Third Screen Media founder and CEO Tom Burgess isn't sticking around to see how AOL's acquisition of the company turns out. In an e-mail message sent out last month, Burgess explained that he planned to leave the mobile ad platform by mid-October and already has "new projects" underway. (He declined to discuss the nature of the projects in a follow-up message.)

Mobile video is on less than 2 percent of cell phones, but some 40 percent of consumers say they'd watch it if it were free. That interest level creates an opportunity for marketers to experiment with ad formats and targeting on mobile video, according to JupiterResearch.

Advertising in video games is no longer a novelty. The emerging category reached a new benchmark last month when Sony Computer Entertainment America launched a new in-game ad unit led by Darlene Kindler.

With Web 2.0 sites awash in video clips, widgets, rich media and avatars, which ones still provide a user-friendly experience? Rohit Bhargava, who writes the Influential Marketing Blog and heads the interactive marketing group at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide in Washington, D.C., recently assembled a Top 5 list of sites based on usability. They are:

For countless bloggers laboring in obscurity, capturing and growing an audience is a big challenge. Now Larstan Inc., publisher of the Blogger & Podcaster magazine and Web site, is teaming up with USA Today to create a guide to blogs and podcasts on the newspaper's site.

Millions of people have been sharing their likes and dislikes, hobbies and preferences with the world via their MySpace and Facebook pages. Now, the two biggest social networking sites are aiming to tailor ads based on whether you liked The Matrix or My Chemical Romance or Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, or not.

MLB.com has been notoriously protective when it comes to its content, focusing on paid subscriptions rather than widespread distribution online.

Move over, Fantastic Four. The misfit PointRoll "boys" have been transformed into Web 2.0 superheroes complete with matching spandex outfits.

When Tony Ponturo recently told OMMA conference-goers that Anheuser-Busch planned to maintain Bud.tv despite its setbacks, it didn't elicit wild cheers or a collective sigh of relief. It did raise a question, though: Why keep Bud.tv going?

Three-quarters of the delegates polled at the Association of National Advertisers' annual meeting in Phoenix recently said reports of the demise of the 30-second spot are highly exaggerated. In fact, each morning's sessions were preceded by an a-z reel of moments from the best that brands have to offer.