Most of Google AdWords Case Dismissed
I think that based on the legal angle of much of the news around Google lately, we could see a service called Google Legal. I have no idea what that might look like but since the Internet behemoth spends so much time in court battles they should be able to find a way to monetize that right? They make money on everything else they do so why not?
The latest case was brought against Google by Daniel Jurin. MediaPost gives some of the details
Jurin, who sells StyroTrim building material, brought suit last year for trademark infringement, false advertising, interference with contractual relations, and other counts. The allegations all stemmed from Google’s AdWords program, which allows trademarked terms to trigger pay-per-click ads.
If you want to get a lesson in whether this kind of thing is a good idea to do, take into consideration these two results from the case. Jurin has to pay $6,000 for Google’s legal fees and most of the case was dismissed. Not exactly a winner other than getting some press that won’t likely help his business any.
In a ruling issued this week, U.S. District Court Judge Morrison England in the eastern district of California dismissed a host of Jurin’s claims, including allegations that Google confused consumers about who produced StyroTrim by returning links to a variety of companies in response to a search on the term. “Even if one accepts as true the allegation that a ‘Sponsored link’ might confuse a consumer, it is hardly likely that with several different sponsored links appearing on a page that a consumer might believe each one is the true ‘producer’ or ‘origin’ of the Styrotrim product,” he wrote.
What is probably the most interesting outcome of this whole thing is the assertion by the court that essentially says that Google sells ad space and not keywords. If you are Google that’s a nice thing to hear a court say because it could potentially take away a lot of the responsibility that many place on Google to police trademarks and more. As of now, the trademark infringement piece of the suit has not been dismissed but it is believed that the likelihood of anything coming of it is slim.
So Google continues to fight the AdWords fight in court and why wouldn’t they? It accounts for the overwhelming majority of the company’s revenues so it is worth fighting for. Of course their legal woes aren’t even close to being over.
Google is currently facing 10 trademark infringement cases stemming from AdWords. No court has yet definitively ruled on whether using a brand name to trigger a search ads infringes trademark. The one case to go to trial, a lawsuit by insurance company Geico against Google, resulted in a victory for Google in 2004. In that case, a judge in Alexandria, Va. ruled that Geico had not proven that consumers were confused when they typed “Geico” into a search box and were served with ads for other insurance companies.
There will always be legal battles for Google and any other successful company to fight especially in this day and age where unscrupulous folks look at the legal system as the the lottery system. As long as the impression is that Google is playing on the right side of the law in most instances then this whole process can just be chalked up to the cost of doing business. Hey, it is America after all.
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Google May Not Be Evil, But It is Naughty By Nature!
Google is re-branding both its DART for Publishers and Google Ad Manager products–and it’s all because of some surfing web site that can’t get a grip on its online advertising!
Sheesh!
Well, actually Google just uses a surfing site as an example of just how complicated it can be for publishers to manage their ads without the help of Google. Apparently, we’re all doomed unless we switch to Google’s sophisticated ad platform, so both of its popular programs are getting a makeover–because nothing makes you switch ad platforms like a shiny new logo. Right? 
So, DART for Publishers now becomes…
And Google Ad Manager becomes…
Both flavors of the new DFP (DoubleClick for Publishers) get some nifty enhancements, including:
- A new interface that has been completely redesigned to save time and reduce errors.
- Far more detailed reporting and forecasting data to help publishers understand where their revenue is coming from and what ads are most valuable.
- Sophisticated algorithms that automatically improve ad performance and delivery.
- A new, open, public API which enables publishers to build and integrate their own apps with DFP, or integrate apps created for DFP by a growing third-party developer community (apps under development today include sales, order management and workflow tools).
- Integration with the new DoubleClick Ad Exchange’s "dynamic allocation" feature, which maximizes revenue by enabling publishers to open up their ad space to bids from multiple ad networks. Dynamic allocation is described in this document.
All of which looks a little something like this:
The Small Business solution is free and is aimed at those that don’t yet know they need to pay for something like this, while larger publishers will have to break out their corporate check book to use the system.
Now, all we need is a new theme song to go along with the new logos. I’ve got one!
"Who’s down with DFP, yeah you know me!" 
Smart Move! Google Acquiring “Intelligent Display Advertising” Company Teracent
Can you tell the difference between these two ads?
Look closely:
Well the one on the bottom just made the founders of Teracent, very, very rich!
OK, that’s not quite the same example that Google just gave over at the official blog, but it did announce that it plans to acquire Teracent.
What does Teracent do?
Teracent’s technology can pick and choose from literally thousands of creative elements of a display ad in real-time — tweaking images, products, messages or colors. These elements can be optimized depending on factors like geographic location, language, the content of the website, the time of day or the past performance of different ads.
This technology can help advertisers get better results from their display ad campaigns. In turn, this enables publishers to make more money from their ad space and delivers web users better ads and more ad-funded web content.
Think of it as multi-variate testing for your banner ads.
No news yet on the price paid and the deal is subject to final closing conditions.
Cup of Joe: Transparency is Killing Ad Profits.
Not long ago we reported that Hulu is now attracting more viewers than Time Warner Cable. However, despite that, the cable networks that own Hulu are still making the majority of their ad profits from traditional media.
Hulu is not the only one suffering from failed ad programs while their user base rises. Facebook now has a user base larger than most first world countries. Despite this they have failed to turn a profit even after releasing a sophisticated ad platform.
Even as users are flocking to online media, traditional media companies are still making the majority of the ad profits. Lets take a look at how traditional media is making loads more than online publishers.
How to Be a Traditional (Rich) Media Fat Cat.
- Develop addictive content, that preys on people’s emotions.
- Use preexisting infrastructures to scale and distribute.
- Keep your advertisers in the dark.
- Sell ad space at inflated margins.
Notice that I put an emphasis on point 3. This is the most important aspect of the above formula because with out it, point 4 won’t fly.
The truth is, most of the corporations that buy ad space in traditional media have absolutely no idea if it works or not. Sure they can look at their sales numbers over time and predict that this ad or that commercial was successful or not, but compared to Internet marketing they are literally in the dark.
With Internet marketing we can use analysts tools, sophisticated tracking techniques and even user behavior analysis to nail down conversion rates to exact numbers. Couple this data with PPC and CPM ad models and we can calculate ROI to the penny–in real time–and make adjustments to ad spending instantly. All of these exact measurements can enable the advertisers to only spend the bare minimum needed on ads.
And this is why online publishers are failing at making a profit. Traditional media companies make huge profits on wasted ad spending. In an attempt to lure big money to the Internet, companies like Google pushed tools and ad platforms that enabled advertisers to spend less. In the end the only way a company can make substantial profits in this radically transparent environment, is to monopolize the flow of information.
Hey folks I just reread this post for the third time, and I realized that its incredibly boring! I am sorry about that. To make up for the above, here are a few things to look at that I think better represent my regular style of content. Enjoy!
<img border="0" src="http://constanthit.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/73484_vertical-leap-seo-234.gif”>
NBC Goes Mobile With Investment
NBC understands that the future of television may have less to do with TV’s. As a result, the company has made a move into the mobile ad space by investing in the mobile ad network Greystripe. The funding is said to have been made to assist the sales team headquartered in New York in selling more ads across the 1,000 mobile apps and games on over 1,400 devices that Greystripe can provide.
Greystripe, a mobile advertising network that distributes ad-supported games and applications, said it secured $2 million in funding from the Peacock Equity Fund, a joint venture fund co-founded by GE and its NBC Universal unit, ending a Series C funding round. The funding and a new strategic partnership with NBC Universal give Greystripe an edge in the hyper-competitive mobile ad world.
This ‘hyper-competitive’ market is projected by some to reach $2 billion per year in 2014 so there is certainly a lot at stake and getting in now rather than after the ship has sailed shows that at least NBC is paying attention. That can’t be said for all traditional media that has traditionally been slow on the uptake of the most current ways to reach consumers
.
As more evidence of just how the advertising world has changed one needs to look no further than other investors in Greystripe up to this point
Today’s funding news marks the second time a major media corporation-backed fund has invested in Greystripe. Steamboat Ventures, Walt Disney’s venture capital arm, led Greystripe’s Series B funding round in 2007, injecting $8.9 million into the ad network. In addition to receiving capital from NBC Universal, Greystripe will partner with the media corporation’s big-name properties, such as the Sci-Fi (sic) Channel, Bravo and MSNBC, to provide ads on its mobile applications. At the same time, NBC Universal can now sell ad space within its mobile apps to advertisers through Greystripe’s mobile ad network.
Yup, that’s Walt Disney Co., owner of ABC and ESPN among others. While this type of ‘partnership’ is less and less unusual it still shows just how much the advertising world has changed over the past several years as a result of the Internet and mobile computing / browsing.
One major competitive differentiator for Greystripe, notes their CEO Michael Chang, is that the network can serve ‘flash-like’ ads on the iPhone. The iPhone does not support flash yet but Greystripe apparently has some kind of workaround / variation on the flash theme that was attractive to a broadcast company like NBC.
Maybe mobile is finally here. If the networks are on board that means there can’t be too many adopters left out there.
Google Certified Ad Networks Coming to AdSense
AdSense publishers listen-up!
Google just knocked down the walled garden and you’ll soon see ads from other ad networks competing for your AdSense ad space. The video below explains the change and the email to all AdSense publishers is copied below that.
Hi,
We’re writing to let you know about an upcoming update in your AdSense account designed to help you generate the maximum revenue from your ad units. You’ll soon be able to allow multiple ad networks to show on your pages, which means that advertisers from external Google-certified networks will be able to compete with AdWords advertisers for your ad space.
If you’re unfamiliar with what ad networks are, they’re companies that partner with advertisers and publishers to buy and sell ads on sites they don’t own themselves, similar to AdSense. Ads from these networks will compete with Google ads to show on publisher sites, and the ad generating the highest revenue for publishers will be displayed.
To ensure the quality of the ads appearing on your sites, we’re certifying all participating ad networks for adherence to our standards for user privacy, ad quality, and speed. You’ll also have control over which networks can show ads on your pages — you can choose to opt out of receiving ads from specific networks, or all networks completely. This means you can continue to show ads from only AdWords advertisers if you’d like.
Finally, some ad networks use tools similar to Google’s interest-based advertising to show more relevant ads to users on the sites they visit. These ad networks won’t be permitted to collect data from your site for the purpose of subsequent interest-based advertising, but we’ll allow those who comply with user privacy guidelines to show ads using these tools. You’ll have the ability to opt out of showing ads based on user interests from these ad networks, and we’ve changed our requirements for third-party ad serving to reflect this. More information is available at http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=94230 .
These new capabilities will automatically be enabled for your account, and you’ll see a new section in your Ad Review Center where you can allow or block specific ad networks. Please note that we’ll gradually be adding new ad networks to AdSense accounts over the next few months, so you won’t see any immediate impact on your ads or your earnings.
To learn more about this launch and managing the ad networks appearing on your pages, visit the AdSense Help Center at https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=13522 and watch our video demo at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HyJPOVLd3I .
Sincerely,
The Google AdSense Team
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