Take a quick look around the tech ecosphere and you'll find it packed with AdTech and MarTech start-ups all vying to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) – each one hoping to deliver increased advertising views, engagement and revenues on our interactions with the devices and platforms we use every day.

As the dominance of cookies is crushed and fears around privacy and personalisation grow, AI looks set to play a huge role in allowing brands, companies and organisations to compete for our eyeballs and attention amid fast-changing media consumption habits.

Suggesting the internet and social channels are "essentially a giant behavioural science experiment", Richard Wilson, CEO at marketing technology company CLICKON, describes how AI within these pivotal industries is focused on two key use cases right now.

The first, he says, is for personalisation at scale, collecting enough consumer data to observe trends and serve hyper-relevant messages to the right audiences at the right time. The second, he added, is also often controversial, with AI used to enhance creativity.

Wilson explains: "While media buying has become heavily commoditised and automated, the last bastion standing is the creative process. Many will argue AI can't match a human's storytelling and empathy – arguably right, but also possibly wrong.

"If you asked AI to write a screenplay or Netflix series it might struggle vs an experienced human screenwriter. However, where it would succeed is taking the screenplay and finding ways to make it even better and more relevant for audiences, based on analysing their existing habits, viewing data and profile."

Potential examples offered by Wilson of AI supporting the creative process are answering simple questions such as “Will trainer adverts perform better with the product being in close up shot 65% of the time?” or “Do smiling human faces affect how people relate to an advert?”

Changing behaviour through AI

Behavioural scientist Jo Evershed, co-creator of the Gorilla Experiment Builder, believes AI in advertising and marketing will be fuelled by behaviour testing. For instance, instead of using a simple survey to ask "yes or no" as to whether you would "buy this product", people will be put into an experimental online supermarket with their purchases and choices observed.

“Behind the scenes, the behavioural scientists can change the product messaging, images, adverts and (practically) anything else,” she says. “By testing thousands of participants in slightly different shops, the researchers can test different ideas, and see how a range of factors can influence purchasing decisions."

Evershed adds: "AIs are trained in one of two ways: Either with huge data sets of how people behave, which is what Amazon or Facebook do, or via behavioural experimentation.

"The best media agencies aren't leaving design decisions to chance, gut instinct, or committees, instead they are putting considerable budgets behind behavioural testing so that they have cold hard data to support their decisions. With the cold hard data, they can confidently optimise their campaign to maximise their impact."

The opportunities and desires to adopt AI in these ways are clearly there given a recent survey of marketers from the US and UK by Iterable found 83% were likely to incorporate AI into their 2021 marketing strategy. Wayne Coburn, its director of product, analytics and AI, believes the tech can offer "the creation of brand-customer bonds".

He says: "With AI, marketers can act on consumer privacy preferences, and use first party data to understand how their audience feels about their brand, to easily create meaningful loyalty and retention programs across channels, at scale. With the ability to predict behaviours and accurately assess sentiment, AI gives marketers an opening to build empathy-first campaigns."

Over at IBM, the Watson Advertising Accelerator could be the answer to harnessing AI to meet our changing media consumptions – such as the shift to streaming. It’s focused on over-the-top (OTT) and video, aiming to move beyond contextual relevance, such as when people are served an ad that aligns with the content they are reading or watching. Instead it claims it will assist in developing personalised creatives for every user.

Matt White, VP EMEA at Quantcast, believes AI's power is also to respond to fast-moving situations. He points to trends that emerged from the first wave of lockdown in spring 2020, such as Tiger King and banana bread, and says this knowledge is only useful for marketers when they're in the early stages.

White explains: "By the time everyone is aware of them, the competitive advantage to act on that information is lost. Only machine learning has the capacity to enable humans to easily track fast-changing trends across a widely diverse set of signals."

Concerns over AI's place in privacy and personalisation

However, as AI becomes more dominant in marketing and advertising, there are also a number of critical issues to consider.

Kaveh Cope-Lahooti, senior data protection consultant at Gemserv, points to fears over people's individual privacy, and issues around political advertising on social media.

But while changes such as GDPR and the EU's draft Regulation on AI aim to offer greater protections, he said: "For advertising to be consumer-friendly and ethical, it must win back user trust. Criteria used for creating profiles must also be clear and understandable.

"Several online advertising agencies are already developing tools to enable users to request which profiles (or 'segments') are assigned to them, which will help make algorithms used by the sector to be more transparent. Whether this is sufficient to meet these legal obligations, we will have to wait to see."

Mark Bulling, SVP of product innovation at marketing-focused data science firm Essence, adds: "'Just because you can, doesn't mean you should' is another important consideration as the AI marketing landscape continues to evolve. The ethical application of AI must be something all developers place high on their agenda.

"Ensuring the data sets used to inform machine learning models are adequately considered and screened for biases, and the purpose of the end models and the decisions that they are responsible for, are necessary guardrail considerations that haven't yet been baked into privacy laws, but perhaps should be."

This changing future, however, offers many new possibilities to both safeguard privacy and deliver context, especially in an age when cookies are being crushed.

Looking ahead, Emilia Kirk, global head of growth at Seedtag, suggests AI will allow contextual advertising to pick up where behavioural-based targeting left off, given the reliance on programmatic and cookie-based advertising is ending.

Kirk says: "The technology can be used to understand web page sentiment, the nuance of the language being used on these pages, the tone of images and video, and can even configure a creative to complement the context in which it is being served … without relying on cookies.

"For brands, this means they can serve relevant ads without the need for third party data. Contextual advertising will allow brands to engage with consumers within their universe of interest, while protecting brand safety at the highest level."

Verizon announced on Thursday it would pull advertising from Facebook and Instagram.

The company will forgo advertising on both platforms until Facebook “can create an acceptable solution that makes us comfortable," it said.

The move came in response to an advertisement for Verizon appearing next to a video from QAnon, the conspiracy group known for its far-right conspiracy theories surrounding the deep state.

Verizon’s chief media officer John Nitti explained the choice to boycott Facebook ads in a statement: “We have strict content policies in place and have zero-tolerance when they are breached, we take action.

"We’re pausing our advertising until Facebook can create an acceptable solution that makes us comfortable and is consistent with what we’ve done with YouTube and other partners.”

Sources for CNBC estimate Verizon spent $406,600 on Instagram ads and $1,460,300 on Facebook ads between May 22 and June 20.

Verizon isn’t the first to take a stand against Facebook’s advertising platform. Earlier this month, the Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP, Sleeping Giants, Color of Change, Free Press and Common Sense called on Facebook advertisers to pause their July spending on the social media platform.

“Facebook has become one of the largest and most profitable companies in the world by allowing disinformation, hate and incitement on its platform," James P. Steyer, founder and CEO of Common Sense said at the time.

“Facebook has refused to stop prioritizing profits over the well-being of our society, but advertisers can, which is why we are urging companies to take a pause from spending on Facebook ads until it makes common sense changes on the platform that protect our children, our democracy and social justice in this country," Steyer continued.

In response to the boycott, Carolyn Everson, VP of global business at Facebook, shared in an emailed statement: “We respect any brand’s decision, and remain focused on the important work of removing hate speech and providing critical voting information.

"Our conversations with marketers and civil rights organizations are about how, together, we can be a force for good.”

The advertising industry has been revolutionised by the internet and social media platforms. It's now cheaper and quicker for advertising companies to reach their target audience, not to mention considerably more effective.

Naturally, big tech companies have made this a key part of their business, effectively monetising users. It's the main revenue for social network giant Facebook, which, with its billions of users, is an advertiser's dream.

Facebook Advertising has seen rapid growth over the years, ranking above Google ads and traditional web advertising. There are more than two billion active Facebook accounts around the world, making a company's odds of reaching and connecting with its clients' ideal audience quite high. Whether that's a CEO, CFO, or a certain demographic of the public, you're very likely to find them on Facebook.

The popularity of the social network is the biggest incentive for using its advertising platform. But, AI plays a big role, with algorithms controlling what users see - the idea being that their news feed is tailored to them. A recent update to these algorithms made it harder for companies to find target audiences as Facebook has moved to favour "personal connections" over business posts. So, using the advertising platform is more effective than posting your own organic adverts.

As more businesses catch on to the benefits, these ads get more and more expensive. So, if you haven't already started using Facebook ads, perhaps now is the time to do so. Read on to discover strategies and tips to increase your digital reach through Facebook advertising.

Why should a business use Facebook advertising?

Although you may be thinking along the same lines as many other B2B businesses - that Facebook isn't worth spending money on to reach your target clients - your mindset needs to change if you want to jump onboard one of the most effective digital marketing platforms in existence.

In fact, 80% of all internet users have some kind of presence on Facebook and through spending as little as 1 a day, you will be able to much better reach those responsible for making buying decisions in a business, without needing to go for the hard sell.

But that's exactly when you should be targeting them. Not only is it used by such a huge variety of people, but it's also probably the most targeted and cheapest forms of advertising available.

If a customer is browsing their Facebook feed during downtime rather than work time, your business may not be at the front of their mind. However, if they see a well-targeted ad from your company even when they don't have their business hat on, your brand will still in their mind when they perhaps are looking to make a purchasing decision later down the line.

Facebook advertising is easily measurable. With Facebook Pixels, you can see exactly what traffic you're driving through to your website and those visitors' behaviour when they hit your site. Did they buy anything? Which pages did they visit? Did they add anything to their cart? Send a query to your customer service department?

With these insights, you can continue to market to them via other sales channels, making it more likely they'll convert into customers.

The key to success with Facebook adverts

To experience a decent ROI on Facebook advertising, it's hugely important to make sure you're focusing on the right group of people. Put simply, the more niche and narrow your audience, the better returns you'll get.

Because after all, if your audience is too broad, you'll be trying to attract even those unlikely to make a purchasing decision and paying for the privilege every time someone clicks on your ad to find it's not what they're looking for is a costly way of running advertising.

You also need to make sure your ad copy is well-targeted to your audience too. It's a good idea to create a range of ads to target each particular challenge your potential client has. These should be determined as part of your wider marketing strategy. You can then analyse which proved more successful and use this to define your ongoing Facebook advertising strategy.

Snapchat has rung the police over fake news not to call in officers to investigate, but to check its facts.

The social app revealed to the BBC that it checked content shared by its users with Charlottesville police after protests and counter-protests erupted in violence in the American city. Snap has a team of journalists curating editorial content for the app, with traditional news outlets turning to Snapcaht as a way to reach younger audiences.

Nick Bell, vice-president of content at Snap, told BBC Radio 4 that the company's team of journalists evaluates content for accuracy, relevancy, and to see how to add more context.

"So, if you look at some of the events in Charlottesville, for example, in recent weeks, we actually received Snaps from members of our community of the driver being arrested," he told the BBC. "Before we published these Snaps, we actually verified with the police to make sure that... the snaps that we were posting to our 173 million daily active users were of what we thought they were." That fact checking reportedly included contacting the local police to ensure the information shared was correct.

Snap's approach is in stark contrast to Facebook's own method, which uses automated algorithms to flag so-called fake news, though the social network has started to take more serious measures against those sharing incorrect information, including blocking advertising.

Bell added that Snapchat has had fewer problems with extremism on its app than social networks have seen, suggesting it's because the app was designed to communicate with a small number of friends rather than broadcast to large audiences.

"We actually make it pretty difficult for you to build a large following," Bell said. "What I am saying is that it's much harder for radicalists to emerge and create a large following on Snapchat than it maybe is on other platforms."

22/03/2017: Facebook trials automatic flagging for fake news

Facebook is following through on CEO Mark Zuckerberg's pledge to fight fake news, rolling out a tool that notifies users when content is of questionable veracity.

The new feature was first reported by users trying to share a story from the Newport Buzz about a supposed Irish slave trade.

When users attempted to post a link to the story, a message would flash up under the link which alerted them to the fact that the story is "disputed by Snopes.com and Associated Press" - Snopes is a website famous for debunking false stories.

If users ignore this alert, a further pop-up will appear, re-emphasising the fact that multiple sources say it could be inaccurate. Users can dismiss this and post the link regardless, but it will appear on other users' timelines with a tag indicating its 'disputed' status.

When the Guardian tried the new feature in its San Francisco office it worked, but its London and Sydney offices had no such luck, indicating that the company is initially rolling it out in select areas as part of a trial programme.

The 2016 presidential elections threw a spotlight onto the issue of 'fake news' - heavily biased or outright fabricated stories, written with a sensationalist slant in order to garner as many social shares as possible.

Experts have said that many voters will accept these stories as true - regardless of how legitimate the source is - and warn that they could prove a threat to intelligent political discourse.

Late last year, the company announced that it would be working to identify these stories to users, with the help of five independent fact-checking organisations: Snopes, Politifact, FactCheck.org, the Associated Press and ABC News.

16/01/2017: Germany set to test Facebook's fake news filters

Facebook will trial its new fake news prevention system in Germany.

Facebook is planning a range of techniques to battle fake news, but the Financial Times reports the German trial will let users report a story as fake to Correctiv, an independent investigative news service. Correctiv will check the story, flag it as disputed if there's concern, and explain the facts behind the article. Any disputed stories will not be surfaced by Facebook's news feed and be banned from ads, and the site will warn anyone who tries to share the link - though not block them from doing so.

The German trial announcement comes weeks after the country said it planned to fine the social site if it didn't remove such posts within a day, ahead of its own elections.

The potential 500,000 fine may have spurred Facebook to test the technology in Germany, but it was already working on the system to battle fake news following criticism the site helped spread falsehoods during the American election. Germany's Justice Minister Heiko Mass told a local newspaper over the weekend that fake news was a "danger to our culture of debate" and called for social networks to make it easier to report fake news.

Facebook said it was planning to extend its efforts to other countries soon. "When we launched this in the US we said that we would expand the pilot into other countries over time," a company spokesperson told Gizmodo. "We've listened to our community and begun talks with other global partners, and the readiness of German partners allows us to begin testing in Germany. We expect to announce efforts in additional countries soon."

12/01/2017: Facebook plans assault on fake news

Facebook plans to build new products and even train journalists in order to combat fake news stories.

The Facebook Journalism Project will, the social network hopes, "establish stronger ties between Facebook and the news industry".

It comes after Facebook was criticised for it's role in circulating fake news stories about Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and President-elect Donald Trump during the run up to the US election.

The project will see the company work with news organisations to develop new tools for sharing news, saying it's planning to work with publications "across the spectrum". The company will also develop its existing news formats including Live, 360, and Instant Articles, and create new ones.

One method would see Facebook users get packages of stories at a time, said Fidji Simo, director of product at the tech giant. "We're going to start testing this using Instant Articles, so that readers can start to see multiple stories at a time from their favorite news organisations," Simo said in a blog post.

Facebook also wants to train journalists on how to use its tools, and in the coming months will offer a "certificate curriculum" for them.

Lastly, the company wants to train users to distinguish between fake news and actual news, and make it easier for them to report hoax stories.

"We will work with third-party organisations on how to better understand and to promote news literacy both on and off our platform to help people in our community have the information they need to make decisions about which sources to trust," Simo wrote.

It will start by running "public service ads" on Facebook about the issue.

16/12/2016: Fakebook reveals plans to tackle fake news

Facebook has shared more details of how it plans to tackle fake news on its social media platform, after it was accused of allowing a proliferation of false news that may have swayed the outcome of the recent US presidential election.

In a post, Facebook VP Adam Mosseri said that Facebook will introduce easier ways of reporting hoaxes, and has started collaborating with a number of third-party fact-checking organisations.

Mosseri wrote: "We're testing several ways to make it easier to report a hoax if you see one on Facebook, which you can do by clicking the upper right-hand corner of a post. We've relied heavily on our community for help on this issue, and this can help us detect more fake news."

The company has also started a program in collaboration with fact checking parties that abide by Poynter's International Fact Checking Code of Principles, which include ABC News, Full Fact and other organisations worldwide.

These organisations will fact check content on the platform and report stories that they found to be unreliable. The social media giant will then flag them as 'disputed' and provide a link to an article explaining why this is the case. 'Disputed' stories should also appear lower down in the News Feed.

Although Facebook users will still be able to share stories flagged as 'disputed', they will receive a notification before they share them saying "Disputed by 3rd Parties - Before you share this story, you might want to know that independent fact-checkers disputed its accuracy".

Mosseri's post adds: "We've found that if reading an article makes people significantly less likely to share it, that may be a sign that a story has misled people in some way. We're going to test incorporating this signal into ranking, specifically for articles that are outliers, where people who read the article are significantly less likely to share it."

Facebook said it also found many fake news propagators to be financially motivated, posting unreliable content pretending to be an established news source, in order to increase traffic on their website.

To reduce these instances, Facebook eliminated the ability to spoof domains and is now analysing publisher sites to detect cases in which policy enforcement is necessary.

"It's important to us that the stories you see on Facebook are authentic and meaningful," added Mosseri. "We're excited about this progress, but we know there's more to be done. We're going to keep working on this problem for as long as it takes to get it right.

Facebook is also looking for a head of its news partnerships division, established to collaborate with news outputs to ensure better quality of content shared on the platform.

13/12/2016: Facebook seeks head of news partnerships Facebook is advertising for a 'head of news partnerships' whose remit will include overseeing and managing its news partnerships team.

In the job advert the company said: "Facebook is seeking an experienced news executive to lead Global News Partnerships, serving as the company's leading representative with news organisations worldwide. The goal of the News Partnerships team is to help publishers and journalists understand how to reach and engage their audiences, and to innovate with new technologies."

The social media giant is currently trying to implement ways to tackle the proliferation of fake news within the platform. Critics have accused Facebook of spreading fake US election-related stories that might have influenced voters and facilitated Trump's victory.

Facebook's chief executive Mark Zuckerberg denied that fake news might have influenced the US elections, and said the vast majority of news posts on the platform are authentic.

In a Facebook post published a month ago, Zuckerberg wrote: "After the election, many people are asking whether fake news contributed to the result, and what our responsibility is to prevent fake news from spreading. These are very important questions and I care deeply about getting them right."

The company is now introducing strategies that enable news to be more effectively monitored with the aim of improving the quality of content shared on Facebook.

In addition to detection systems, allowing users to flag suspicious posts, and a change in the algorithms ranking its content, Facebook also established a news partnerships team, which will collaborate with news outlets and oversee news stories shared on the platform.

Facebook is now looking for a head of this division, who will manage the team's output and represent Facebook's role in the news ecosystem publicly.

The ideal candidate is described as having at least 20 years of experience in news "with a strong track-record and understanding across the business."

21/11/2016: Chrome plugin detects fake Facebook stories

A Chrome plugin that warns users news stories on Facebook could be fake set tongues wagging this weekend, with some users reporting it was the first stage in Mark Zuckerberg's plans to stamp out made up stories on the site.

Although the B.S Detector was later found to be a Chrome browser plugin, it was at first reported by TechCrunch to be a beta version of the social network's fake news story detector.

Users reported seeing the message, "This website is not a reliable news source. Reason: Classification Pending," on some news stories, while others said they were presented with a red message above Facebook news feed stories stating the content was "State-Sponsored News."

Before updating its original news story revealing that it was, in fact, the work of a third party that had developed a plugin, the news source reported that the flags flashed up and then disappeared when the page was reloaded, suggesting it wasn't content every Facebook user was seeing.

The website said perhaps Facebook was taking the approach of blocking whole sites that listed questionable news stories rather than individual news stories.

However, after evidently discovering the flags were generated by a plugin that is used to detect stories that could be fake, it wrote: "The feature appears to be an implementation of the Chrome plugin B.S. Detector, which some users took as a test by Facebook itself. We'll continue to investigate but for now, it looks like this is not a Facebook feature."

21/11/2016: Zuckerberg unveils spam-hunting algorithms

After denying Facebook had a problem with fake news stories, the company's founder Mark Zuckerberg has now revealed the measures the company will take to ensure news is always factual.

"We've made significant progress, but there is more work to be done," Zuckerberg wrote in a blog post on the social network. "Historically, we have relied on our community to help us understand what is fake and what is not."

Although the company will continue to take signals from its users about what's real and what's not, it will also implement some of its own parameters in order to stamp out the fakes.

The first step it will take is to introduce better algorithms to detect what's fake and what's not. "The most important thing we can do is improve our ability to classify misinformation. This means better technical systems to detect what people will flag as false before they do it themselves," Zuckerberg said.

The company will make it easier for people to report stories as misinformed and it will introduce third-party verification, working with companies that do this as their main bread and butter and then flagging the stories as potentially unreal with labels and warnings to people who read them. Facebook will also work with journalists to get their input.

"A lot of misinformation is driven by financially motivated spam. We're looking into disrupting the economics with ads policies like the one we announced earlier this week, and better ad farm detection." Zuckerberg continued.

The final part of Facebook's plan to eradicate fake news stories will be to ramp up the quality of related news stories underneath other stories in the news feed to ensure it's showing only high-quality news stories.

"Some of these ideas will work well, and some will not," Zuckerberg finished. "But I want you to know that we have always taken this seriously, we understand how important the issue is for our community and we are committed to getting this right."

15/11/2016: Google and Facebook crack down on fake news sites

After claims that fake news circulating on Google and Facebook contributed to Donald Trump's shock election win last week, the two companies are now taking steps to block ads on phoney websites.

The move follows heavy criticism of Facebook for an alleged lack of oversight during the US presidential election, in which false news reports were allowed to spread to potentially undecided voters. The claim is that many of these stories gave Trump and unfair advantage, something that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has since rejected.

Now Facebook and Google have announced they will be revising advertising policies to help limit the spread of 'fake news'. Google is currently making changes to block ad content on websites engaged in spreading misleading stories, to starve them of revenue.

"We do not integrate or display ads in apps or sites containing content that is illegal, misleading or deceptive, which includes fake news," added Facebook in a statement to Reuters. The company added that it would continue to vet publishers to catch fake stories.

A report by BuzzFeed News suggests that Facebook has deployed an unofficial task force made up of "more than dozens" of employees to deal with the issue of fake news.

A source inside the task force told BuzzFeed the company was well aware that fake news was a problem for the election, which is particularly damning given Zuckerberg's public statements to the contrary.

"Mark Zuckerberg knows, and those of us at the company know, that fake news ran wild on our platform during the entire campaign season," said an anonymous member of the task force.

However, blocking ads will not deal with the problem of hoax news stories appearing in the Google News feed. In the last few days a search for 'final election count' would direct users to a website that claimed Trump had won the popular vote, despite votes still being counted and showing Clinton with a slight lead.

The changes instead will simply limit financial support for websites choosing to publish inaccurate news. Google's AdSense places text ads on millions of sites within its network, providing many with a major source of revenue.

"Moving forward, we will restrict ad serving on pages that misrepresent, misstate, or conceal information about the publisher, the publisher's content, or the primary purpose of the web property," said Google, in a statement to Reuters.

A recent BuzzFeed News report found that small publishers in Macedonia were taking AdSense revenue by creating articles on fake news websites, many of which were pro-Trump, that were then shared across social media.

14/11/2016: Facebook will take action against fake election news

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg has said he will work with staff to ensure fake news stories aren't distributed through the social networks.

Although 99% of the news posted on Facebook is genuine, he said, the other 1% may not be the truth and this is a problem, he wrote on his Facebook page. However, he is still adamant made up news stories weren't responsible for Donald Trump being voted president in the US election.

"Only a very small amount is fake news and hoaxes," Zuckerberg said. "The hoaxes that do exist are not limited to one partisan view, or even to politics," he added. News stories related to the election last week, in his opinion, were not likely to have changed the result one way or the other.

"That said, we don't want any hoaxes on Facebook. Our goal is to show people the content they will find most meaningful, and people want accurate news," he added. "We have already launched work enabling our community to flag hoaxes and fake news, and there is more we can do here. We have made progress, and we will continue to work on this to improve further."

An increasing number of people around the world use Facebook as their main source of news and this makes it even more important for the company to ensure any news is factual.

However, the act of identifying whether news is true or not is not an easy task. Any news that is flagged up as being fake will need to be carefully scrutinised, he said, and the company must tread carefully.

"Identifying the 'truth' is complicated. While some hoaxes can be completely debunked, a greater amount of content, including from mainstream sources, often gets the basic idea right but some details wrong or omitted," he wrote.

"An even greater volume of stories express an opinion that many will disagree with and flag as incorrect even when factual."

11/11/2016: Zuckerberg: Fake Facebook news didn't help Trump win

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg yesterday denied that his social network helped Donald Trump win the US election.

In an interview at the Techonomy conference in California, Zuckerberg said fake news on Facebook could not have influenced the outcome of the presidential election.

He said: "Personally, I think the idea that fake news on Facebook - it's a very small amount of the content - to think it influenced the election in any way is a pretty crazy idea."

He added that if fake news were shared, it was likely that both candidates adopted this strategy.

After Trump's win, Fortune reported the views of critics who believed fake news on Facebook played a role in the US election outcome.

Facebook has about 1.79 billion users of all political affiliations. During the interview, which was carried out by David Kirkpatrick, author of the book The Facebook effect, Zuckerberg highlighted the variety of backgrounds populating the Facebook community.

"Even if 90% of your friends are Democrats, probably 10% are Republicans," he said. "Even if you live in some state or country you will know some people in another state, another country. That means that the information you are getting through the social system is going to be inherently more diverse than you would have gotten through news stations."

Zuckerberg's interview took place two days after Trump won the election, despite Hillary Clinton winning more votes overall.

He said: "Voters make decisions based on their lived experience. There is a profound lack of empathy in asserting that the only reason someone would have voted the way they did is because they saw fake news. If you believe that, then I don't think you internalised the message that Trump voters are trying to send in this election."

Zuckerberg did not, however, state what message he was referring to.

This is not the first time that Facebook is accused of spreading fake news. In August, Facebook substituted its team of news curators with algorithms that automatically select stories to place in its Trending News section.

This could have led to false news being selected without them being verified. Facebook hence introduced a new 'review team', to try and solve this problem.

In the interview, Zuckerberg admitted that a lot still had to be done to improve the quality of news that reaches the public, but he dismissed the idea that fake news could influence voters to this extent.

Just a few months ago, Reuters reported that Facebook, alongside other social media and technology platforms such as Twitter, joined a group called First Draft Coalition, whose goal is to tackle fake news and produce more trustworthy information.

Google has made changes to its advertising network AdSense that aim to add greater transparency to the way it handles ad removal and policy violations.

The move follows the British government pulling its own ads after they were shown alongside extremist content, as well as wider complaints about whether Google makes money from material uploaded by hate preachers, rape apologists, white nationalists and other extremists.

A new platform known as 'Policy Centre', scheduled for release over the next few weeks, will help developers with fixing violations more quickly, and provide detailed information on network rules.

Scott Spencer, Google's director of sustainable ads, said in a blog post: "We're announcing a new Policy Center as a one-stop shop for everything a publisher needs to know about policy actions that affect their sites and pages."

"In just a few weeks, all AdSense publishers will have more transparency about why policy actions were taken and the violations found, including page-level action data, so they can quickly resolve these issues across all their sites and pages using step-by-step instructions."

"The Policy Center also makes it easy for publishers to tell us when policy issues have been resolved and their pages are ready for review," added Spencer. While this is mainly intended for publishers who use AdSense, content creators on Google-owned YouTube, which have seen revenue drop sharply due to recent advert policy changes, should also benefit from the added insight.

Google said it has also added new functionality to its AdSense tech, which is now able to remove ads from individual webpages, rather than the entire website, following a policy violation.

"As we roll out page-level policy action as the new default for content violations, we'll be able to stop showing ads on select pages, while leaving ads up on the rest of a site's good content," said Spencer. "We'll still use site-level actions but only as needed."

Not only will this mean less disruption to websites managing their advertising, but should allow Google to retain revenue otherwise lost in a blanket ad removal. As advertisers have become more discerning, it has forced the likes of Google, Microsoft and Amazon to develop their own policing methods to clamp down on content and adverts that are unsavoury or explicit.

Main image: Bigstock

Snapchat could float on the stock market for up to $25 billion after confidentially filing for an IPO, according to Reuters.

The California-based picture messaging app's parent company, called Snap, is likely to go public as early as March 2017 and is valued between $20 billion to $25 billion, the biggest IPO since Chinese cloud giant Alibaba's floatation at $170 billion in 2014.

It would also be the largest IPO from a US tech company since Facebook went public in 2012, valued at $81.2 billion.

Snapchat has been able to file secretly with the Securities and Exchange Commission under the US Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, according to anonymous sources speaking to Reuters. This allows any company with revenues of less than $1 billion to quietly test the market and investor interest while keeping the financials confidential.

The company first launched in 2012 as a means for users to send and receive videos that would then self-delete. The app is now more popular than Twitter, with more than 100 million daily users.

Given that almost 62% of Snapchat users are aged between 13 and 24, companies will see the app as a valuable platform for advertising to young people.

However investors have been left shaken after a turbulent year for tech IPOs. So far, 123 US tech companies have made public offerings collectively valued at $7.1 billion, a 58% decline from this time last year.

Despite attracting some major investors, such as Google's venture capital firm CapitalG, investors fear that advertising remains Snapchat's only significant revenue stream, according to Reuters.

Snapchat is one of the largest private and venture-backed companies in the US, valued in the tens of billions, alongside the likes of Uber and Airbnb.

Tesco Mobile is offering customers the chance to get 3 off their monthly bill if they opt into watching ads on their mobile device.

The service will be available to Android users first and then will roll out to those using Windows Phones shortly after. It will not be offered to iPhone users, because iOS doesn't support mobile platform Unlockd, which will provide the software.

To participate, customers will need to download the app onto their device and opt into receiving the ads. They will only be displayed when the customer is using their device for maximum exposure.

Tesco hasn't revealed how often customers will be asked to view advertising, but it is giving those who opt in an extra 200MB of data every month to cover the data used to serve them.

"This innovative new service is a UK exclusive and we're excited that our customers get to benefit first from this new technology," said Anthony Vollmer, chief executive of Tesco Mobile.

"Customers can choose whether or not this is a service they want to use. Customers can still use ad-blocking software but they now have the option to get value from viewing ads - something that no-one else is doing.

"Imagine if someone gave you some cash or vouchers every time you watched a TV advert. This is not the network taking a stance against ad-blocking but it is about offering choice to our customers."

O2, which owns half of Tesco Mobile has said it is considering taking the opposite approach, however, by using ad blocking technology to prevent advertisers bombarding its customers with spam.

Google has announced that it will ban adverts from payday lenders, in an effort to suppress the exposure of what it deems "harmful financial products".

The web services giant has banned ads offering loans where the repayment is due within 60 days or has an interest rate of 36 per cent or higher.

Google's director of global product policy, David Graff, explained that this change is intended to "protect our users from deceptive or harmful financial products".

"When reviewing our policies, research has shown that these loans can result in unaffordable payment and high default rates for users so we will be updating our policies globally to reflect that," said Graff.

Payday lenders have been accused of chaining financially unstable citizens into an ongoing cycle of borrowing that gets them further into debt with interest rates that they cannot afford to repay.

A 2012 study by Pew Research found the average payday loan user in the US takes out eight payday loans a year, spending about $520 on interest and an average loan size of $375.

Google's policy change will take effect from 13 May, 2016.

In the UK, some MPs, such as Stella Creasy, have pushed for tighter government regulation of payday lenders.

Online advertising is a prominent part of payday lenders' marketing. As well as Google and other search engines, they also advertise on social media sites such as Facebook.

However, the lending industry has expressed dissatisfaction with the move.

In a public statement about Google's policy change, Lisa McGreevy, president and CEO of the Online Lender Alliance, said: "It's disappointing that a site created to help give users full access to information is making arbitrary choices on the advertisements users are allowed to see from legal businesses."

This update to Google's advertising policy will not affect companies offering other types of loans, such as mortgages, student loans, commercial loans, and credit cards.

"We'll continue to review the effectiveness of this policy, but our hope is that fewer people will be exposed to misleading or harmful products," Graff added.

Facebook is setting its sights on ecommerce, revealing plans to introduce an in-app buying option for its users.

Items including clothing, shoes and any other product offered by its advertisers will be available to buy from the smartphone and tablet app and the company is currently testing certain ad formats that will allow people to have what it believes is the best buying experience possible.

Facebook said people tend to avoid buying items using apps because the experience is slow and doesn't always work, but its aim is now to simplify that experience, so buying something is as easy as posting a status update. This is supported by a report from eMarketer that revealed only two per cent of sales are made via mobile platforms.

Features Facebook is considering implementing include ads that show a brand's products without taking users from the app, using tools such as popup ads or expanded pages when they click on an advert from a given company.

Businesses will also have the option of adding a catalogue of products to their company Facebook pages, making the journey more seamless for social networkers and more profitable for organisations. Additionally, a 'buy now' button could be added to Facebook ads, which users can click on and instantly buy products from their newsfeed.

"We're looking to give people an easier way to find products that will be interesting to them on mobile, make shopping easier and help businesses drive sales," said Emma Rodgers, Facebook's head of product marketing for commerce.

Facebook announced trials of some e-commerce features last July, including testing of ads and page posts that allowed customer to buy products without leaving the website.

"None of the credit or debit card information people share with Facebook when completing a transaction will be shared with other advertisers, and people can select whether or not they'd like to save payment information for future purchases," the company said.

Apple's CEO Tim Cook has taken a broadside at the business model used by its biggest rival Google, saying customers shouldn't have to trade their data for lower prices.

Cook's speech at EPIC's Champions of Freedom event in Washington said the issue of data privacy and protection was one of "morality", but it also offered an unspoken argument for why Apple's products cost more.

"Like many of you, we at Apple reject the idea that our customers should have to make tradeoffs between privacy and security," Cook said, according to a report from TechCrunch. "We can, and we must provide both in equal measure."

He pointed out that other tech firms - no names were mentioned, but it's clear who he was referencing - rely on data collection for their income, saying Apple "doesn't want your data".

"I'm speaking to you from Silicon Valley, where some of the most prominent and successful companies have built their businesses by lulling their customers into complacency about their personal information," Cook said, according to the report. "They're gobbling up everything they can learn about you and trying to monetise it. We think that's wrong. And it's not the kind of company that Apple wants to be."

It's an intriguing change of sales tack from Cook, suggesting he's trying to give Apple products a competitive advantage on privacy and security - the iPhone may cost more, but that's because Apple isn't selling your data.

And it's not only iPhones. Cook stressed data protection is even more important now that phones and wearables are collecting health data and used as payment methods, and as the Internet of Things is connecting more devices in our homes.

Saying customers should "be in control" of their own information, he said getting a service for free isn't worth "having your email, your search history and now even your family photos data mined".

Google recently updated its Photos service to include unlimited storage, telling people it's ideal for rationalising your family pictures that are spread out across laptops, phones and other devices.

Ensuring encryption

Cook also targeted governments on encryption, saying it's "incredibly dangerous" to allow backdoors into otherwise encrypted products.

"We've been offering encryption tools in our products for years, and we're going to stay on that path," he said. "We think it's a critical feature for our customers who want to keep their data secure."

He added: "If you put a key under the mat for the cops, a burglar can find it too."

AdBlock Plus has won its second court battle in the last five weeks after it managed to convince a German court it wasn't being anti-competitive and didn't threaten revenues from publishers.

German broadcasters RTL and ProSiebenSat.1 claimed browser plug-in Adblock Plus, which allows internet users to block adverts, was anti-competitive and threatened their ability to offer viewers content for free.

The plug-in allows some adverts through via a whitelist, which advertisers must request to join. However, the ads displayed must adhere to a set of rules including no animation or sound. They also must be unobtrusive, allowing the reader to see all the content on the page.

AdBlock's owner Eyeo denies it charges for advertisers to use the white list, but it makes its money through 'support services', which the company has never divulged information about.

Ben Williams, a spokesman for Eyeo, said: "This is the fourth time that massive publishers have brought legal proceedings against our start-up.

"Thankfully, the court sided with users and with compromise. So, we're pleased to say that Adblock Plus will continue to provide users with a tool that helps them control their internet experience."

However, he went on to say that the company will continue to work with publishers, advertisers and content creators to create more engaging ads and develop a sustainable internet ecosystem.

A spokeswoman for RTL said: "We are weighing a possible course of action against the ruling and assessing the prospects of an appeal."

Eyeo was last in the German courts at the end of April, when publishers Die Zeit and Handelsblatt tried to get the plug-in shut down for the same reasons as RTL and ProSiebenSat.1. However, like yesterday's verdict, the comapnies were unsuccessful in their claims.

The Apple Watch may not have an official release date yet, but that hasn't stopped retailers from tapping into to the unknown possibilities the smartwatch could potentially offer the marketing world.

The WatchKit software development kit has already been released by Apple, allowing developers to work on apps for the upcoming wearable device.

Vendors have thus begun to talk about how ads and other features can be targeted at Apple Watch users, with inMarket recently telling Ad Week about beacons being developed in line with Marsh Supermarkets.

The company's plan is to extend app functionality for things such as shopping lists or recipes for the device that are triggered by the wearer entering certain locations.

Marsh Supermarkets alone has reportedly installed beacons in 75 stores in preparation for the Apple Watch's 2015 release.

Todd Dipaola, CEO of inMarket, said: "If you look at that situation when you're running through a store, how much more convenient is it to have a hands-free option to see what you're making for dinner or understand what the deals are when you're in-store?

"We've built the integration ahead of the debut so on day one as the Apple Watch comes out these apps can be ready for prime time."

It is unknown how these advertisements and notifications will be received on the Apple Watch, with the smaller screen and the ubiquitous nature of a device worn at all times making it markedly different from a smartphone or tablet. Apple has yet to release clear details on ad integration.

It has been rumoured that the Apple Watch will be released this spring, possibly in time for March.

The massive popularity of some YouTube vloggers has meant that seeing a product promoted by one of the platform's major stars has become extremely attractive to advertisers, but the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ruled against a perceived lack of transparency in come cases.

Addressing the recent presence of Mondelez UK Ltd's Oreos in five videos documenting a Lick Race' challenge posted on the channel of Dan and Phil and Tom Ridgewell, the ASA said there was not enough indication within the videos that the vloggers had been paid to promote the biscuit brand.

The ASA investigated after receiving a complaint from a BBC journalist concerned the videos were not in keeping with UK advertising standards.

The ruling thus states that, in cases where the advertiser has paid the vlogger to feature a particular product, and has control over the content that is produced in association, this must be made clear to the viewer. This allows the viewer to then make a decision on the product with all the information at hand.

In this case, it was decided that the disclosure statement of "Thanks to Oreo for making this video possible" and similar in four of the five videos that have since been banned wasn't sufficient to waive the lack of transparency elsewhere in it, which encouraged viewers to also participate in the game.

In the new ruling, the ASA states: "We considered this should apply to the general audience of the ad and considered that, given that these ads were on online video channels that were usually editorial-based, the commercial intent would have needed to be made clear before viewers engaged with the content."

The rise of vloggers on YouTube has thrown up a variety of new and complex issues for advertisers, and requires those who participate in videos containing promotions to tread the line carefully in order make such deals as transparent for the audience as possible.

Yahoo has bought video advertising platform BrightRoll for $640 million.

The deal is the second major one to be carried out under chief executive Marissa Mayer after last year's $1.1 billion Tumblr acquisition.

BrightRoll will help in strengthening Yahoo's efforts in video ads, merging Yahoo's desktop and mobile video advertising business with BrightRoll's programmatic video platform, according to Yahoo. It added the deal would help it become the "biggest video advertising platform" in the US.

Mayer said that Video along with mobile, social and native is "driving a surge in digital advertising".

"[Yahoo is] a large, growing and profitable business with net revenues expected to exceed $100 million this year. I've spent time with Tod Sacerdoti and his leadership team and I cannot wait to have him, his vision, and his team here at Yahoo," Mayer added.

She added, in a blog post: "Online video advertising is increasingly fragmented across thousands, if not millions, of sites and mobile apps. More so than with traditional broadcast television, advertisers are seeking ways to buy online video advertising at scale across many sites in fewer, simpler transactions."

Tod Sacerdoti, BrightRoll CEO and founder, said he believed the next step for programmatic video advertising as an industry is to "extend and standardise globally, make cross-device buying simple and measurable, and complement and integrate with TV."

He added: "We are excited to join Yahoo to materially advance efforts in each of these areas. We're still in the early innings as an industry, and together, BrightRoll and Yahoo are committed to the vision of helping grow the entire video advertising ecosystem."

Last October, Yahoo reported third quarter ad revenue had decreased by five per cent compared with the same period in 2013. This means it is struggling to keep up with Google, whose own revenues grew by 17 per cent grow in its third quarter.

Yahoo said it expects the deal to close in the first quarter of 2015. Until then, BrightRoll will continue to offer its current suite of products and services.

In other news, investors have signalled they are unhappy with the direction of the Yahoo as a company. As reported by IT Pro's sister publication PC Pro, two of Yahoo's biggest investors want the company to merge with AOL, and let AOL chief executive Tim Armstrong take over the combined company, pushing Mayer aside.

The EU has ordered Google to come up with "fresh solutions" to meet competitor complains about the firm's dominance in search and advertising.

The European Commission and Google came to terms back in February over the investigation in a bid to draw a line under the saga and move on. However, The Commission has received a number of criticisms from competitors on the settlement proposals.

"Some of these replies are very, very negative. And in some of those replies, some complainants have introduced new arguments, new data, new considerations," said Joaqun Almunia, Commission vice president in charge of competition policy, in an interview with Bloomberg.

"So we now need to analyse this and to see if we can find solutions, if Google can find solutions, to some of these concerns we find justified, and we are in this process," he said. "So it's a long investigation, it's a complex issue."

This marks the third time Google has improved its offer in response to claims from rival firms that it dominates online search and hinders advertisers from moving to other platforms. Google controls over 80 per cent of the European search market.

Should talks fail between the Commission and Google, the company could be fined up to 10 per cent of its revenues of $60 billion.

Almunia said he was now looking into a similar case with Google's mobile operating system Android. Rivals have complained that Google favours its own services, such as Google Maps and Search, on the OS.

In a blog post Google chairman Eric Schmidt claimed Google isn't promoting its products at the expense of others.

"We're trying to get you direct answers to your queries because it's quicker and less hassle than the ten blue links Google used to show. This is especially important on mobile where screens are smaller and typing is harder," he said.

German marketers are suing the creators of AdBlock Plus saying it is negatively affecting advertising revenues.

The popular ad blocking extension blocks any adverts showing on websites, meaning the websites aren't being paid for serving ads and advertisers aren't making money because the ads aren't being seen.

German media outlets RTL Group and ProSiebenSat.1 Media are both taking action on the company via the Munich District Court, along with a number of other companies who have seen a negative impact on their advertising revenues, according to Horizont.

Eyeo, the company behind AdBlock Plus, is said to have penned controversial deals with Google, to allow some of its ads to appear through the ad blocker and its vendors, who have been whitelisted from the extension in exchange for money.

Thomas Port, managing director of P7S1 marketer Seven One Media, said: "We think the business model is unlawful and this can now be clarified in court."

Digital publisher Axel Springer also confirmed last week it too had filed a lawsuit action against the ad blocker, but it would not reveal any more details about the case.

However, AdBlock Plus spokesperson Ben Williams has denied any action is being taken against Eyeo. He told Horizont: "There is no lawsuit against Adblock Plus."

Last week, Eyeo said it will stop Facebook and 6,700 other sites that track user behaviour from doing so after the social network announced it would be serving behaviour-related ads to its users.

"If you do not want Facebook peering into your browsing habits, just enable the social media tracking blocker in Adblock Plus," the company wrote in a blog post.

Facebook has acquired the Liverail online video advertising platform for an estimated $500m (292m) in an attempt to diversify its revenue streams.

Liverail pairs video ads with content that appears on some of the biggest websites in the world including Major League Baseball and the ABC and A&E networks in the United States.

The company was set to float on the US stock market later this year, with revenues of $60m (35m), but Facebook decided to snap it up with plans to introduce 'audience-aware advertising technology'.

Liverail's co-founder Mark Trefgarne said by Facebook and Liverail joining together, the two companies would be able to, "draw upon our respective strengths to move even faster towards our shared vision of creating the advertising platform of the future."

Brian Boland, vice president of advertising at Facebook, said: "We believe that LiveRail, Facebook and the premium publishers it serves have an opportunity to make video ads better and more relevant for the hundreds of millions of people who watch digital video every month.

"More relevant ads will be more interesting and engaging to people watching online video, and more effective for marketers too. Publishers will benefit as well because more relevant ads will help them make the most out of every opportunity they have to show an ad," he continued.

Earlier this week, Facebook was under the spotlight after carrying out research on its users to see if they are affected by positive or negative posts that appear on their timelines.

Up to 700,000 users were affected by the experiment, which caused outrage as it transpired social networkers hadn't been consulted about the process.

In February, Facebook acquired WhatsApp and in March, it bought virtual reality company Oculus to help introduce new services to its platform.

Facebook plans to start serving ads up to users based on the websites and apps they use.

It also said people would be able to opt out of this type of internet-based advertising in a bid to placate disgruntled users.

The roll-out of this type of advertising will initially start in the US "in the coming weeks", according to a blog post.

"Today, we learn about your interests primarily from the things you do on Facebook, such as Pages you like. Starting soon in the US, we will also include information from some of the websites and apps you use," Facebook said

Prior to this, Facebook only targeted users with ads based on what they did solely on the social network.

"Let's say that you're thinking about buying a new TV, and you start researching TVs on the web and in mobile apps," the firm said.

"We may show you ads for deals on a TV to help you get the best price or other brands to consider. And because we think you're interested in electronics, we may show you ads for other electronics in the future, like speakers or a game console to go with your new TV."

It said that users could avoid this by using the industry standard Digital Advertising Alliance opt out, and on mobile devices using the controls that iOS and Android provide.

It is also allowing users to have more control over what ads they see. Ad preferences is a new tool accessible from every ad on Facebook that explains why a user is seeing a specific ad and lets them add and remove interests that the company use to show ads.

"So if you're not interested in electronics, you can remove electronics from your ad interests."

In 2012, The US Federal Trade Commission found that Facebook had deceived consumers and forced them to share more personal information than they intended. The FTC made Facebook get user consent for changes to its privacy and also subjected the social network independent audits for the next 20 years.

Google plans to widen its advertising remit to allow companies to place ads on a range of household items.

In a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission sent in December, Google explained it would like to offer advertising and other content on "refrigerators, car dashboards, thermostats, glasses, and watches, to name just a few possibilities."

The search giant explained that it didn't feel the need to release its mobile revenue figures like Facebook, Twitter or Apple because the way in which people access its mobile services is evolving, making the data irrelevant.

"Our expectation is that users will be using our services and viewing our ads on an increasingly wide diversity of devices in the future," Google said.

Google is already taking steps towards taking over people's life with advertising, as its forthcoming Google Glass smart glasses will no doubt serve users ads. Meanwhile, its deal with Audi, General Motors, Honda and Hyundai could potentially pave the way for it to display marketing messages on the in-car displays.

Shortly after issuing the letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Google announced its purchase of Wi-Fi connected smoke detector and thermostat startup Nest Labs, giving the company a further opportunity to display advertising and other content on household monitors.

However, a statement sent to the Wall Street Journal by Nest made it clear the company does not have any plans to integrate advertising into its products. Tony Fadell, Nest's founder and CEO, said: "Nest has a paid-for business model, while Google has generally had an ads-supported business model. We have nothing against ads after all Nest does lots of advertising. We just don't think ads are right for the Nest user experience."

Facebook is being threatened with legal action by consumer associations who fear its advertising plans are becoming too intrusive.

The Norwegian consumer ombudsman, the Forbrukerombud, which oversees the marketing of goods and services in accordance with the country's Marketing Act, has taken issue with the social network's Sponsored Stories' adverts.

This is the site's newest type of advertising and involves the insertion of adverts into users' news feeds.We believe Facebook Sponsored Stories are beginning to look like unsolicited electronic messages. The Forbrukerombud has sent a letter to the European Commission, asking if Sponsored Stories comply with the EU's 2008 directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications.

Gry Nergrd, head of the Forbrukerombud told Agence France Presse: "The sending of electronic adverts to consumers who have not given their permission is prohibited, whether it is by email or SMS.

"We believe that the part of advertising that Facebook calls sponsored statuses is beginning to look like unsolicited electronic messages," Nergrd added.

Nergrd is not the only one who is concerned with Facebook's advertising policies. The Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) in Ireland has sought an urgent meeting with the social network after it was revealed the company plans to change the way it uses subscribers' details and potentially limit their rights.

Under the proposals, announced via a blog post, the company would remove the rights of users to vote on any future changes in the site's privacy settings.

Moreover, data collected about users by Facebook's "affiliates or...advertising partners" would be used to push more relevant and tailored adverts.

In response to the proposed changes, the DPC said: "[We] consider that further clarity will be required in relation to the full effect of some of the changes.

"If we consider that the proposed changes require a specific consent from EU users we will require Facebook to do this," it added.

Facebook's European operations fall under the DPC's jurisdiction, as its datacentres are based in Ireland.

Cloud service provider Rackspace has been cleared by an advertising standards regulator to continue using its "100% Uptime Guarantee" slogan in its marketing materials.

A single complaint was made to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) by an unnamed party regarding the sponsored search advert, which described Rackspace as "The World Leader in Cloud Computing & Hosting" and promised a "100% Uptime Guarantee!"

The complainant claimed the advert was misleading, as they did not think it was possible to provide 100 per cent uptime for that kind of service.

However, Rackspace successfully argued that consumers would understand the company was offering a guarantee of service and, if a customer did not receive 100 per cent uptime, they would be reimbursed.

The company also pointed to its service level agreement (SLA), which stated that, if it failed to ensure 100 per cent uptime, clients would be entitled to compensation proportionate to the downtime they had experienced.

In its adjudication, the ASA said: "We investigated the ad under the [Committees of Advertising Practice] Code ... but did not find a breach."

"The ASA considered that consumers would understand that the claim 100% Uptime Guarantee' meant they would be compensated if the Rackspace Cloud network was unavailable...and concluded the claim ... was not misleading."

Tiffany Lathe, vice president of legal international at Rackspace told IT Pro: "We are pleased with the ASA ruling today as Rackspace has industry leading SLAs and our goal is to deliver 100 per cent uptime to our customers."

For further coverage of cloud computing visit our sister site Cloud Pro.

The gap between actual broadband speeds and advertised up to' speeds has widened, as concerns grow about misleading claims from ISPs.

Ofcom data showed the average advertised speed in May was 15Mbps, 8.2Mbps higher than average actual speeds of 6.8Mbps.

Copper ADSL lines, used by 75 per cent of UK homes, was far from delivering on the maximum of advertised speeds.

The average download speed received for ADSL up to' 20Mbps and 24Mbps ADSL services was 6.6Mbps. More than a third of customers (37 per cent) on such contracts received average speeds of 4Mbps or less.

An increase of just 0.6Mbps is not much for customers to get excited about.

"Although fewer ISPs now advertise their services by headline speed, Ofcom continues to be concerned that theoretical up to' speeds have the potential to mislead consumers," the watchdog said.

Ofcom has called for a Typical Speeds Range (TSR) to be implemented by advertising authorities.

The TSR would force ISPs to represent the range of speeds actually achieved by at least half of customers, Ofcom said. Where up to' speeds are used in ads, the TSR should have at least equal prominence, it said.

"The research is still telling us that some consumers are not receiving anywhere near the speeds that are being advertised by some ISPs," said Ofcom chief executive, Ed Richards.

"Ofcom continues to urge the CAP and BCAP committees to make changes to their advertising guidance so that consumers are able to make more informed decisions based on the adverts they see."

A speed surge'

Ofcom had some positive news for end users, noting the average UK broadband speed increased by 10 per cent, from 6.2Mbps in November/December 2010, to 6.8Mbps in May 2011.

However, Michael Phillips, product director at Broadbandchoices.co.uk, questioned whether that accounted for a "surge" as Ofcom had suggested.

"An increase of just 0.6Mbps is not much for customers to get excited about," Phillips said.

"Our own independent consumer research revealed this year that broadband speed dissatisfaction actually increased for the fourth consecutive year in 2011 so this is clearly an issue that needs urgent attention."

In better news, superfast connections now reach most of the UK, with BT's Infinity product performing well and Virgin Media's 50Mbps service offering average speeds of 48Mbps

"The improved availability of superfast broadband from BT Infinity is a positive development but it's horses for courses so consumers should think about the speed they actually need before forking out," Phillips added.

Google looks ready for another battle with regulators, having set aside $500 million to potentially settle a US Department of Justice probe into its advertising practices.

The charge reduced the net income to $1.8 billion (1.1 billion), or $5.51 per share for the first quarter, Google said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) late on Tuesday. The company reported net income of $2.3 billion, or $7.04 a share for the first quarter.

"In May 2011, in connection with a potential resolution of an investigation by the United States Department of Justice into the use of Google advertising by certain advertisers, we accrued $500 million for the three month period ended 31 March 2011," Google said in the filing.

However, Google said the charge will not have a material adverse effect on the company's business, even as it warned it cannot predict the ultimate outcome of the Department of Justice's investigation.

Google did not provide any further details about the investigation in the filing. The company declined to comment on the investigation when contacted by Reuters.

The internet search giant has had antitrust setbacks in the past. It walked away from a search deal with Yahoo in 2008 when the Justice Department signaled it was prepared to challenge it.

There have also been a series of complaints made to regulators, many from Google rivals which specialise in vertical searches like price comparison websites, which are widely seen as a threat to Google's position as a key gateway to online information.

Several of these have complained to US and European antitrust authorities that Google is seeking to hurt their business by making them hard to find in Google searches.

Google looks set to achieve more advertising revenue than ITV in the UK this year, as the search giant goes from strength to strength in this country, analysis has suggested.

If Google does outdo ITV in 2011, the search giant will become the biggest ad earner in the country, the Guardian reported.

Google's ad revenue should fall between 2.4 billion and 2.55 billion, when taking into account both growth rates and "traffic acquisition costs" Google pays to partners for helping bring in business.

ITV should see ad revenues reaching 1.7 billion if it can achieve 15 per cent growth in the segment this year.

In the UK, Google has over 90 per cent market share in the search engine marketing segment (SEM), according to a report from Efficient Frontier released earlier this month.

Google's financial successes in the advertising area could temper investor concerns surrounding the reign of Larry Page as chief executive.

Company spending shot up by 54 per cent over the last quarter. Expenses during the period hit $2.84 billion as Google invested heavily in new areas and ramped up its recruitment drive. Net revenue, meanwhile, went up by 29 per cent.

Page's brief comments during last week's post-earnings conference call, in which the CEO said little apart from mentioning his optimism in the company before leaving without taking questions, were followed, on Friday, by Wall Street selling the firm's stock down by over eight per cent.

However, Google's return on investment in SEM has decreased by 12 per cent, year-on-year, according to Efficient Frontier.

Facebook, meanwhile, looks set to see its own ad revenue increase across the globe as marketers start to realise how lucrative the social networking giant could be.

"We're seeing great demand for Facebook's ad products as the social networking giant's ad offerings continue to evolve," said David Karnstedt, president and CEO of Efficient Frontier.

The findings came amid positive outlooks for the digital marketing sector.

"The strong showing for digital marketing in the first quarter of 2011 was in line with our prediction of a 15 per cent to 20 per cent increase in spend in 2011," Karnstedt added.

"This is all solid evidence of an economic recovery, and that marketers are seeing tremendous results when they intelligently allocate their marketing spend and optimize across channels."

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) face further scrutiny when making claims about their broadband speeds, thanks to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

Last year, the ASA asked the organisations responsible for writing advertising codes to look into the way ISPs promoted broadband speeds, specifically the use of "up to" and "unlimited" in their adverts.

Both the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) and the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP) are now consulting on new guidance for ISPs.

"The objective is to produce guidance for the industry to aid their interpretation of the Misleading Advertising sections of the CAP and BCAP Codes," said a statement from the ASA.

The consultation period will end at 5pm of Friday 25 February.

ISPs have already felt the wrath of the ASA before this consultation began.

BT had several adverts banned last year, firstly for claiming its internet connections were "instant" and secondly when customers disputed claims of 20Mbps broadband access. The ASA deemed the adverts misleading and forced the ISP to pull them.

Take a look at our round up of the top 10 tech advert fails here.

People don't like being misled, especially when it comes to being told porkies about what companies can offer.

For that reason alone the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is a fine organisation that can put firms, who think they can lie to consumers, in their place.

Just this month, BT had two ads banned for being misleading.

So, we've drawn up our top 10 notorious promotions from the tech industry and why they were given the smackdown by the ASA.

10. Super Skype images August 2009

A Skype TV ad that showed a new father talking to his parents on a webcam was banned. During the ad, the young chap moved his laptop so his mummy and daddy could see his partner and newborn baby.

A total of five viewers complained, challenging whether the ad was misleading in its exaggeration of sound and picture quality.

The ASA recognised Skype was trying to show a truly optimised version of the service, but said it did not convey typical performance levels that all its users could achieve.

9. Ambiguous Orange June 2010

Orange claimed in an ad its 3G network covered "more people in the UK than any other operator" something that Hutchison 3G UK, the owner of 3, said was simply not true.

For the ASA, the main issue was the ambiguity over the claim. It was unclear to the regulatory body whether the statement was referring to Orange covering more people in the places where they lived than any other operator, or more people in the UK, wherever they may be using their 3G mobile device.

One for the semantics professors this one...

8. Erroneous Ebay April 2009

On a poster, eBay ran with the tagline: "Guess What? 25 per cent Cheaper Than The High Street On Brand New Items." Can you guess where this is going?

Just one complaint was filed challenging eBay's claim, as it did not make it clear what the basis for the comparison was.

The small print on the ad revealed the 25 per cent claim was obtained by comparing the average sold price (including P&P) of 288 new products on eBay.co.uk with the price in mainstream retail stores. With each product, prices were obtained in six different shops and the average price was taken.

The ASA said the small print was insufficient in size to be overlooked, and consumers were likely to infer from the ad they could get a new item on eBay 25 per cent cheaper than they would from the high street on every occasion. The ad was therefore pulled.

7. BT Infinity ironic fail August 2010

Buzz Lightyear wouldn't have been too keen on BT's Infinity ad, which promoted a service promising "instant internet."

Four complaints were lodged with the ASA, suggesting the "instant" claim in the commercial was misleading.

BT believed consumers would understand the term "instant" did not mean there would be no delay whatsoever, even providing the comparison of instant coffee. The ASA did not agree.

Neither was it happy with BT's claims its fibre services could upload a 9MB video in eight seconds and download a 6MB song in just three seconds.

"We noted that BT had provided a list of the times they believed it would take to complete the activities stated in the ad, using their fibre optic broadband," the ASA said.

"However, we also noted that we had not seen evidence that substantiated those times."

6. iPhone 3G not 'really' that fast August 2008

"So what's so great about 3G? It's what helps you get the news, really fast. Find your way, really fast. And download pretty much anything, really fast. The new iPhone 3G. The internet, you guessed it, really fast."

That was what Apple claimed in one of its TV ads and it ended up with 17 people complaining it purveyed a false interpretation of how fast the smartphone actually was.

Apple said the claims "were relative rather than absolute." ASA said the ad misled consumers into believing the phone actually worked as fast as it did in the ad. And that was the end of that.

5. Mafia Wars ad fried on Facebook July 2010

Mafia Wars is a contentious title as it is, so when an ad for the game ran on Facebook featuring a hoody wearing a knife, it was likely to draw some attention.

Just one complaint was registered with the ASA, however, suggesting the ad was irresponsible as it promoted knife use and condoned violent behaviour.

Zynga Game Network, the Mafia Wars creator, stressed the game nor the ad featured any actual depictions of violent crime and Facebook itself had given the promotion approval. The game company also said the ad was targeted at an adult audience which would understand the context of the ad.

However, Facebook ended up removing the ad by its own prerogative, as it breached advertising guidelines prohibiting images of weapons.

The ASA said the ad was "aggressive and threatening" and "glamorised and condoned violence." The complaint was upheld and the ad was removed.

4. Vodafone radio terms too fast September 2008

Small print is such a surreptitious inclusion it makes many people's blood boil. When it is condensed down to verbal form for a radio advert, it can be even more irritating.

One listener was suitably infuriated by a Vodafone advert for the communications giant's Endless Summer campaign. At the end of the promotion a woman speedily spurted out these terms and conditions: "Subject to status, availability and connection to 18-month contract. Unlimited calls to landlines or Vodafone Mobiles only. Fair-use policy, terms and 60-minute call cap applies."

The ASA simply said the words were said too quickly, were not clearly audible and could therefore mislead listeners. Amusing, considering Vodafone is a company that relies so much on the clarity of communications.

3. BT broadband claim fail, part deux August 2010

No doubt some will be pleased to see the back of this particular TV ad, which involved an estate agent frustrated at slow ADSL speeds, a character played by actor Kris Marshall, and a lady enjoying some much faster broadband supposedly served up by BT.

A voice over in the ad said "BT is rolling out up to 20Mbps speeds to give you a consistently faster broadband throughout the day even at peak times."

The ASA adjudicated the 20Mbps claim was misleading after a number of customers complained, some challenging whether the 20Mbps claim could be substantiated, others questioning whether the speeds the lady was getting were accurate.

In a rather large case load for the ASA, a total of seven complaint points were raised about a range of ads, including the aforementioned TV one. Just one of these went BT's way.

2. Dell pricing confusion August 2006

This may be hard for some to remember, but four years ago a Dell advert went with this claim: "Whatever you need a PC for, Dell has the one you want for less than you might expect. Right now get this Dell Inspiron notebook featuring an Intel Celeron processor for only 299."

The ad featured a web address and a phone number, which a number of viewers assumed would take them to where this deal was available.

A total of 25 complaints were lodged, 23 saying when they went to the website, after seeing the ad, the laptop was available, but for 349 rather than 299.

After being approached by the ASA, Dell said the Inspiron 1300 deal would be available through telephone sales just for a short time before being opened up on the website.

As the deal was not initially available on the website at the advertised price, the ASA deemed the ad to be misleading and it was pulled off air. A case of mistiming on Dell's behalf, it appeared.

1. The iPhone can get 'all the internet'? August 2008

This had to be number one, just for its pure relevance. Two years ago, Apple put out a TV ad that claimed "all the parts of the internet are on the iPhone."

This upset two viewers who knew the device could not support Flash or Java, meaning every feature on the web was not actually accessible on the device.

Although the ASA recognised Apple's claim the ad was about site availability rather than technical detail, the regulatory body believed the ad had not explained the limitations.

"We concluded that the ad gave a misleading impression of the internet capabilities of the iPhone," the ASA said.

Adobe fans, this ones for you.

For the second time in a month the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned a BT broadband advert.

Early in August a BT infinity ad was prohibited from appearing again, and now a range of advertisements have been banned, including a TV commercial featuring Love Actually actor Kris Marshall.

Many will remember the ad, in which an estate agent using a standard ADSL connection is hampered by slow speeds at peak time, before a voice over proclaimed "BT is rolling out up to 20Mbps speeds to give you a consistently faster broadband throughout the day even at peak times."

To provide a comparison, the ad also featured a woman, the partner of Marshall's character, using the web and getting faster speeds.

The ASA has adjudicated the 20Mbps claim was misleading after a number of customers complained, 12 of whom challenged whether the 20Mbps claim could be substantiated.

Others believed surfing a typical website would not be any faster with a 20Mbps connection than it would with an 8Mbps service something the ASA also agreed with.

"Because we had not seen sufficient evidence to support the claim that BTs new broadband service was consistently faster than its existing 8Mbps service even at peak times, we concluded that the ad was likely to mislead," the ASA said.

Three viewers also took umbrage with the speed of the woman's connection, which they said appeared faster than what could be achieved at any connection speed.

"Although we noted BT's argument that the sequence was not intended as an actual visual comparison we considered that, in an ad focused on the benefits of a faster service, consumers would expect any comparative demonstration of that feature to be representative of the benefits available to them," the ASA ruled.

BT provided a raft of data in an attempt to prove its 20Mbps services were genuinely faster than the 8Mbps option.

The telecoms giant said the TV ad was "merely a means of visualising a typical frustrating moment that viewers could relate to."

Rival operators Sky and TalkTalk also registered complaints with the ASA over a BT national press advert, which said BT offered "faster broadband even at peak times compared with the ADSL industry average."

Sky and TalkTalk said the basis of the claim was not independently obtained and not adequate for an industry wide comparison, as the data could have been biased if BT had selected telephone lines.

The ASA claimed, whilst the data had been independently obtained by Epitiro, the regulatory body was concerned the information "was potentially subject to inaccuracies based on line length."

"We noted Epitiro had not normalised for line length as part of their methodology."

BT was pleased by one ruling out of seven which went its way, as Virgin and TalkTalk's claim BT does not offer consistently faster broadband speeds than the industry average was quashed by the ASA.

The two rivals believed the press ad's claims were contradicted by a recent independent survey conducted by Ofcom, but ASA rejected this point, as the research did not specifically take into account BT's 20Mbps service.

"When the ads appeared we wanted to highlight our offer of consistently faster web browsing through up to 20Mbps broadband in newly enabled exchange areas; there was no intention to mislead," BT said in a statement sent to IT PRO.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned an advert for BT fibre broadband services, which promised "instant internet."

Four complaints were lodged with the ASA, suggesting the "instant" claim in the BT Infinity advertisement was misleading.

BT believed consumers would understand the term "instant" did not mean there would be no delay whatsoever.

The word under scrutiny has been used in a variety of industries to describe products not delivered straightaway, such as instant coffee, the communications firm argued.

BT also made various claims in support of its ad. It said customers using the company's fibre services could upload a 9MB video in eight seconds and download a 6MB song in just three seconds.

"We noted that BT had provided a list of the times they believed it would take to complete the activities stated in the ad, using their fibre optic broadband," the ASA said.

"However, we also noted that we had not seen evidence that substantiated those times."

The communications giant also failed to show proof of what speeds could be achieved by customers using BT's fibre services, or whether those speeds would be achievable at peak times and with "non-optimal computer set-ups," the regulatory body added.

BT had submitted three customer profiles to the ASA to support its views, which the regulatory organisation said were not sufficient enough for the advert to be permitted.

"We did not consider that profiles and testimonials alone were sufficient to substantiate claims relating to the speed of a broadband service," the ASA added.

"Because we had not seen evidence to support the claims made in the ad, we concluded that it was misleading."

Despite this setback, BT has been doing some speedy work in getting its fibre services out in the UK.

The company's fibre network now covers more than 1.5 million properties, with around 100,000 extra premises are being added every week.

The majority of UK web surfers are against paywalls, such as the one recently introduced by The Times, research has suggested.

More than four-fifths of UK respondents to a KPMG poll said if they were asked to pay for content on a site that was previously free, they would simply look elsewhere.

Just 19 per cent said they would be happy to pay, although nearly three quarters would be satisfied at being sent online ads in exchange for lower content prices.

Almost half of UK respondents said they would be willing to allow their personal profile data to be tracked, up from 35 per cent in 2008, even despite concerns over privacy and security.

In comparison, it appears the UK is stingier than other nations, with the global average for those willing to pay for sites they regularly use standing at 43 per cent.

"UK consumers still haven't come around to the idea of paying for digital content and are clear that they will move to other sites if paywalls are put up," said Tudor Aw, head of technology at KPMG Europe.

"Although consumers are resistant to paying for content, they are becoming more accepting of viewing advertising and for their profile information to be tracked. This continues a trend we have seen in previous years and again acts as a pointer as to whether a pay or ad-funded model will eventually succeed," Aw added.

Phorm has confirmed it lost $29.7 million (19.8 million) last year following the postponement of its UK launch.

The company is now set to pull many of its operations out of the UK and move them over to Brazil in an attempt to save cash and rejuvenate the company.

The technology the company is famed for tracks internet user activity, allowing advertisers to target their products more effectively.

It came under a lot of scrutiny in the UK after it was discovered BT was secretly trialling the tech and there are still rumblings that a court case may appear against them.

In its preliminary results statement, the chairman and chief executive (CEO) Kent Ertugrul, said the company had "learnt a number of important lessons" from their experiences and were positive about their move to Brazil and partnership with sole ISP Oi.

"We have implemented a full opt-in approach in Brazil and have adapted our technology in such a way as to make it impossible to damage the browsing experience," he said.

"As a result, we believe that technical trials such as those undertaken by BT in 2008 are no longer necessary."

Despite its financial failings, Phorm is still able to bring in the bucks from investors to keep the company afloat.

Last year it received 15 million from private investors but the firm admitted it will need more over the next year to make up for delays in "commercial deployment" of its technology.

Twitter is to introduce an advertising model that will serve third-party advertisements in on-site search results, broadly emulating Google's approach to the wider web.

The Wall Street Journal's All Things Digital blog reports that the micro-blogging giant plans to launch its Twitter Advertising scheme in the first half of this year as part of a wider set of updates to the platform.

According to the report, adverts will be served in Twitter's familiar 140-character packets. "Ads will be tied to Twitter searches, in the same way that Google's original ads were," the blog reads. "So a search for, say, 'laptop', may generate an ad for Dell. The ads will only show up in search results, which means users who don't search for something won't see them in their regular Twitterstreams."

The advertising will be sold via agencies initially while Twitter puts a self-service website in place, and Twitter is believed to have said it will share advertising revenues with any third-party sites that agree to display the ads.

"Twitter will work with ad agencies and buyers to seed the program, but plans on moving to a self-serve model like Google's, down the road," the blog reports.

With more than 50 million tweets being sent each day, Twitter has become one of the web's hottest properties, but has largely struggled to turn that popularity into profit.

At present, advertising is limited to small text adverts appearing on the top right of users' Twitter home pages a largely ineffective model rendered even less effective by the popularity of third-party applications that access Twitter's API but use their own end-user interface.

But that too could be set to change, looking at some of the other tricks Twitter seems to have up its sleeve. Twitter engineer Alex Payne has been tweeting on the subject a fair bit lately, and suggests that Twitter itself might finally be about to address the ever-growing gap between its own offering and desktop applications like Seesmic and TweetDeck.

One of his messages read: "if you had some of the nifty site features that we Twitter employees have, you might not want to use a desktop client. (You will soon.)"

Further tweets followed up to emphasise he was talking about tools already available to developers through the Twitter API, but thus far untapped by Twitter's own client. "I just mean that our web client team is building cool stuff. It's going to inspire desktop app developers. Same data, new perspectives," he said.

Microsoft has unveiled new commercially sponsored desktop themes for Windows 7 from firms like Porsche, Twentieth Century Fox, its own Xbox and more.

The themes come in two forms. First there's a collection of add-ons and gadgets for Windows 7 and Vista as well as Internet Explorer and Microsoft's websites. This "robust sponsorship opportunity" lets the advertiser offer backgrounds, gadgets, and even audio.

"These new themes are intended for a brand's most passionate fans and allow for a deeper engagement by letting consumers embed their favorite brand into their PC experience," Microsoft said in a statement.

The second way advertisers can get involved is by offering desktop backgrounds, slide shows, borders and audio just for the operating system.

"The new Windows Theme Experience and Windows Personalisation Gallery in Windows 7 allow consumers to customise their technology to reflect the things in life they are most passionate about," claimed Darren Huston, corporate vice president of the consumer and online organisation at Microsoft, in a statement.

But don't worry - Microsoft isn't yet forcing us to view advertising on our desktops, this is all opt in. Those who really like staring at advertisements can download the themes here.

Advertising in software might be set to become a bit more common though, as the new free web-based Office suite might be ad-funded.

Internet advertising has overtaken TV to become Britain's biggest advertising medium.

The first half of 2009 saw internet ads coping well with the recession, growing by 4.6 per cent to 1,752.1 million.

The figures came from a twice yearly advertising spend study from the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) done in partnership with Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC), and the World Advertising Centre (WARC).

These numbers were deemed very successful considering that the entire advertising sector contracted by 16.6 per cent during the same period.

The UK was the world leader for online market share, accounting for nearly a quarter (23.5 per cent).

"Internet advertising has beaten all expectations to achieve growth in the most challenging market conditions," said Guy Phillipson, chief executive of the internet advertising bureau, in a statement.

"Online display has performed notably well against its peers in TV, print and radio despite more than 1.5 billion being wiped off the advertising industry."

Best Match is a fast way to get to exactly what you're looking for without trawling through a sea of blue links. Marie Thirlwall demonstrates.

The image and video search features from Bing are excellent, with Infinite Scroll and filters to take you to exactly the kind of image you're looking for. Microsoft's Marie Thirlwall takes you through it.

Microsoft's Marie Thirlwall shows off some of the features of Bing that are coming to the UK soon.

Bing is smart when it comes to analysing your search terms. Search for something and, whenever it can, Bing will give you instant answers relevant to the topic. Microsoft's Sophie Salisbury demonstrates.

Categorised search is one of the many ways you can get to what you want faster and more easily. Sophie Salisbury shows you how.

Time Warner has agreed to let YouTube run "short-form" clips of films, TV shows and news reports from its many networks.

Time Warner owns networks including CNN, the Cartoon Network and Warner Bros, so news clips as well as shows like teen-favourite Gossip Girl will be made available. Time Warner's HBO has had it's own channel on the video site since last year, so it's not an entirely new move for the entertainment giant.

The clips will run in a Time Warner player which is embeddable, so the content can be shared on sites away from YouTube.

The deal isn't just about show promotion, as Time Warner will be able to sell ad time alongside the clips, sharing revenue with Google-owned YouTube. The video site has long struggled to make a profit.

Time Warner chairman and chief executive Jeff Bewkes said in a statement: "Our agreement with YouTube helps us expand the amount of our promotional content, animation and news that we already make available online. Working with YouTube, we expect to improve our ability to monetize this short-form content through new and creative advertising initiatives."

Click here to find out if online video can ever be profitable.

A new report has shown a near total decline in domain tasting' registering domain names for short periods of time to see if online ads placed on them have money making potential.

ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) said that there was a loophole where people could take advantage of a five-day grace period when a domain was registered, and return it for free.

With new methods of online advertising and automated systems, millions of domains were being registered to see whether online ads were likely to make more money than the registration fee over the next year.

If this didn't look to be the case, the user could return the domain for free before the five day period expired.

This led to a form of internet graffiti - an enormous increase in the number of websites with nothing but ads. Also, if users accidentally let their domain name lapse, it was difficult to get them back as they were often using automated systems.

To combat this, ICANN changed policy by making sure that if a company registered and returned more than a certain number of domains, they would be charged for each registration above that amount, therefore making speculative domain tasting more expensive.

ICANN's efforts led to a 99.7 per cent decline in domain tasting for all registries that implemented the new policy.

"This shows the power of the internet community working together," said ICANN chief executive Rod Beckstrom in a statement. "The problem was identified and then a solution produced that has effectively seen the death of domain testing in less than a year."

The move has been welcomed by internet hosting firms.

"The reason this was bad for all of us is that it allowed people to speculate and cherry pick domains out of the pool," Joe White, chief operating officer (COO) of hosting firm Gandi, told IT PRO's sister site PC Pro.

"We had a case some years ago where some domain registrars had 100 per cent renewal rates (normally around 70 per cent), because if the customer didn't renew, they registrar did and put adverts on it. So this means domains we never returning to the pool, and if they did they were snapped up by other speculators," he added.

"What we should see over the coming years are more domains returning to the pool as it doesn't make financial sense to keep them, and with the tasting practice effectively stopped more will be available for all of us. However, domainers are innovators too, so who knows what the next scam might be."

Interactive touch screen advertising controlled by the iPhone was launched this weekend at the Media Playground conference in London.

The adverts were created by Clusta and CBS Outdoor, which plan to trial them at the Westfield Shopping Centre in London, but hope the launch will attract more interest.

The 57 inch advertising screen connects to a shopper's iPhone via WiFi or 3G. This then allows the iPhone user to move the advert from side to side, sliding their fingers across their touch screen, or indeed use the pinch and stretch features with two fingers to zoom in or out of the advert.

Russell Townsend, managing director at Clusta, said in a statement: "This revolutionary platform showcases the huge potential that exists for digital outdoor to use emerging technologies to captivate consumers in its unique environments."

"Digital outdoor is an incredibly innovative medium and as an industry we are really just scratching the surface of the weird and wonderful ways it can engage," he added.

The companies also confirmed that this could be developed to interact with other smart phones, while others could use SMS to receive more information about the product instantaneously.

Lee Cutter, head of retail sales at CBS Outdoor, said: "The addition of this level of consumer interactivity will be a major additional benefit for advertisers wishing to capitalise on the enhanced responsiveness of consumers at Westfield."

Advertisers could face price hikes if their campaigns don't cut the mustard with Digg users.

Digg is a social website that allows people to post up links to share with others. Users then promote or demote the links depending on how interesting they found them.

On its blog, Digg announced that under a new scheme adverts on the site would suffer the same scrutiny.

"Digg Ads will give you more control over which advertisements are displayed on Digg. The more an ad is Dugg, the less the advertiser will have to pay. Conversely the more an ad is buried, the more the advertiser is charged, pricing it out of the system," Mike Maser, chief strategy officer for the site, said on the blog.

Although there are obvious pitfalls to the scheme for businesses trying to sell their products, there is equally a positive side, the site said.

Maser said: "The goal here is to give advertisers a way to present content related to their brands and get immediate input on whether it's relevant to the Digg audience, or not."

The scheme is going to launch as a pilot in the next few months with Maser admitting they are still only in the "very early stages".

The Open Rights Group has urged seven of the UK's biggest web companies to opt out of Phorm.

The group have sent an open letter to the firms - Microsoft, Google/YouTube, Facebook, AOL/Bebo, Yahoo, Amazon and eBay asking them to block Phorm, which tracks the sites a user visits to profile what adverts to display.

Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group, said: "Websites need to act to protect their user's data, and preserve trust in our basic privacy online. Phorm acts to gather data without the consent of website owners, and provides only an opt out system for them. That means all kinds of web content could be read without the consent of both parties."

The letter highlights the recent parliamentary meeting where Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the world wide web, made a "firm stand against technologies which 'snoop' on the internet" as well as drawing attention to a recent petition against Phorm's deployment that has over 21,000 signatures.

It also laid out the group's view that Phorm is illegal. "Communications cannot be lawfully intercepted, as this system does, without the informed consent of both the sender and receiver. The system will make copies of copyright material without permission, a further unlawful activity. Also, by forging extra tracking' cookies in your name, it may well bring your own system into disrepute."

A Phorm spokesman said: "We are aware of the letter and note that the vast majority of recipients use or offer interest based advertising. Many of them have, like Phorm, demonstrated their commitment to user privacy as signatories to the IAB UK's interest based advertising good practice principles."

Killnock added: "We hope that major websites will send a strong signal that they wish to protect their user's rights, rather than allowing Phorm's snooping, which may be illegal."

Twitter has denied it will begin rolling out text advertising formats on its profile pages.

The micro blogging site has recently incorporated in-house promotions but its response to the rumours of third party advertising is clear.

Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter, told IT PRO: "We have no plans to do text advertising on Twitter.com."

"We have recently added some short, dictionary style definitions which point to Twitter related features and projects like Twitter Search and Twitter Widgets but I'm not sure how long we'll keep them."

The Japanese version of the site has always had advertising since it first launched in April 2008, but so far the original version has avoided it.

As the popularity of the site continues to grow, the need for start up cost and revenue is increasing and the adverts had been rumoured to be available to third parties by the end of the year.

Twitter recently announced that is would be launching a Twitter related job search service, pooling together 25,000 jobs mentioned on the micro blogging website.

Yahoo and Google, the two leading internet search and web services providers, are reported to be back in talks with the US Justice Department over concerns that their controversial advertising collaboration is breaking competition rules.

A report published by US financial newspaper The Wall Street Journal, citing legal sources close to the discussions, stated that settlement negotiations are at an early stage. It remains unclear whether the companies will resolve the government objections.

Advertisers, who have raised objections to the deal, told Justice Department officials that the partnership will limit competition, raise prices and reduce choices, the paper said.

Under the agreement, Google would supply Yahoo with advertising services to run alongside Yahoo's own web search system. Yahoo runs the web's second most popular search service.

Yahoo struck the agreement in June with Google in an effort to defend itself from Microsoft's takeover efforts.

Even as senior Justice Department officials weigh the companies' proposals to resolve antitrust issues, its trial staff continues to prepare a lawsuit to block the deal, the paper said citing lawyers and executives contacted by the government.

The companies have been cooperating with the Justice Department's investigation and recently agreed to delay implementing the deal until at least 22 October to give federal and state antitrust officials time to complete their separate investigations, according to the paper.

Yahoo, Google and the Justice Department could not be immediately reached for comment by Reuters.

Over the past few years, online social networks such as Facebook, Myspace, Bebo and Twitter have changed our lives. Originally viewed as being little more than a welcome distraction to the mundane office day, they provided an almost voyeuristic insight into what our friends and peers were up to in their everyday lives.

People quickly became addicted to the idea of creating profiles of themselves online and the web opened a whole new world of opportunity which for some proved to be far more socially fulfilling for many than the average evening at your local.

According to comScore, over 35m Europeans used Facebook in June with the average user spending around six hours a month on social networking sites.

Brand building with social networking

However, what was once a merely a consumer phenomenon is now seen as one which can deliver very real benefits to businesses, too.

Many of us already use sites such as LinkedIn to build our own personal brand via association, connections and recommendations, and after years of agency-led advertising, smart companies are beginning to do the same.

"Large, engaged audiences, particularly the youth, are now found on social media platforms and often in larger numbers than elsewhere," explains Chris Seth, European managing director for web firm Piczo.

Indeed, these consumers are more sceptical about marketing than ever before and are becoming increasingly hard to reach and connect with through the more traditional advertising approach. "Social media instead provides an avenue for peer-to-peer recommendations and word of mouth, something existing mediums find difficult to penetrate," says Seth.

Given that most purchasing decisions are now made online and heavily influenced by friend recommendations, social media and social networking provide a powerful medium for brand building, according to Yann Motte, chief executive of social networking builder Webjam.

"The holy grail for most organisations is to build a character around their brand values that transcends what the product or service itself provides to move from being a simple purchasing choice to a lifestyle statement," he adds.

Keeping it personal

To get there, companies must refrain from corporate marketing messages and hype, and base their approach on the passion of consumers.

"If you deliver a compelling experience that can turn a customer into fan and advocate, then they are going to turn around and be a promoter of your business," says Brian Mitchinson, vice president of marketing for web development firm Blast Radius.

This means on-going marketing is then taken care of by the community through social channels resulting in a limited need for future consumer acquisition investments.

"From the perspective of both consumer and brand builder, one of the powerful aspects of social networks is that people can easily share their passions and interests with their friends," says James Glicker, chief executive of online music service Passionato.

Facebook and Myspace recommendations, for example, drive people to the Passionato website, where they can listen to the particular pieces of music their friends have picked out. Plus, people who hear a piece of music on Passionato can send links to their friends directly via email via a 'Send to a Friend' function and bookmark favourites using sites such as Del.icio.us.

"With the current state of digital, advertising is not a canned product to be presented to the consumer," says Freddie Laker, director of digital strategy at marketing agency Sapient Interactive. "It is a dialogue with message boards and blogs facilitating near-instant feedback from the client's target market."

The downside

Of course, this sounds like an amazing new opportunity for interacting with consumers, but there is a catch.

"With word of mouth advertising, one person will tell a friend whether they like or dislike a product and their discussion is localised," Laker adds. "In today's digital age, this is no longer the case. What a person says about a brand has started to appear in search results, and in many cases, they are getting higher search results than a brand's own micro-sites and primary websites."

Obviously, this is because the use of blogs and social networking sites by consumers are notoriously difficult to police and comments made can easily damage brand value. However, the use of places like YouTube for viral marketing can soon start a bandwagon of support around the globe.

"If you don't recognise social media as a marketing channel, you'll miss out on opportunities to reach new customers and build stronger relationships with people already using your products and services," says Mitchinson.

Find a business case for Facebook

Developing applications for social networks like Facebook is one way of building a brand online. Adidas, for example, has just launched a campaign with music site Last.fm for its Bounce shoes. "On Last.fm we've created a community around Bounce where users can find out about the trainers, where they can buy them, and also experience the music that Bounce is associated with, creating a rich, one-to-one communication with the user," says Christian Ward of Last.fm.

The page features an embeddable radio widget with music from Stones Throw and other UK and US hip hop classics, as well as 3 free downloads from a premier label. Ward says it is also the first time Last.fm has offered users free downloads sponsored by a brand.

Laker's team at Sapient helped Coke Burn extend the energy drink into the online realm by creating the Coke Burn Alter Ego Facebook application, which has had more than 150,000 installs since its launch in March.

"As long as online campaigns are authentic, provide an open dialogue and are targeted at the correct audience, they are incredibly influential in building brands," says Seth.

"While some campaigns have been very innovative, the problem is that many people are likely to become bored of simply befriending brand pages that are little more than glorified banners or of using widgets that end-up becoming simple e-commerce modules," adds Motte.

Keeping it legal

Transparency and legal issues provide the main pitfalls when building brands with social networks, according to Steven Waddington, managing director of public relations firm Rainier PR.

"The web is littered with examples of businesses that have failed to be open in their communication and have quickly been found out," he says. "And legal-wise businesses need to realise that publishing in a social media environment whether on a blog, Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter is no different legally to making a public statement. The law of defamation very much applies."

However, when used appropriately, Waddington believes social networks have the potential to support almost every aspect of a business. "Digital media has wrongly been perceived as the domain of brands seeking to engage with consumer audiences," he adds. "But there is massive potential for savvy enterprise organisations to use these techniques to engage with audiences too."

Motte thinks that giving online power to brand evangelists is the next step with consumers soon being able to repackage a brand in their own words.

"As both brands and users mature in their use of social networks, the future belongs to brands that will not only engage with their consumers but also empower them to create their own discussions on communities that they themselves manage," he says.

Coming soon to a mobile near you.adverts and lots of them.

Vodafone, T-Mobile, Orange, O2 and 3 confirmed in a joint statement that they plan to appoint the Internet Advertising Bureau to help push mobile advertising as a marketing medium.

With mobile data speeds steadily improving and the ability to surf graphic rich web pages on phones now commonplace, the mobile operators now see the humble mobile or smartphone as prime advertising real estate that has so far gone largely untapped.

Some mobile operators are battling falling voice call revenue as users increasingly turn to email and text messaging, both yielding lower profit margins, and see advertising as a powerful revenue stream as it allows brands to target consumers based on their location and at times of the day when they are otherwise hard to reach.

The IAB said a survey towards the end of 2007 with 40 senior-level marketers found that mobile advertising was viewed in much the same way as online advertising was in 2000 - lacking standards, measurement systems and case studies to support the medium.

"These are exciting times for the industry -- consumers are becoming more acquainted with mobile as a marketing medium and increasingly accepting of relevant, targeted advertising on their handsets," said Shan Henderson, head of mobile advertising and industry development, at Vodafone.

The proposed advertising tie-up between search giants Google and Yahoo as been a dealt a blow after a leading advertising industry group lodged an objection.

The Association of National Advertisers (ANA), a US advertising industry body, has registered its concerns about the deal to regulators.

In a letter to assistant attorney general Thomas Barnett, the ANA claimed that "a Google/Yahoo partnership will control 90 per cent of search advertising inventory."

The partnership "will likely diminish competition, increase concentration of market power, limit choices currently available and potentially raise prices to advertisers for high quality, affordable search advertising," the statement said.

Yahoo "remains steadfast in its belief that this deal - in which prices are determined by advertiser demand-driven auctions, not by collaboration between Yahoo and Google - will strengthen Yahoo's competitive position...and will help to drive a more robust, higher quality...marketplace for our advertisers," the company said in a statement on Sunday.

Google spokesman Adam Kovacevich said "numerous advertisers have recognised that this agreement will help them better match their ads to users' interests, and that ad prices will continue to be set by competitive auction."

"While some have raised questions about the agreements' potential impact on ad prices, advertisers care far more about getting a good return on their advertising dollar than they do about buying cheap ads that don't bring in customers, and this agreement will clearly help advertisers reach Yahoo users more efficiently," Kovacevich said.

Yahoo struck the agreement in June with Google, the world's dominant supplier of web search services, as it sought to shore up its advertising business and ward off pressure to merge from Microsoft.

The two companies said at the time that they were not required to get regulatory approval before implementing the deal, but had voluntarily delayed it for up to three-and-a-half months, while anti-trust regulators review the arrangement.

The non-exclusive deal covers the US and Canada but not other markets.

Under the deal, Google would supply Yahoo with advertising services to run alongside Yahoo's own web search system.

Several US states are also are reviewing the proposed pact, including Florida attorney general Bill McCollum.

Google could not be immediately reached for comment. Google has said it expects to carry out the Yahoo deal next month.

Google will proceed with its search-advertising partnership with Yahoo by early October, regardless of a US Justice Department probe of the deal, Bloomberg has said.

"We are going to move forward," Google chief executive Eric Schmidt said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Thursday in Denver.

"We are in the process of talking to the government. They've not indicated one way or the other how they're dealing with us," the news agency quoted Schmidt as saying.

Google, with more than 60 per cent of the internet search market, and Yahoo, with 16.6 per cent, agreed in June last month on an advertising partnership under which Yahoo will let Google put search ads on its site.

The deal has raised concerns that it will give Google too much power in the $65 billion (36.04 billion) online advertising market, and the US Justice Department launched a formal antitrust investigation in July.

"We always worry a little bit, but we think our arguments are pretty strong," Schmidt told Bloomberg.

Google was not immediately available for comment.

Google has turned in a 35 percent rise in net second quarter profit, but the news has failed to impress a US market that is looking for better performance from technology stocks.

Shares in the company tumbled eight per cent to below $500 (250), as Wall Street reacted badly to the figures, which fell short of analyst expectations.

The disappointing profit came as Google said online ad revenue held up well across sectors and world regions despite a weaker global economy that has tripped up rivals.

Officials pointed to problems managing its cash - now totalling $12.7 billion (6.35 billion) - in the face of volatile interest rates, the cash drain of recent acquisitions such as YouTube and higher costs to hedge foreign currency risk as operations expand overseas.

"Traffic and revenue have held up well despite uncertain economic conditions, as everybody knows," said Google chief executive Eric Schmidt.

Second-quarter net profit rose to $1.25 billion (625 million) from $925 million (462.5 million) in the same quarter last year.

Gross turnover rose 39 per cent to $5.37 billion (2.65 billion), matching the average of analysts' estimates.

Chief financial officer George Reyes cited lower yields on cash and lost interest on the $3.2 billion (1.6 billion) in cash it shelled out in March for advertising technology company DoubleClick.

In the second quarter last year, Google similarly surprised analysts with disappointing earnings, but for different reasons. Operating expenses were exploding as the company was on a hiring spree.