Kanoodle®, the leading provider of sponsored links to many of the Web’s best sites, today announced the signing of a distribution agreement with MSN.

Under the terms of the arrangement, Kanoodle will provide its content targeted sponsored links to MSN Spaces.

“Through this deal with MSN, Kanoodle’s advertisers will have access to one of the best sites on the Web,” said Lance Podell, Kanoodle’s chief executive officer. “This arrangement demonstrates Kanoodle’s commitment to effectively provide publishers with the most relevant and highly monetizing sponsored links programs.”

Kanoodle is now the sponsored links provider for the more than 10 million MSN Spaces users. As part of its relationship with MSN, Kanoodle will enable MSN Spaces users to seamlessly add sponsored links to their Space. In return, participating members will receive a percentage of revenues generated by these links. Kanoodle will provide sponsored links and manage the reporting and payment aspects for all MSN Spaces members who opt-in to the program.

For more information on Kanoodle and how to ensure sponsored links reach the large community of MSN users, please visit www.kanoodle.com.

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And, as a new feature for the three-year-old service, users logged in from their Google accounts will see recommended articles based on what they previously read.

Google Inc. on Monday said has taken its online news service out of beta, and has added a feature that automatically recommends stories to subscribers of its personalized search offering.

Google News, launched in September 2002, is a computer-automated system that lists related articles in groups, which the search engine calls "clusters." The service, which does not use human editors, is offered in 22 regional editions and 10 languages.
Google News also offers email alerts configured by users, and the ability to create a personalized page. In addition, the company said Monday it would offer to personalized search subscribers the ability to view and manage their history of news searches and the articles read.

When logged in to their Google Account, subscribers visiting the Google News page will receive recommended news stories based on previously read stories. The recommendations will be highlighted just below the top news stories on the page. The suggested stories are chosen automatically, using algorithms.
In addition, subscribers will get a section showing the most popular stories on Google News.

Google pitched their fork into the radio advertising market yesterday by agreeing to pay up to $1.2bn for a digital platform that will schedule and implement radio advertising airtime.

Google pitched their fork into the radio advertising market yesterday by agreeing to pay up to $1.2bn for a digital platform that will schedule and implement radio advertising airtime.

The acquisition of privately-owned American company, dMarc Broadcasting, looks to leverage the offering of their existing advertising platform, AdWords.

It works by offering AdWords users the option of radio advertising, allowing them to bypass traditional agencies and place their ads directly on digital radio.

According to The Independent, Google might pay an additional $1.14bn over three years, which would be a larger investment than the $1bn it paid last month for a 5% stake in AOL.

dMarc is managed by two brothers, Chad and Ryan Steelberg, who previously founded one of the first internet advertising companies acquired in 1999 for $500m.

Time Armstrong, vice president of advertising sales at Google said: We anticipate this acquisition will bring new ad dollars and accountability to radio by combining Google's expansive network of advertisers with dMarc's talented team and innovative radio advertising technology."

He added that the company was "committed to exploring new ways to extend targeted, measurable advertising to other forms of media."

Internet search and ad partnership. Each will benefit from other's reach

Google Inc. and CanWest Global Communications Corp. subsidiary Canada.com announced yesterday they are teaming up on an Internet search and advertising partnership.

The multi-year partnership will provide Canada.com users with content and search-related advertising, while offering Google's advertisers access to Canada.com's extensive reach across the country, the companies said.

"With almost three million unique visitors a month, Canada.com provides an excellent media vehicle for our advertisers who are looking to penetrate the Canadian marketplace," stated Wendy Muller, head of Canada ad sales and operations for Google.

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Mobile users can set it up to automatically display information including stock quotes, news headlines, GMail, local weather, and selected RSS feeds.


Monday, January 16, 2006: Google has launched a personalised homepage for mobile users, which gives them the opportunity to view on one screen, the information they often access through their Google homepage. For example, it would help business travellers to stay up-to-date on stock quotes, while people who favour news can get the latest headlines.

The mobile homepage also provides at-a-glance access to Google Web mail, local weather and handpicked RSS feeds. The content is optimised for the smaller screens and low bandwidth associated with mobile devices.

People, already using Google's personalised homepage for the PC, can visit the Google site through the Web browser in their mobile phone, select the `personalised home' link, and sign in with their Google username and password. People without a Google homepage will have to set one up through their PC.

Google Inc. leads in online search, but its Web browser toolbar fell to second place in November to Yahoo Inc.'s plug in, a research firm said Friday. Yahoo sites received 48.5 percent of toolbar searches, edging out Google's 46.4 percent, ComScore Networks said. Toolbars are offered free by portals and search engines as a way to lure consumers directly to their sites, without having to type a URL in the browser.

While Yahoo's win is worth noting, toolbars only account for 12 percent of all searches, ComScore said. Google in November remained the market leader in the United States, accounting for 38.9 percent of all searches. Yahoo was second with 29.5 percent, followed by Microsoft's MSN, 14.2 percent. Rounding out the top five were fourth-place Time Warner Network and Ask Jeeves.

Overall, Americans conducted 5.15 billion online searches in November, up 9 percent from the same period in 2004.

Google is to start selling video online, offering a way for people to search for and buy TV shows and more through its site.

The web giant's co-founder Larry Page announced the service at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. US network CBS is making shows like CSI and Star Trek available to buy online. Google is the latest company to explore the idea of selling video on the net following Apple, who led the way with its iTunes online store.

Pay to view

Competition in the burgeoning online video arena is shaping up to be fierce. Others like Microsoft and Yahoo are also getting involved in offering video via the web. Much of the talk at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is about gadgets of all shapes and sizes that can connect via the net to download video. Google has been offering video for free over the internet for about a year. But this is the first time it will enable its users to pay for premium content. "It lets anyone sell video," said Mr Page announcing the Google Video Store. "The content producers can decide what to charge." Some 3,000 items will be available to rent or download and watch in Google's new desktop video player.


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GOOGLE IS apparently working on plans to release its own cut price PC to connect to the world wide wibble. According to the LA Times, Google has been chatting to Wal-Mart and other retailers, to peddle a Google PC.

Apparently the machine will not run Windows, but will have its own operating system created by Google and will retail for a couple of hundred dollars.

Larry Page, Google's co-founder and president of products, will give a keynote address Friday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and there is a prediction that he will show off some sort of Google device.