Through a new partnership with rich media firm Tremor, TACODA, a behavioral targeting network operator, is expanding into behaviorally targeted in-stream video. TACODA's targeting capabilites will be integrated with Tremor's video ad insertion technology to create a product clients of both networks will be able to buy. The networks offer pre-, mid-, and post-roll video ads targeted using TACODA's audience data and served by Tremor's rich media platform. Dave Morgan, TACODA's CEO, said he expected the move to help the company expand its brand advertising value for advertisers. He said brands sometimes struggle to prove value with brand campaigns, but …

Ever since the advent of RSS, a small faction of techies have been calling for the end of e-mail. No more spam. No more overaggressive filters, no more double opt-ins, just really simple syndication. Opt-in and out as you please. E-mail marketers have been chewing in this for almost two years now, yet nothing seems to have changed and nothing seems to be about to change, either. However, the practice of e-mail marketing continues to change almost daily; marketers have to adjust to ever-evolving best practices and ISP requirements--many times just to stay par for the course. Lyris manager Wendy …

As Hollywood rolls out the red carpet this week for the video game industry's annual Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3), AOL and the Associated Press have jointly released the latest video game numbers. Forty percent of American adults play video games on a computer or game console; men, younger adults, and minorities are the most likely to fall into that group. Forty-five percent of those who describe themselves as gamers say they play over the Internet, and more than a third of online gamers spent $200 or more on game subscriptions or software last year. About one in six online gamers …

For millions of Web users--now 100 million if you're Skype--voice over Internet protocol is eliminating the need for a landline. Business 2.0 argues that one day, VoIP will significantly lower your cell phone bill, too. Businesses will probably be most excited about this, because expensive international calls will become a thing of the past. Mino Wireless, a VoIP startup from Yahoo country (Sunnyvale, Calif.), is offering cut-cut-rate VoIP calls for 2.2 cents a minute to more than 40 countries. The startup claims to be first provider to offer VoIP on mobile phones in the U.S. To use the service, you …

Time Warner delivered more ho-hum results in the first quarter, but the news from Dulles was particularly disappointing. In the midst of Web 2.0, AOL delivered a 7 percent year- over-year quarterly revenue loss. What gives? Everyone else in the biz seems to be delivering steady increases. Among the major portals, AOL lags behind Yahoo, Google and MSN in audience growth and total uniques per month, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. Not to mention the sizable rate at which AOL continues to bleed service subscribers. Subscriptions actually make up 77 percent of the company 's business, so a 13 percent yearly drop …

Adotas takes a very comprehensive look at the rising tide of RSS, what it means now and what it will mean in the future for marketers. RSS is still really young, but usage of the media syndication platform has increased more than 50 percent since last year, and evidence supports more growth in the future. Most major Web publishers now provide RSS feeds on their site, but no one seems to have figured out a clear advertising model to support their efforts. For example, RSS has great potential as a retention marketing tool--perhaps more so than e-mail--but this aspect has …

Everyone in this business knows John Battelle, the Wired and Industry Standard founder turned search specialist, Google-watcher and blogger extraordinaire. His new firm, Federated Media, which runs an ad network for a series of popular blogs including Boing Boing, Fark, and John Batelle's own Searchblog, last week launched a new do-it-yourself planning tool that lets marketers, especially small ones, plan, create and execute ad campaigns across the network. Ad Age sits down with Battelle and discusses the story of Federated Media, including the network's rev-share model, which he claims is "a better deal than almost every ad rep firm …

EBay's analyst day is today, a few weeks after the retailing giant disappointed Wall Street with its first quarter earnings. In fact, for more than a year eBay's been a disappointing investment, with its shares down 41 percent from $57.38 at the start of 2005. Ouch. So, what about Skype? How can the voice over Internet Protocol company kick-start eBay's flagging share price? Does VoIP make it any easier or more efficient to buy/ bid on items? Also, what about eBay Express, its new online retail store? How is it going to set itself apart from Amazon.com? And finally, …

It seems Skype is moving into social networking, or perhaps enterprise conferencing. EBay's Voice over Internet Protocol unit is bringing a service to market that lets groups of 100 people hold spontaneous conferences online. The company calls the shared communications platform "Skypecasts," and will be debuting the service along with an upgrade of its core Skype software. Skypecasts are live, moderated discussions that allow groups of users anywhere in the world to discuss shared interests from classes to computers support to cultural or political debate. They're like conversations on Web logs, but using voice, and possibly, video. To keep the …

I use RSS to get the news content I send you guys every morning. It's definitely a fantastic tool that makes finding relevant information a whole lot easier than it would be otherwise, but one problem I've found--and so have many others who use RSS--is finding good new feeds. There are tons of news sources out there, and sure, there are search engines for blogs, there's also Google News, but what about a good source for finding new RSS feeds? A new startup called Kebberfegg, attempts to address this problem. Aside from the weird name (which for some reason sounds …