Cable Companies Take Advertisers’ Ads Online

National Cable Communications (NCC) and Mixpo have launched an initiative to let cable advertisers extend their TV commercials to the web. This is not aimed at creating pre/post roll video ads like you might think, but videos as display ads in place of traditional banners. NCC is jointly owned by three of the largest cable companies - Comcast Cable, Cox Communications, and Time Warner Cable.…

Google and Predicting Search Trends

Update: Google has a fascinating research paper available about how it predicts search trends. Some of the key findings from this research are highlighted in this post at Google's Research Blog.

Google: Conversion Rates Hardly Vary by Ad Position

Ever wondered if your AdWords conversion rates would be better if your ads were just positioned differently? According to Google, it doesn't matter a whole lot where they are positioned. Google Chief Economist Hal Varian and his team claim to have done some research into the subject and has concluded that conversion rates just don't vary much by position.