The success of Google has always been that much more impressive because of the search giant's refusal to advertise in any significant way. Its spectacular growth has always been a result of word of mouth. But that may be changing, as sources say Google has been taking meetings with ad agency executives in recent months, perhaps with an eye on launching a full-scale ad campaign. The push is not without its detractors though, and powerful ones at that. Allegedly, some Google employees were prepared to buy time during an NBC Olympics broadcast to promote a Google product, but the effort …

In its ongoing search to monetize the millions (billions?) of hours of video on its site, YouTube has slowly started including post-roll video ads on some of its content. This is a new step for the video sharing site, and one that could potentially irritate its massive, loyal audience (though surely not as much as--gasp!--pre-roll ads would). The ads work like this: Overlay ads appear during the video, that can be clicked anytime by users who want to see the full ads. But the kick is, even if a user doesn't click during the video, the full ad will now …

As it continues to chase Google for dominance in the all-important search field, Microsoft is opening a research facility in Europe dedicated to developing new search technologies. The so-called European Search Technology Center will operate three "centers of excellence" in London, Paris, and Munich. "To compete in a global, innovation-driven economy, we need to draw on the world's smartest, most creative minds. Increasingly, we are finding that talent here in Europe," said CEO Steve Ballmer. The center will be led by Jordi Ribas, who will vacate his current post of general manager for Microsoft's Connected TV business group. Precisely …

It should come as a surprise to no one that Web users shared the Jerry Seinfeld/Bill Gates Microsoft commercials with one another at a much higher rate than the subsequent "I'm a PC" spots. For one thing, the first spots were funny (or at least tried to be) and they featured Jerry Seinfeld, who rarely makes marketing appearances--or appearances of any kind any more. Whereas the "I'm a PC" spots made no attempt to be funny; they were simply making a point. But Ad Age nonetheless delves deep into the psychology of why the Seinfeld spot was so much more …

City-wide WiFi zones have long been considered a major step toward closing the so-called digital divide. But such zones are not always so democratic, as dead zones tend to occur in unpredictable places. There's a lot at stake for anyone who can help bring municipal WiFi to everyone intended to receive it. Enter a Rice University graduate student, working with his advisers and Hewlett Packard, who claims to have found a way to predict and prevent WiFi dead zones. PhD candidate Joshua Robinson says he has developed a technique that requires only a zoning map and a few simple calculations …

Google has radically overhauled Blogsearch in its first-ever redesign. The site now looks less like the Google home page--clean, sparse and simple--and more like its News landing page--cluttered and unattractive. But that doesn't mean the redesign isn't an improvement. "It's cleaner and less spammy than Technorati, it's more transparent than Yahoo Buzz, it's more inclusive than Six Apart's new Blogs.com," write Marshall Kirkpatrick. And for bloggers who write about television or video games or business, the new capabilities offered by Blogsearch--which include new searchable categories--this must be a serious step forward. The question is whether Blogsearch is faster …

Eager to jump on the twin bandwagons of citizen journalism and iPhone applications, CBS quickly launched Eyemobile for iPhone, which makes it easy for users to upload "news-worthy" photos to its user-generated news site. But apparently not everyone agrees on what makes something news worthy. Users logging on to CBSeyemobile.com yesterday were greeted with semi-pornographic images and videos apparently uploaded through Eyemobile for iPhone. Once discovered, the offending material was quickly removed, but not before hundreds of thousands of users surely saw it. Perhaps worse, Google was placing ads adjacent to the NSFW material. The mobile application does have safeguards …