Microsoft's Avenue A/Razorfish, an advertising and marketing services agency, is testing new display units that integrate social media features into banner ads, Adweek reports. The company is working with Pluck, a social software services provider, on a three month test with an undisclosed roster of clients. Pluck delivers social software to sites like WashingtonPost.com, USAToday.com and CircuitCity.com. The new units, called AdLife, are the same size as traditional banner ads. They include social features like customer reviews and ratings; users will be able to submit feedback and other user-generated content directly into the units. The test is part of …

The Washington Post is reporting that Yahoo will allow users to shut off targeted advertising on its Web sites, a decision that comes in direct response to a congressional committee's concerns about consumer privacy. Indeed, last week, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce asked the Web giant and 32 other Internet companies to provide more information about the information they collect from Web users and how they use it to target advertising. Is Yahoo shoving its foot in its mouth by allowing users to shut off targeted advertising? After all, targeting commands higher ad prices, so doesn't the …

If Web video spending is going to eclipse TV's $50 billion, it won't be thanks to Google's YouTube, executives claimed at the RBC Capital Conference on Thursday. User-generated videos don't draw significant ad dollars because many advertisers think it's too risky to have their brand appear next to content uploaded by consumers. According to one exec, user-generated videos may never make money. "It will be like instant messaging. It's ubiquitous, but no one makes money on it," said Thomas Wilde, CEO of Everyzing, a digital audio and video hosting company. Take YouTube, for example. It's the No.5 Web site, …

In an SEC filing, Google confirms what we already knew: AOL is not worth $20 billion. It may be worth half that, or at least that's what various reports claim Time Warner was recently shopping the beleaguered Web giant around for. In the filing, Google says, "Based on our review, we believe our investment in AOL may be impaired." Indeed, Google bought a 5% stake in the Time Warner company at a valuation of $20 billion in 2005. Optimistically, Google states in its filing that it does not believe the impairment "is other-than-temporary," but still, due to the depreciating …

YouTube is selling out, says The New York Times' Saul Hansell. Upon seeing its video player embedded in one of his favorite blogs, Hansell says the experience looked "closer to the gaudiness of MySpace than the sterility of Google." And YouTube, of course, is owned by Google. So what gives? The YouTube video player had one text ad in the upper left hand corner and another superimposed over the bottom of the screen. This one changed several times at the beginning of the clip before fading out, which Hansell says distorted the viewing experience. Google may let bloggers and …

Google, the worldwide leader in search, is taking on Baidu.com, the undisputed No.1 in China, by launching its own music search site -- except this one only points users to music that's legal to distribute. The site, which is only available to Chinese users, points to songs hosted by Top100.cn, a Chinese music site backed by NBA star Yao Ming. It will be ad-supported, with Top100.cn sharing the ad revenue with its music partners. Ars Technica says the move is a direct response to Baidu's dominance of the music search market. The Chinese search leader has made a name for …

Online marketers aren't happy with the way the Microhoo saga played out. According to Cnet's Stefanie Olsen, it's not Yahoo remaining independent of Microsoft that's so disappointing; rather, it's Google solidifying a 70% share of the search market. And that share will probably grow, thanks to the search partnership Yahoo announced with Google in June. Marketers complain that Google's dominance limits their options to deliver on search campaigns. "We always have a need for multiple sources of quality traffic and we don't see that need going away as Google's share increases," says Will Margiloff, CEO and founder of the agency …

After testing some 1,500 iPhone apps, TechCrunch's Michael Arrington notes that very few are taking advantage of "the network effect." Many apps from established players are simply iPhone versions of their normal service. Google and Yelp are two examples. However, for those that are unaffiliated with an established Web site, Arrington says they face the tall task of building their business on the iPhone alone. Some of these apps have almost identical competitors, and it's impossible to sustain a business charging $10 for your product when your competitor offers something comparable for free. As Arrington says, there's a march towards …

AOL, which continues to weigh down Time Warner's stock and may soon be sold, could be forced to write down its recent acquisition of Bebo, says Silicon Alley Insider's Peter Kafka. In its most recent SEC filing, Time Warner reveals that $760 million of the $857 million it paid for Bebo price was attributable to goodwill, while another $86 million went to "specific amortizable intangible assets." That leaves $11 million for the actual company. In other words, says Kafka, "there's almost no there there." Goodwill represents the premium AOL paid for the social network. It was almost all premium. Now, …