Google Begins Interest Based Ad Program

Today [Google is] launching "interest-based" advertising as a beta test on our partner sites and on YouTube. These ads will associate categories of interest…so if you visit an online sports store, you may later be shown ads on other websites offering you a discount on running shoes during that store’s upcoming sale.

Is Microsoft Going to Make Waves in Search This Year?

In a story we covered earlier this month, John Battelle accidentally typed livesearch.com into his address bar only to find a domain squatter. This of course led to speculation that Microsoft was close to rebranding its Live Search. They clearly were not too concerned about getting that domain (it's still the same a couple weeks later).

Google Feels Lucky with Twitter

Google has decided to start a Twitter account. It's attached to a random Googler and holds the bio "News and updates from Google." The first tweet came sometime around 7pm  EST last night, and Google already has nearly 12,000 followers. It is following 37. Among those being followed by Google? A bunch of Googlers, and Google product accounts. Danny Sullivan, and John Battelle are also…

Global Smartphone Sales Up In 2008

In the fourth quarter of 2008, global sales of smartphones reached 38.1 million units, an increase of 3.7 percent over the fourth quarter of 2007, according to Gartner. Worldwide sales of smartphone for 2008 reached 139.3 million, up 13.9 percent compared to 2007.