The Federal Communications Commission has fined Google $25,000 for failing to cooperate with an investigation into its collection of URLs, passwords and emails sent over unencrypted WiFi networks. At the same time, the FCC declined to pass judgment on whether Google's Street View cars broke the law by collecting the so-called "payload" data.

Roll the dice; tackle a player: Now there is some loosening of gambling advertising by the NFL. The NFL will allow teams to accept advertisements for casinos and other state-licensed gambling-related establishments during the next two seasons.  But those ads can appear only program guides given to those who attend games, on local radio broadcasts and in the upper bowl and inner concourses of stadiums. "We remain steadfast in our opposition to the proliferation of gambling on NFL games," NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said. "There is a distinction between accepting advertising in a limited fashion and …

  Continuing to enhance its mobile operations, Facebook has acquired Tagtile, a mobile-centric customer loyalty service started last fall. The company’s offering centers on a free hardware device for merchants that customers using the Tagtile app can tap at checkout with their smartphones to earn loyalty rewards on purchases. According to a TechCrunch story last October, the company was testing its Tagtile Cube hardware with 35 merchants in San Francisco, New York and Florida. In a message posted to its today, Tagtile said Facebook was acquiring “substantially all of our assets.” It also stated the company would continue …

All football all the time apparently isn’t enough for a TV network that bears the name of a popular football brand. The NFL Network will be the exclusive U.S. television partner for Rugby Sevens championships from Grand Prix Entertainment in July 2013. Rugby – which may be similar for some U.S. viewers to football – is looking for a big lift from U.S. sports audiences. USA Rugby previously awarded Grand Prix the exclusive rights to the professional sport of Rugby Sevens, which has bee named as a new Olympic sport. William Tatham, chairman of Grand Prix Entertainment, said in a …

Google continues to rake in clicks related to ads served on its sites and those of its network members. The Mountain View, Calif., company reported in its Q1 2012 earnings report that clicks rose 39% in Q1 2012, compared with the year-ago quarter, and approximately 7% sequentially. Average cost-per-click, which includes clicks related to ads served on Google sites and the sites of network members, declined approximately 12% in Q1 2012, compared with the year-ago quarter, and approximately 6% sequentially. About 69%, $7.31 billion, of total revenue came from Google sites for Q1 2012 on revenue of $10.65 billion for …

Curt Hecht has left Publicis' VivaKi unit to become Chief Revenue Officer, a new position, at The Weather Channel Cos., working for his former boss VivaKi boss David Kenny, who is now CEO of TWC.

The MLB.com At Bat app perennially jumps to the top of the charts when the latest version is released at the start of each baseball season. This year’s edition has been no different, ranking as the top-grossing app for the iPhone and Android since its February release. It's also been the top-grossing app for the iPad. What’s new is that At Bat 12 has hit the 3 million download mark only eight days into the regular season, a level it took until August 22—145 days into the season—for the app to reach last year. It’s likely the steep rise …

As of the fourth quarter of 2011, half of black mobile users owned a smartphone (up from 44% in Q4 2010) and 58% accessed the mobile Internet--more more than any other race or ethnic group. New data from Nielsen also shows 62% of black mobile users are receptive to advertising on their device if it means they can access for free. And more than two-thirds (67%) researched or looked up shopping information via a search engine on their smartphone or tablet (11% own a tablet). Read the full Nielsen post here.

New research from mobile marketing firm Velti indicates the new iPad is growing faster than the iPad 2 in its first month after release. The latest version of the Apple tablet has captured 2.2% of impressions on the Mobclix mobile ad exchange compared to the 1.5% the iPad 2 claimed in its first month. The new iPad’s launch has also helped iOS pull ahead of Android, with 53% share of impressions in March. The two leading mobile platforms were mostly neck-and-neck during 2011. Among manufacturers, Apple dominated with 53% share of impression volume, while others including Samsung, HTC and …

A lack of mobile-friendly Web sites and ad landing pages has often been cited among factors hampering the growth of mobile advertising. To help address that issue, video ad technology provider Jivox has introduced new features for its platform that allows marketers to add mobile-optimized landing pages for any video ad campaigns running on smartphones. Using the tools, the company says advertisers can quickly create what it calls “active mobile pages,” for the iPhone and Android-based phones. The new mobile capabilities include rich media development, “smart sizing,” to preserve the visual look of the page and switch automatically from …