Yes, That Is an Ad on Google's Homepage

How invested is Google in the success of Droid, the most hyped device yet to be built using its Android operating system? So much so that it's willing to sully that holy of holies -- its homepage -- with an ad promoting the smartphone.

The ad appears directly below the search field, as you can see in the screenshot above. It points to a landing page hosted by Google, which promotes the Droid's search and navigation capabilities. That page directs people to Verizon to buy the phone.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers on November 6, 4:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Digg this! Add to del.icio.us Stumble It!

Related:

BusinessWeek's Top Online Exec To Leave

A few stories ClickZ's editors are reading:

BusinessWeek's Top Online Executive To Leave Magazine (Business Week)

CNN Launches Sponsored News Trivia Quiz (WebProNews)

YouTube Video Dealmaker Jordan Hoffner Leaves Company Hoffner brokered content agreements with Time Warner and Walt Disney. He'll be replaced by Chris Maxcy, who handled deals with record labels. (Bloomberg)

Funny or Die Now a YouTube Channel Partner (YouTube Biz Blog)

RealNetworks to Lay Off Four Percent of Staff Today (AllThingsD)

Posted by Zachary Rodgers on November 5, 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Digg this! Add to del.icio.us Stumble It!

Related:

Amazon Integrates Twitter with Affiliate Program. Is it Spam?

Amazon has introduced a feature on its Associates affiliate scheme which allows its members to tweet links with ease directly from its site. When browsing products, affiliates can now post links to Twitter by simply clicking a toolbar button at the top every page, similar to the way in which they might share an article via a "share this" button.

Of course, the same result was already possible by entering an affiliate link into a url shortener and posting it to Twitter, but the two-click functionality now makes that process easier and quicker.

Whether or not this is a good thing for Twitter users is another question entirely. The micro-blogging and networking service already experiences problems with spam accounts and unwanted marketing messages, so the introduction of similar functionality across other affiliate programs could well contribute to the growing amount of content many users consider spam.

Posted by Jack Marshall on November 5, 7:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Digg this! Add to del.icio.us Stumble It!

Related: Affiliate Marketing, Social Networks, Twitter

Most Brutal Sponsorship Ever

Though they're more prone to drinking beer and Jagermeister, a sneak preview of the return of the members of the world's most brutal metal band, Dethklok, has been brought to us by Coke Zero.

In fact, in addition to "Metalocalypse," which features the animated exploits of Dethklok, the non-caloric soda brand is sponsoring a host of previews of upcoming shows on Cartoon Network's adult-aimed programming block Adult Swim. The main goal appears to be promoting the "Facial Profiler," an application available at CocaColaZero.com that purports to match photos of people with similar facial features.

At this stage, Coke is in the building stage, looking for people to submit their photos to the database by connecting to the app through Facebook.

Posted by Kate Kaye on November 3, 5:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Digg this! Add to del.icio.us Stumble It!

Related: Advertising, Branding, Rich/Streaming/Video, Social Networks

Gawker Launches Video Spinoff at Gawker.tv

Gawker Media has created a new site at Gawker.tv focused on TV and online video content. Posts published since its launch this afternoon: a montage of gratuitous product placements on television and the above video of a puppy that has fallen and can't get up.

The new site marks something of a departure for Publisher Nick Denton, who has historically launched new sites under their own brands. He noted the smallest Gawker Media site now has 18 million page views, whereas the company's threshold used to be 1 million.

"We're believers in fewer stronger brands," he said. He called Gawker.tv "an expansion of the video-centric posts we've already been doing on Gawker.com."

Denton acknowledged the ad opportunity is somewhat generic for a site about random interesting video. "I'm sure there will be some video creative placed deliberately on Gawker.tv because the audience is in the mode to watch," he said. "But it's not as if the audience will be uniquely broadbanded up -- most of our readers can view video advertising even on texty sites."

Posted by Zachary Rodgers on November 3, 12:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Digg this! Add to del.icio.us Stumble It!

Related:

See More Posts From:

Today | This Week | This Month

• Send us feedback
|
• FAQ
|
• Technical questions or bug reports?
|
• Newsletter problems?
|
• Site Map
|
• ClickZ RSS feeds

• Incisive Interactive Marketing LLC. 2009 All rights reserved.
|
• Legal Notices, Licensing, Reprints & Permissions
|
• Privacy Policy