Install a little photo program to show off pictures of your dog on Facebook, and you might find you’re really spreading an ad.
Time Warner Inc.’s AOL said Wednesday it was integrating technology from its newly acquired Goowy Media Inc. to help advertisers pitch their products and services at social-networking sites, which have struggled to generate revenue despite heavy traffic.
Advertisers can buy ads for pet care and other services on AOL’s Widgnet advertising network, and they will run on certain applications for the online hangouts Facebook and AOL’s Bebo. Revenue would be shared between AOL and the application developer, but not the social-networking sites.
In addition, advertisers can create programs known as widgets using Goowy’s technology and wrap an ad around them. Users of supported social-networking sites, which also include News Corp.’s MySpace and AOL’s AIM Profile Pages, can add the widget to their personal profile page, customizing it with, say, a photo of their own pet.
In a sense, users are doing the work of advertisers in spreading word of their brand and interacting with it.
AOL is offering this free to advertisers already using AOL’s ad services elsewhere. That’s part of a broader effort by AOL to boost its advertising revenue and offset declines in legacy Internet access subscriptions.
“Widget-based advertising is gaining momentum in the industry,” said Lynda Clarizio, president of Platform-A, AOL’s advertising arm.
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More