GOOGLE will be selling 5% of Clear Channel’s ad inventory, continuing its march into offline advertising. On Friday, Google purchased DoubleClick. Rivals are describing that deal as “anti-competitive.”
ADOBE and MICROSOFT will become rivals on two new fronts. Microsoft’s is launching Silverlight, a Flash competitor. Adobe has announced Adobe Media Player, which offers functionality similar to Windows Media Player.
YAHOO has finalized a deal with a consortium of 264 newspapers, including those owned by McClatchy. Yahoo will serve ads, provide search, and distribute content for newspaper web sites. It will also sell advertising in the newspapers.
USA Today has seen the benefits of
adding social-networking elements to its web site. After adding blogs, commenting abilities, and enhanced user-profiles, registrations increased 380%.