Fair Isaac Pegs Click Fraud at 10-15%

According to an AP report, Fair Isaac's preliminary data shows that 10 to 15 percent of online advertising traffic is "pathological," indicating a likelihood of click fraud, said Joseph Milana, the company's chief scientist of research and development.

In a just-issued press release, Fair Isaac is saying this 10 to 15-percent figure is referring to billed clicks, which puts these estimates much, much higher than those coming from the search engines, or from third-party reports from Click Forensics and others.

Link: Fair Isaac Pegs Click Fraud at 10-15%.

Google Watch - YouTube - Google's Universal Search = YouTube Masterstroke

So Google is rolling out its universal search GUI and blending listings from its video, news, local, images and book search engines among those it gathers from crawling Web pages.

This is how Google will monetize YouTube. Google understands that video is popular enough that you don't have to sell advertising in the video, like a pre-roll. That's not the most efficient way to monetize the user experience. Especially considering that pre-rolls work best when the user already trusts the content he/she is about to view. Like VideoEgg's Matt Sanchez said during my panel at Streaming Media East yesterday: If a user knows they're about to watch Law & Order, they might sit through a pre-roll. But they won't sit through a pre-roll if they're unsure of the entertainment pay-off.

Link: Google Watch - YouTube - Google's Universal Search = YouTube Masterstroke.

SideStep Launches Social Travel Application on Facebook® Platform

SAN FRANCISCO | SideStep, the Internet’s leading travel search company, today announced the launch of Trips, a social travel application built on Facebook Platform, which enables companies and developers to build applications for the Facebook website. SideStep’s Trips application enables Facebook users worldwide to share their travel plans and to make new friends while traveling.

Facebook today launched Facebook Platform, a development
platform that enables companies and engineers to integrate with
Facebook and gain access to millions of users. More than 50 percent of
Facebook users return to the site each day, providing unparalleled
distribution potential for applications and the opportunity to build a
business that is highly relevant to people’s lives.

Link: WiredHotelier.com - Industry News - SideStep Launches Social Travel Application on Facebook® Platform.

eyefortravel.com - Travel Distribution News, Events and Analysis

As user-generated content continues to gain prominence, it is being coming critical for online travel sites to differentiate themselves in the way they offer users ways to research, search and decide on their travel plans. (5/18/2007)

Link: eyefortravel.com - Travel Distribution News, Events and Analysis.

LodgingInteractive.com

Google Testing In-Stream Video Ads

Link: Google Testing In-Stream Video Ads.

Google has begun an in-stream video ad test with a small group of U.S. publishers and advertisers using AdSense. The trial explores the best methods of matching video-enabled ads with online video content for each publisher.

According to Google, participating sites within the network will test using each publisher's Flash player, instead of on YouTube or Google Video-hosted executions. Ad creative will be less than :30 and made skippable for users. Publishers will be able to select which videos to monetize, and track their performance using AdSense. Publishers can also choose where the ads will appear within the videos. Akin to standard AdSense deals, ad revenue will be split between the website publisher and Google.

Google declined to give any further details, but the not unexpected move of adding in-stream video ads to its Ad

Facebook Launches New Video Application - WSJ.com

Facebook Inc., the Palo Alto, Calif., social-networking startup, Thursday launched a new video application that could compete with Google Inc.'s YouTube. Facebook's 23 million users will be able to create and share videos directly from Facebook.

Facebook launched the feature at a San Francisco event at which it unveiled a new strategy to let outside companies build services inside the Facebook Web site. Those companies will be able to generate revenue from those services by showing ads or selling goods and services within special pages in Facebook, the company said.

From WSJ

eMarketer.com - Online Ad Spending Hits New Record

US Internet ad revenues totaled $16.9 billion in 2006, up 35% from 2005, according to the "Internet Advertising Revenue Report" from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

Link: eMarketer.com - Online Ad Spending Hits New Record.

THE QUESTION: When did Orbitz become so sleazy? - Valleywag

It is unsurprising that internet sites such as Heavy, which has an extremely aggressive approach to advertising sales and raising investment, would inflate audience numbers. But, in the latest expose of the clients of dodgy internet marketing firms, it was unexpected to see Orbitz on the list.

Link: THE QUESTION: When did Orbitz become so sleazy? - Valleywag.

Online Classifieds Enter a Social Phase

Before auctioning off those extra tickets to the game, or visiting a job site to sift through online want ads, most people hit up friends and business acquaintances for help. New relationships in the online classifieds space are bringing those community connections to Web listings for recruitment, apartments, used books and more.

Link: Online Classifieds Enter a Social Phase.

Internet Marketing for Hotels.

Official Google Blog: What's hot today?

For more than six years, we have compiled a regular list of popular searches called the Google Zeitgeist. This has been our way to highlight the sorts of queries people type into the Google search box every day. More recently, we unveiled Google Trends to show the popularity of search terms in relation to each other overtime, and how different cities or regions may care (or not) about the trends.

And today we're  introducing a new toy we are calling Hot Trends. It's a new feature of Google Trends for sharing the the hottest current searches with you in very close to real time. What's on our collective mind as we search for information? What's interesting to people right now? Hot Trends will tell you. At a glance, you'll see the huge variety of topics capturing our attention, from current events to daily crossword puzzle clues to the latest celebrity gossip. Hot Trends is updated throughout the day, so check back often.

Link: Official Google Blog: What's hot today?.