Posted 11/09/09 at 08:17:45 PM by Ryan Whitwam

It’s suspicious ad placement any way you slice it. If you do a Google search for “download Windows 7” you’ll probably see an ad for switching to Mac. If you search for “buy Windows 7”, you get no such thing. The ad will show up in the “Sponsored Links” section at the top or the right side.  If the search is repeated, several different versions of the ad will appear.

The theory goes that if someone wants to download Windows illegally, they might consult Google. Maybe if they don't consider Windows worth paying for, maybe they would pay for a Mac. Could it be that Apple is targeting Windows pirates? It’s not like software pirates have a reputation for buying things. Do people that intend to pirate Windows even search for “download Windows 7” anyway? Are they just after people who don’t know any better? If you have any possible explanation for this, let us know in the comments.

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Posted 11/08/09 at 03:55:22 PM by Jason Barry

Despite AT&T’s lawsuit against Verizon, more commercials go live bashing AT&T’s coverage. They aired three new commercials this weekend featuring the allegedly dismal 3G coverage of AT&T’s service.  The new Verizon commercials are holiday focused, featuring Santa’s elves and the iPhone that got sent to the Island of Misfit Toys.

AT&T is suing Verizon in the state of New York for misrepresenting its 3G network in the “There’s a map for that” commercials that debuted a month ago. Their claims are basically that the colors of the maps (red or blue with a light gray background) confuse the customer into believing there is NO service outside the blue spots on AT&T’s map.

Verizon has since altered the ads with fine print and some verbiage changes, but the colors of the maps remain. Fine print withstanding, I can’t imagine AT&T (or its lawyers) will be happy about these ads. Perhaps they should hire Justin Long to do “I’m an iPhone” commercials.

Check out the commercials after the jump.

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Posted 10/24/09 at 05:56:26 PM by Justin Kerr

When you write the single most popular operating system in the world, its only a matter of time before people step up and start claiming that many of the cool new features were "my idea!". Playing up on this notion, Microsoft's ad agency has released a new TV campaign aimed at making fun of the unwashed masses who are lining up to take credit for Windows 7.

The first wave of ads will highlight the Windows 7 snap feature that allows you to easily resize windows by simply dragging them to a corner of the screen. They do however conveniently forget to mention that this can be done a whole lot faster by pressing the win + arrow keys, but if they did, you wouldn't need to read our handy shortcut tips now would you?

Hit the jump to take a peek at the first batch of ads, and let us know what part of Windows 7 was your idea.

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Posted 10/21/09 at 08:32:30 AM by Paul Lilly

You and I might call it spam, but small businesses who promote their products on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter call it smart advertising. No matter what you call it, don't expect those product plugs to go away any time soon. In an online survey, Internet2Go found that 45 percent of some 2,400 small business respondents with fewer than 100 employees said they use social networking tools to push their services or wares.

"For these guys, costs was a big factor," said Greg Sterling, an analyst for Internet2Go. "They either need to hire a dedicated person or need more resources and don't have it.

We're talking really small businesses here, as most of the respondents -- 8 out of 10 -- had four or fewer employees and annual marketing budgets less than $5,000. Nearly half of all respondents said they spend less than $1,000 on advertising and marketing, so it makes sense they would flock to Facebook and other essentially free venues.

"We are going to see more and more of this behavior from other small businesses because it's free and you don't have to have expertise to set up these pages," Sterling said.

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Posted 10/16/09 at 04:22:10 PM by Paul Lilly

Let's for a moment put aside the recent Snow Leopard debacle involving lost data due to a bug in the OS. And while we're overlooking things, we might as well disregard the multitude of positive reactions Windows 7 has received, which is still nearly a week away from being released. None of it matters, because Apple plans to continue its relentless advertising assault against Windows-based PCs.

According to BusinessWeek, Apple is prepared for the Windows 7 launch with a series of "Get a Mac" ads that will air at the same time. Whereas some of the criticisms coming from the Apple camp might have been justified during Vista's forgettable reign, what could the rival OS maker possibly have to say about Windows 7?

"It will likely make the case that Macs are less susceptible to viruses and are best suited to its popular iPods and iPhones. And look for it to poke fun at Microsoft making XP owners go through an arduous process to upgrade to Windows 7 -- one that includes backing up all their files to an external drive, reformatting their PC, and then reinstalling all of their old programs, assuming they still have the CDs," BusinessWeek wrote.

It's an interesting tactic, but we're not so sure Apple's message will resonate as loudly as it did when Vista made it all too easy to go on the offensive. Think about it for a moment - is a somewhat bothersome upgrade process for XP owners really enough to sway consumers over to OS X? Phil Schiller, Apple's senior VP for Worldwide Product Marketing believes it is.

"Any user that reads all those steps is probably going to freak out," Schiller stated. "If you have to go through all that, why not just buy a Mac?"

We'd answer that one ourselves, but that would be no fun. Instead, we'll hit the jump to see what you have to say on the matter.

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Posted 10/14/09 at 05:54:23 PM by Jason Barry

The New York Times got a chance to sit down with Chief Strategy Officer at Digg, Mike Maser, to discuss the overall success of the special ad-serving engine it integrated into its web service earlier this summer.

They worked on integrating their “social voting” mechanism into sponsored ad placement to provide sponsors and users with a better advertising experience. The users can digg specific ads allowing them to travel up the flow of diggs. Each ad’s cost-per-click is adjusted based upon its number of diggs—higher cost for lesser (buried) diggs. The idea is to encourage advertisers to create ads that are worthwhile to the user, if the ad gets buried, it gets expensive, urging the sponsor to pull the ad down.

Maser boasted that the new platform proved effective, “so far we’ve already tripled our revenue forecast from this initiative.” An Intel sponsored blog earned a 2.2 percent click-through-rate, others earning close to 3 percent, compared with the average regular display ad on Digg earning about .08 percent.

Have you noticed the ads? Have you clicked on any, or Dugg any? Considering the web will likely always have ad sponsorship, what do you think of the new model?

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Posted 10/08/09 at 09:18:26 PM by Ryan Whitwam

If you buy a Windows 7 PC in the future, you might not be getting that copy of Microsoft Works nobody uses. Instead it will come with a completely free version of Office 2010. Oh… Office 2010 Starter Edition, that is. It will be a limited functionality version of Office supported by Ads. The nature of the ads was not made clear.

According to Microsoft, the Office Starter Edition will have, “a simple path to upgrade to a fully featured version of Office 2010 directly from within the product.” This is probably an effort to get customers used to Office features in the hopes that they will purchase the full version. Microsoft will have to walk a fine line to make the ads annoying enough that people will want to get rid of them, but not so annoying that they don’t even use Office.

The new PCs will already have the full version of Office 2010 installed on the hard drive. Customers will simply have to purchase a card from a retailer with the unlock code. The card will apparently be sold through some “major electronic retail outlets”. Microsoft hasn’t detailed which OEMs would be installing the Office Starter Edition software. Try to contain yourself waiting for this one.

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Posted 10/06/09 at 11:05:07 AM by Paul Lilly

Some of the calls you make to landlines via Skype will soon be free. That's because after testing its click-to-call ads on the Web for several months, Skype today announced it is rolling out the new business-funded product in a partnership with European Directories.

"Partnering with European Directories is a key part of bringing our new business funded click-to-call product to market and providing advertisers with solutions that can help them connect with customers in new and innovative ways," said Don Albert, GM and VP of Americas and Advertising for Skype. "When a call is free and only one click away, we believe it can have a positive impact for a business because there are fewer barriers to start a call. That can result in more qualified leads, more engagement, and possibly a higher rate of conversion for a business."

Calls that are funded by a business will be highlighted with a blue "Free Call" button that appears anywhere online where a phone number is displayed, Skype explained. This includes search engines, internet yellow pages, and local search sites.

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