individual cases.Google is appealing that ruling to the 2nd Circuit. The company argues that a class-action isn't appropriate because the Authors Guild and its members have conflicting interests. Google says that many writers approve of its decision to scan millions of books from public libraries and make them searchable. The search company also says that the case presents fair use issues that require individual assessment.But the coalition to weigh in against Google says the company is wrong on both counts, arguing that Google's theory "rips from all individual authors the ability to join together and combat massive, systematic, and centralized infringement."The coalition also discounts arguments by a group of professors, who weighed in on Google's side. "No doubt Napster users (and occasionally artists) may have benefitted from having access to or promotion of a variety of songs and sound recordings, but that fact neither shielded Napster from infringement nor aggregate liability," the coalition says in its brief.
NBCUniversal spent $195 million to buy back the remaining 50% of MSNBC.com that was owned by Microsoft, according to Comcast’s latest 10-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.The deal, which was signed this past summer, saw NBCU take control of the site, and then redirect visitors to a new online hub dubbed NBCNews.com. At the time, unconfirmed reports put the cost of the buyout at $300 million. “The total purchase price was $195 million, which was net of $100 million of cash and cash equivalents held at MSNBC.com that were acquired in the transaction, which were not previously attributable to NBCUniversal,” Comcast explained in its 10-K filing. “Following the close of the transaction, MSNBC.com is a wholly owned consolidated subsidiary of NBCUniversal.” First reported by Mediabistro’s TV Newser blog, the purchase price means that Microsoft and NBCU valued MSNBC.com in the ballpark of $500 million. Regarding the deal, neither Comcast or Microsoft offered further comment on Friday. The news comes on the heels of Comcast announcing plans to buy the remaining 49% of NBCUniversal from General Electric for $16.7 billion -- which occurred two years after it took a 51% majority ownership in NBC. Comcast closed its initial majority stake deal with GE for $6.2 billion in cash for NBCUniversal in January 2011. It contributed its cable TV networks -- such as E!, The Golf Channel and Versus -- worth $7.25 billion, to the deal. As such, Comcast gained operating control over the NBC TV network, Universal Studios, NBC stations, and all of NBC's cable networks, including MSNBC, as well as its digital assets.
Google's decision to share information about app purchasers with developers is prompting some criticism on Capitol Hill. In a letter to Google dated Thursday, Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) says the company's policies potentially pose a risk to Android users. "Sharing certain personal information like a physical address many harm consumers," Johnson says, adding that developers could use that information to threaten disgruntled consumers. The lawmaker also says that Google's data-sharing could discourage consumers from giving feedback to developers. "The mere knowledge that criticizing an app is potentially harmful is also a threat to free and unencumbered speech," Johnson writes. Google Wallet's privacy policy states that the company shares information necessary to process transactions. But many people didn't realize until recently that the company's app platform passes along buyers' information to developers. That model differs from Apple's iTunes, which keeps purchasers' data to itself. Google's paid-app policy came to light last week, when Australian developer Dan Nolan wrote about the "massive, massive privacy issue" on his blog. "With the information I have available to me through the checkout portal I could track down and harass users who left negative reviews or refunded the app purchase," he said. In his letter to Google, Johnson says that "over-sharing" of personal information can result in identity theft. "Just as a consumer has notice when an app uses their geolocation, they should also have notice when their address is shared," he writes. He is asking the company about its decision to run Google Play differently from iTunes. "Unlike some competitors... Google acts as a marketplace for developers to exchange goods and services with consumers," the letter states. He then asks Google how its "open marketplace" benefits consumers, and how consumers' experience with Google Play compares to the experience on other app platforms. A Google spokesperson said the company will work with Johnson and his staff to answer their questions.
MDC Partners’ 72andSunny, the ad agency that tweaked Apple iPhone devotees in a series of Samsung commercials over the last two years, has been tapped by Google for global ad duties for its Chrome browser.72andSunny, with offices in Los Angeles and Amsterdam, is an Adland hot shop, having recently been singled out for agency of the year honors by a number of publications, including MediaPost’s OMMA Magazine.The agency’s ads for Samsung’s Galaxy S line of smartphones poke fun at iPhone fans as sheep obediently waiting in long lines for the next iteration iPhones that per the ads, are not so innovative. The shop also made headlines for a Benetton campaign in which unlikely pairs seem to kiss, including President Obama and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, The incumbent on the Google Chrome account was London-based Bartle Bogle Hegarty, which had worked on the assignment for four years. BBH had positioned the browser as a tool that consumers could use to enhance their lives by making the most of the Internet.Google and 72andSunny did not immediately respond to queries for comment.BBH issued a statement confirming the shift on the Chrome account. “Our involvement with this project is coming to an end as Google has decided for operational reasons to embark on the next stage of the Chrome journey with an agency on their doorstep in California,” the agency stated. Despite the Chrome account loss, the agency noted that “we continue to work with Google on many other projects.” According to BBH, “Chrome went from No. 4 to No. 1 browser in the world” during its tenure as the browser’s creative agency.
Don’t worry,” I said to my wife on September 11, 2001, “the number of people willing to blow themselves up in service of Allah is extremely limited.” Also, I said the 2012 Philadelphia Eagles would win 13 games. Also, I said O.J. was guilty. (half credit) The point is, even the most careful and perspicacious pundit will occasionally make mistakes. The trick is not always being right; the trick is not being wrong out loud. In that respect I have been extremely fortunate. I have a genius for being arrogant, obtuse and colossally incorrect, mainly in the privacy of my own home. Dodging all those bullets over time, however, leaves a fellow with a bit of survivors’ guilt. Why should I be spared the humiliation of having my dead certainty thrown back in my face when poor George Will has been making a fool of himself week after week for decades? Uncanny luck leads to hubris, and we can’t have that. Therefore, I feel obliged to call the world’s attention to some news out of Forbes magazine: It’s doing well. Very well. That’s remarkable for two reasons; 1) The magazine industry in general is circling the drain. In 2009, BusinessWeek was sold to Bloomberg for loose change. In January, Newsweek went online only -- on the way to going to a farm to play with U.S. News. In the past decade, Time has laid off more than 70 million editorial staffers. Play is gone. Domino is gone. Gourmet is gone. Vibe is gone. Metropolitan Home is gone. Spin is gone. 2) I was sure Forbes would fail. No, I never publicly denounced Forbes Media as quixotic and self-deluding when two-and-a-half years ago it adopted its hybrid editorial platform, combining bona fide journalists and a large pool of experts to produce the content on Forbes.com. But that’s what I was thinking. Although I somehow didn’t devote a column or broadcast to the manifest ludicrousness of the effort, it was obvious to me that the non-writer contributors would turn out unreadable, self-serving gobbledygook devoted mainly to “leveraging ROI going forward.” And for those who can construct a coherent essay with a beginning and middle and an end, who among them wants to be just one of 1000 other commentators? Duh. The concept was obviously preposterous. And that made me sad, because Forbes has a magnificent legacy of bright writing and a definable point of view. How pitiful to see it try to hold onto life by channeling the Huffington Post. It was sure to be an embarrassing spectacle. Except that it hasn’t turned out that way. Since adopting the new model, Forbes has seen a 67% increase in unique monthly visitors. In January, according to comScore, it attracted 16 million uniques -- up 26% year-to-year. Measured by trailing 12 months, digital ad revenue is up 18% since the relaunch and in 2012 Forbes had its biggest digital growth since 2006. Now, obviously, these are carefully chosen results -- no doubt the result of some fancy cherry-picking. But never mind that. Here are the words that matter: “Up” and “increase” and “growth.” Oh -- and according to Chief Revenue Officer Meredith Levien: “The company is profitable, nicely profitable and has been increasingly profitable for the past 3 years.” A profitable magazine with a growing audience. A growing, engaged audience. If you click on Forbes.com, you’ll see a (nearly) real-time meter of all news posts, the tally of comments and the tally of shares. The “shares” is a big number -- because, as it turns out, readers care about more than elegant prose and artfully constructed narratives. “The thought that those who can inform are only journalists is kind of narrow, bordering on…whatever,” says Lewis D’Vorkin, chief product officer. Permit me to translate: “whatever” means “arrogant, obtuse and colossally incorrect.” In a brief conversation, D’Vorkin did not trouble himself to feign patience for the conclusions I formerly concluded. “You have your standards, and the audience has its standards,” he accurately observed. “There are different measures of quality in print and digital. The quality standards in digital are timeliness, relevance, knowledge , expertise, context. Notice I didn’t say ‘a perfectly written story.’ Whether the first paragraph should be the fifth…is important to a generation that you and I came from in this business, but not necessarily to a reader online looking for information.” I maintain, in public and on the record, that the old days were better. Forbes readers were well served by skeptical, inquisitive journalists at arm’s length from the subject and trained to spin it out with lucidity and drama. The mass media/mass advertising symbiosis, God bless it, underwrote a fantastic 300 years of reporting. Alas, the media economy no longer supports that editorial model -- at least not to the scale it once did. No doubt cobblers made better shoes before the Industrial Revolution than factories did afterwards, but whining didn’t get the cobblerati anywhere. And, by the way, shoes got plentiful and affordable. So not only isn’t there anything immutable about any given business model, the change brought on by revolution giveth even as it taketh away. In the case of Forbes, it giveth hundreds of voices -- who hitherto had no access to an audience -- cultivating significant followings and in some cases making some decent coin. Compensated chiefly for return traffic, some contributors are, in their spare time, hovering in the vicinity of six figures, D’Vorkin says. “This is important,” he concludes. “This is an effort to build a sustainable model for journalism, because journalism is important. And it’s important that it survives.” There’s one other detail one might characterize as important. Forbes magazine itself -- that thing they print on paper -- seems to be seeing growth both in ad pages and newsstand sales. That’s a fact that rocks my world, as miracles are wont to do. So, what the hell -- let me further go on the record: The 2013 Philadelphia Eagles will win 13 games. No, 14 games. Fifteen. Whatever.