Weekly Digital News Roundup: June 27 – July 1

Weekly Digital News Roundup: June 27 – July 1

YouTube Gives Free Ad Time to Certain Networks

• Free time in front of potential customers doesn’t happen for advertisers often, but a video ad model on YouTube makes it a reality for Scripps Network and other advertisers – as long as the viewer opts out before the 30-second spot concludes.
• The video ad format – cost per view – rolled out last fall on the YouTube network, but parent company Google is also considering making it available across the Google Display Network.
• A cookie gets dropped in the browser of site visitors who choose to view the ad, which provides a “view through” metric that shows a large percentage of people come back to the site once they are exposed to the YouTube video ad.
• http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=153076

Location-Based Ads Hit $6B by 2015

• Location-based advertising – which ties in consumer locations with restaurants, retail shops and other locations through mobile devices – will grow to over one-third of all mobile advertising in four years.
• By 2015, location-based advertising will be $6.2 billion, according to Pyramid Research. In 2010, location-based advertising was $588 million – 18.5% of all mobile advertising. It will also generate 60% of all location-based revenue in four years.
• Foursquare is probably the best-known dedicated location-based service with around 10 million users, and handles about 3 million user check-ins daily.
• http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=153133

The Fall of MySpace

• Myspace sold on Wednesday for just $35 million, a rough landing for a company once thought to be worth billions.
• The rise of Facebook ultimately killed the pioneering social network, which saw just under 40,000 unique monthly visitors towards the end of its reign. Facebook, on the other hand, continues to see close to 160,000 unique monthly visitors in the U.S. alone.
• While Myspace will be letting go of about 50% of its staff, plans are being set to turn the network entirely to hosting new and original musicians.
• http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-the-fall-of-myspace-2011-6?utm_source=Triggermail&utm_medium=email&utm_term=SAI+Chart+Of+The+Day&utm_campaign=SAI_COTD_062911

Google Makes Another Play for the Social Web

• Google’s latest attempt to delve into the social web was unveiled recently in the form of Google+, which has been in development for more than a year.
• The major difference between Facebook and Google+ is that instead of having a massive friend list, users collect each other into groups, such as family, work, and friends, called “circles.” And on Google+, there are no friend requests – people do not need to agree to be friends with one another and can view updates without sharing their own.
• The response to Google+ has been so tremendous that the company has had to halt new users from joining for the time being.
• http://adage.com/article/digital/google-makes-play-social-web/228466/

Official: Google Analytics Gets Social Engagement Reporting

• Google Analytics recently announced a new set of reports (and functionality) that will enable websites to track social interaction with their content. This comes as a welcomed addition to the new Google+1 button.
• Paired with Google+1, it now enables one to measure the impact of social interactions in and outside of websites (either through a Facebook like, +1 or LinkdIn share inside the website or on +1 search results).
• This chance is meaningful enough that Google went the extra mile to create the Social Interaction Tracking, a new tracking function that will be used for social tracking only.
• http://searchengineland.com/official-google-analytics-gets-social-engagement-reporting-83707