Getting Granular: The DigitalGrit Blog

Google, Yahoo, MSN - Like Any MEDIA COMPANY - Can Block Ads

According to Forbes.com, a judge ruled on Monday that Google and its competitors have the same right as any media company to block ads they feel are inappropriate or offensive to customers or partners.

U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Farnan dismissed a suit filed last May in Delaware by would-be advertiser Christopher Langdon, who claimed Google, Yahoo! (nasdaq: YHOO - news - people ) and Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) infringed upon his rights to free speech by refusing to publish his ads. The ads in question promoted Langdon's Web sites, which criticize some North Carolina politicians and the Chinese government.

"Search engines have a First Amendment right to reject ads as part of their protected right to speak or not," Farnan wrote.

The legal opinion will help search engines in future litigation, wrote Eric Goldman, director of Santa Clara University School of Law's High Tech Law Institute. "It's an emphatic and helpful win for the search engines."

The ruling allows the search engine to refuse an advertiser for any reason -- without the need to site any specific rule or regulation they might be violating. 

Ning: Started a Group on Web Marketing. Join!!

So I checked out Ning -- and started a group on Web marketing. You should join. It's called Marketing Super Geniuses. (I had to think of something quick, OK??)

Ning - Create Your Own Social Network

Mark Andreesen of Netscape fame launched Ning today, a new site that allows you to create social networks. So if you're really 'over' MySpace and Facebook, here's your newest toy.

From Reuters (via Yahoo! News):

Ning, the latest startup of Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen, is looking to get a jump ahead of MySpace and Facebook by giving consumers free tools to create and operate specialized online social networks of their own...

Sites like MySpace offer Web users individual profile pages they can use to connect to friends, but typically keep control of the underlying network, including advertising sales.

By contrast, users within each Ning network can select the latest Web features for watching videos online, creating a photo slideshow, listening to music or publishing a blog. Members have far greater flexibility over the look of their personal profile pages, buddy lists and site color schemes.

"Other social network sites ask you to join their world. We are about people creating their own worlds," said Ning Chief Executive Gina Bianchini, who co-founded Ning with Andreessen.

Can't wait to try it!

301 Redirects - From SE Watch/SE Roundtable

There are a few people on the DG team who can relate to this "headache" -- What happens when your client has changed URLs?  How long will it take for the Google PageRank to pass on? Search Engine Watch addresses this (via SE Roundtable):

(From the original post at Search Engine Rountable...)

In a Google Groups thread Adam says:

301s pass PR and related signals appropriately. Usually takes a couple of weeks for things to smooth out, though.

I was a bit shocked by the statement of just "a couple of weeks" for 301s to "pass PR and related signals appropriately." I always thought it was a couple months or more.

SEW points out that Google may index the page within a few weeks, but that it take MUCH longer to recoup the PageRank. Link building like a rockstar seems to be the best method for speeding things along. SEW also points to the common "trick" of using a 302 error instead of a 301: "This causes Google to keep the listing of the previous page within its index, and often in the same position within the rankings."

Ultimately, post author Chris Boggs recommends riding out the 301 -- on the off-season, business-permitting. His best advice is to understand that this is a laborious process, and to plan for it in advance by using paid search and other marketing channels.

Gore, MSN Team Up for Live Earth

From the official site:

AL GORE, KEVIN WALL, PHARRELL, CAMERON DIAZ LAUNCH UNPRECEDENTED CAMPAIGN, CONCERT TO COMBAT CLIMATE CRISIS "Live Earth" Concerts in All 7 Continents to Reach Global Audience of Over 2 Billion

 

Los Angeles, CA - Detailing a historic effort to engage billions of people across the globe, Kevin Wall, Al Gore, Pharrell Williams, Cameron Diaz, and the MSN Network today launched Save Our Selves (SOS) - The Campaign for a Climate in Crisis. The announcement was made at the California Science Center.

SOS is designed to trigger a global movement to combat our climate crisis. It will reach people in every corner of the planet through television, film, radio, the Internet and Live Earth, a 24-hour concert on 7/7/07 across all 7 continents that will bring together more than 100 of the world's top musical acts. Live Earth alone will engage an audience of more than 2 billion people through concert attendance and broadcasts. MSN has partnered with SOS to use its reach to make the Live Earth concerts available across the globe. The Live Earth audience, and the proceeds from the concerts, will create the foundation for a new, multi-year global effort to combat the climate crisis led by The Alliance for Climate Protection and its Chair, Vice President Al Gore. SOS was founded by Kevin Wall, who won an Emmy as Worldwide Executive Producer of Live 8.

...and suddenly, MSN is a little cooler than Google or Yahoo. (One uncool, annoying thing: You need a Passport to sign up for email alerts. Shouldn't an email address be enough? Sheesh!)

Anyone know how I can score a ticket?

One *MILLION* Jobs

We have about a million job openings right now. I'm not even exaggerating. (Much.) Account Managers, Developers, Project Mangers, Copywriters, Creative Directors...all kinds of positions available!

And we're a pretty crediblie organization, too. We're a Best Place to Work (NJ and US) and a Deloitte Technology Fast 50 company, and now we've won the Forbes Enterprise Award...We're members of SEMPO, The DMA, The IAB....We've spoken at ad:tech, The DMA Annual, The Search Insider Summit, OMMA East...

I mean, I could go on...but you're probably already putting your resume together, right? If you're talented, smart and would generally consider yourself a cool person, get that res over to us pronto.

We won a Forbes Award!

Every Monday needs a little good news, right?

DigitalGrit has won a Forbes Enterprise Award. How cool are we?

That's DigitalGrit SVP Scott Delea and co-founder Dan Lynn with our spiffy new award, which is, evidently, the heaviest we've won to date. Sweeeet.

UPDATE - note the new, not-taken-with-a-cellphone picture. Scott's tie doesn't look quite so irridescent now.