Advertising on blogs and in podcasts is beginning to take off. Both formats have proliferated in the past year, but while there are a few analytics tools available for blogs, there was nothing comparable for podcasts, until now. Podtrac, which launched late last year, is providing third-party audience measurement and ad sales services for advertisers and publishers of podcasts. Podtrac positions itself as a one-stop analytics shop for publishers of podcasts and advertisers. "We let advertisers know who's listening to which podcasts, and help them make media buys in those podcasts," says Podtrac CEO Mark McCrery. "One of the …

When channel surfing reveals the same old, same old, Dmitry Shapiro suggests upgrading to Television 2.0. That's this CEO's pet name for his beta baby, Veoh, an Internet television network to which film producers and broadcasters can upload fully featured, TV-quality shows gratis, at least for now. Viewers can download to their PC or iPod some of the 12,000 currently available videos, from "The Three Stooges" to "Iggy Cool and the Tentacles of Terror," about a crime-solving, surfing iguana. San Diego-based Veoh Networks, which launched in 2004, expects to make money through ad sales and commissions on pay-to-download selections …

Black Entertainment Television made its move into the mobile market last December, with downloadable ringtones for $1.99 to $2.99 a pop. The ringtones are promoted on about 50 percent of BET's music videos via 10- to 30-second pop-ups. The network expected to add news alerts and dating services by the end of the first quarter 2006. Tapping into the $10 billion mobile content industry is a smart move for the Viacom-owned cable network, given that African-Americans account for more than 25 percent of all spending on text messaging and ringtones. In fact, 37 percent of African-American cell phone owners …

Surf the Internet for any local city Web site and you'll generally find either a site owned by an offline media property like a daily newspaper, or one that's part of a chain of local city sites run by a national online player, such as About.com or Citysearch. OnMilwaukee.com, however, is neither. It's an independent site that thrives unencumbered by the baggage of an offline parent company. What makes the business model and the site itself unique? For starters, OnMilwaukee has successfully competed against other media properties in its hometown for seven years. In fact, the site …

OMMA's Creative Roundtable dissects AT&T's "Your world. Delivered" campaign.

Online-only brand Esurance migrates to TV and radio as super-sleuth Erin Esurance sweetens a tough sell.

You've heard of Madison & Vine. Now there's a new crossroads in the business: We dub it OMMA and Vine. Yes, that's right, following on the success of OMMA Conference and Expos in San Francisco and New York, MediaPost Communications will host the OMMA Hollywood Conference and Expo March 27-28 at the Hilton Los Angeles/Universal City, across the street from Universal Studios Hollywood. The theme of the conference, "Internet 2006: The 100 Percent Solution?," addresses the rash of technology innovations and content syndication deals that have taken place over the past year, coupled with consumer adoption of broadband, digital …

Providers boldly go beyond the desktop to the next frontier.

Where will search go next? If you're in the online media, marketing, and advertising business, it's a question you can't afford to ignore. Not that you've been ignoring it; you're probably wrestling with it in all aspects of your business. Search isn't just about buying keywords anymore. As contributor Steve Smith points out in this month's cover story, search is going places fast -- leaping from the desktop to video, mobile devices, local directories and the Yellow Pages, TV, and other platforms. Search, says Smith, has quickly become the all-important and ubiquitous tool that matches both content …

As rich media delivery improves, there's still no guarantee of eyeballs.