It’s been a while since we’ve talked about ads on PDAs and judging by the number of requests I get to cover the topic, there’s not much interest in advertising on personal digital assistants out there. Nevertheless, consumers continue to buy PDA devices, at least according to the latest data from Gartner Dataquest, so here’s a quick 'potential PDA audience' update.

Nielsen//NetRatings today announced that according to their data, Yahoo!, MSN and Google led the online search category for February 2002.

It seems a little odd to be talking about ad spending forecasts when Jupiter Media Metrix only has a few months to live, but here it goes:

If you think you’ve seen it all – talking banners, moving towers, flying birds – get ready for this one. The Wall Street Journal Online at WSJ.com today introduced a new option for advertisers called the Brand Launch Unit.

In the last few months, nearly two dozen researchers, investment banking firms, analysts and ad agencies have reported estimates of online advertising revenue for 2001. But the range is wide, from a low of $2.5 billion to a high of $19.0 billion – enough to make anyone’s head spin. What's the real number?

Results of a new Doremus Advertising study released today show that it may be easier to reach C-level executives (CEOs, CFOs, COOs, etc.) by advertising on a sports television program, an oldies radio station or "The West Wing" than through traditional business media. More importantly, Doremus found that Internet advertising is not for every executive - there are still some who cannot deal with new technology. Those that do may be using it for sports, travel plans and investing.

Even though their own website looks like they haven’t done anything since October of last year, the Federal Trade Commission has been hard at work on online privacy initiatives. Today, for example, they released the results of a December 2001 study, commissioned by the Progress & Freedom Foundation, which says that websites are collecting less personal information from Internet users than before.

Just last week, MediaPost’s newest columnist Tim McHale wrote about the necessity of applying the traditional media concepts of Reach and Frequency to online advertising. Today in New York, the ARF Online Reach and Frequency Committee held a meeting about that very issue and attempted to answer a question that has plagued the industry for the last 7 years.

Not surprisingly, today all talk is about last night’s Oscarfest. What is surprising, however, is that even though it was the longest academy awards telecast in history, clocking in at the record-breaking 4 hours and 23 minutes, ratings are actually up from last year. What about online adctivity?

The countdown to the Oscars is on, which makes it a good time to talk about movie advertising and where the Internet fits into the picture. Interestingly enough, the web seems to be a great vehicle for attracting visitors to movie trailers.