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Online ad server DoubleClick quietly has done away with its pinpoint ad profiling service, according to a report in CNET News. The so-called intelligent targeting service, which helped advertisers and web publishers target ads to individual consumers by using a database containing 100 million profiles, officially was eliminated at the very end of 2001. The targeting service was supposed to represent the great power of internet advertising, namely the ability to reach people based on their specific predilections. But, according to industry observers, that may have been an idea too far ahead of its time, with the costs of amassing and storing the information outweighing the profits. Additionally, the targeting service’s cost per thousand was roughly four times the price of run-of-network or random online ad placement.
DaimlerChrysler ruffled over gay site name
In selling mass-market goods, image is everything. Thus automaker DaimlerChrysler is concerned about the integrity of the fussball-mom image of its new European minivan, the Mercedes Vaneo, because it shares a name with a cosmetics maker for gay men. The Bavarian businessman who runs www.vaneo.de says he has done nothing wrong, as he owns the rights to the name in the cosmetics, paper and drinks industries. In addition to male cosmetics like creams and lotions, the site offers colored and perfumed toilet paper in eight shades and six scents. The home page for the web site, the one that DaimlerChrysler officials believe is detrimental to its image, features two men kissing and a naked man lathering himself, his crucial area masked by the "V" from the logo "Vaneo . . the world of gays!" The carmaker is going ahead with legal action to shut down the site.
No dot.coms filed for IPOs in 2001
Many entrepreneurs once believed they would become wealthy by selling shares of their internet companies on Wall Street. But these days, many dot.coms are either out of business or have been booted off the Nasdaq. And even if they are still in business, their shares are trading in the sub-$5 range at best. Small wonder, then, that last year no companies that called themselves dot.coms made initial public offerings. According to business information service Hoover's, 2001 saw no such companies go public, in contrast to 2000, when 12 did, and 1999, when 22 did. Back then, it was chic for a company to add dot.com to its name for added cachet on Wall Street. Still, there were a couple of technology and internet-related companies that went public in 2001, such as Magma Design Automation, but they lack the dot.com designation.
MSN will use Overture paid listings
On a trial basis, MSN, Microsoft’s internet portal, is using paid-listing internet search company Overture Services to power its search site. Starting today, MSN’s search section will offer the paid search results on a beta site, beta.search.msn.com. Ultimately, MSN plans to offer Overture searches on both its search page and its Spanish-language portal, YupiMSN.com. If the deal goes through, and it looks like it will, both Overture and MSN will benefit financially. What Overture does is sell high placement in its search results to advertisers via auction. The advertisers are charged each time their listings get clicked on. Overture stands to gain more audience share through the MSN deal. Overture was once known as GoTo.com.
17-year-old racked up $1 million in web scam
A 17-year-old high school boy allegedly bilked investors of a total $1 million in an online con. Cole Bartiromo of Mission Viejo, Calif., used a web site and online message boards to mislead roughly 1,000 investors into parting with $1 million. The scam was called "Invest Better 2001." The teenager feigned an offer of risk-free, guaranteed investments and had investors send him money via services such as PayPal. Bartiromo stashed the cash in an online casino based in Costa Rica. The Securities and Exchange Commission learned of the scheme and took legal action through the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, and the investigation ultimately led to Bartiromo. The 17-year-old is to hand over the remaining money, about $900,000.
January 9, 2002 © 2002 Media Life
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