Leading up to the 74th Major League All-Star Game airing tonight, Nielsen//NetRatings, Nielsen Media Research, and Nielsen Monitor-Plus decided to take a look at stats from both television and Internet ratings, as well as historical ad expenditure data for the game.

The first announcement is the official launch of DoubleClick's DART Motif product, which has most of the rich media vendors scratching their heads in wonder about where it leaves them; and the second is the announcement of Yahoo's plans to acquire Overture for $1.6 billion, which signals the beginning of the wave of consolidation that's sure to engulf the search field soon.

In keeping with my summer tendency to send readers off into their weekends with good news, here's a report from Nielsen//NetRatings that should brighten things up a bit.

This is a first for me. In the years I've been writing this column I've recommended everything from research reports to ad formats, but never a book.

Is there anything hotter in the online advertising arena than search these days? The reigning duo of Google and Overture has been in the news all week, but the second tier of search companies are making some waves as well.

A new survey from ThirdAge Inc., a research and marketing company that focuses exclusively on over 40 "mid-lifers," reveals that consumers over age 50 are more receptive than marketers may believe to products and services offered online.

Two announcements on the wires show just how serious major portals are about search marketing.

Here are some numbers to think about over the long holiday weekend.

The latest Dynamic Logic newsletter highlights some of the findings from the company's analysis of its AdIndex tool, and it looks like advertisers should think twice about trying to do more with less.

Just how annoyed do people get when telemarketers call during dinner? Donotcall.gov recorded one of the fastest increases ever for a website, jumping nearly 26,000 percent to more than 3.4 million unique visitors at work on June 27, according to Nielsen//NetRatings.