The Webby Awards , which honors excellence on the Internet, insists winners adhere to one simple rule when making an acceptance speech: Keep it to five words. That's an ingredient for keeping things interesting at the event, which took place Tuesday night at Cipriani Wall Street in lower Manhattan. Take TBWA\Media Arts Lab, which won in the online commercial for category " Don't Give Up on Vista ," referring to Microsoft's operating system. "In Steve Jobs we trust,

For some time, people have ceased saying "it's the year of mobile." Instead, they offer up explanations as to why it isn't the year of mobile. Enough is enough. This has been going on long enough, folks. It's no longer necessary to explain away. Why? There probably won't ever be a year of mobile, and it's OK. Mobile will emerge as an advertising channel as every other channel before it. "I think mobile has had a very healthy last 12 to 18 months," said Paul Palmieri,

At the Mobile Marketing Forum in New York, a panel was asked to describe what will be different one year from today. Here's what they had to say: -Richard Ting, executive creative director, R/GA: "There will be different things in the marketplace, platforms out there encouraging developers to develop applications on the handset. [such as] GPS applications. -Jeff Sellinger, EVP, mobile at CBS: It's proliferation of the mobile Web, he said. "The low-cost iPhone,

When Google announced its acceptance of third party ad tags )finally( last month, there was a gaping hole where one of the largest ad management platforms should have been. Atlas, owned by Microsoft's aQuantive, was missing from the lineup of firms whose tags were listed, including DoubleClick )duh(, Valueclick's Mediaplex, Eyeblaster, Dynamic Logic and others. Of course, jumping to conclusions on this one was the reaction many, including the folks here at ClickZ had.

Hulu already has deals with 70 media partners that provide upwards of 700 TV and film titles. So what's it stand to gain by adding a couple new shows to its media menu? Quite a bit actually, if those shows happen to be The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report. The premium video portal has begun posting entire episodes of both programs, with archives going back about a month. Here's a screen grab of how yesterday's episode of The Daily Show looks on Hulu,

Monster will lay off an undisclosed number of staffers as it moves to shut down Tickle, the quiz aggregator and social net it acquired in 2004 for about $90 million. By way of explanation it said it wants to focus on core strengths, of which Tickle's focus on social networking was apparently not one. The recruiting giant has also begun to decommission Tickle's subsidiary brands Love Happens, a dating site, and Ringo, a photo and video sharing service.

Our friends over at Media Trust Company spotted a new Obama campaign ad creative on the Web, and it's all about unity. "Let us unite in common effort to achieve our greatest hopes and highest aspirations," declares the display ad. The call to action is the same as always for Obama's online ads: "Join Us." Media Trust saw the ads on sites including Parenting.com, MSN.com, NYTimes.com, Politico.com, and Kentucky.com.

"We really don't want to enter markets unless we can be dominant." That's what Glam Media CEO and Chairman Samir Arora said during this week's EconAds conference here in New York. It seemed pretty bold, and I thought about it when I read this morning about how Glam is partnering with Global Grind, a social network for hip-hop fans.

Microsoft has teamed with Ford for a highly experiential, super soft-sell microsite around Microsoft SYNC . SYNC is a voice-actived gizmo for your car that's kind of like an iPod crossed with a Blackberry: it does music, text, and telephone. Cool, but it's a sell with a high educational curve. Sync My Music , which lives on MSN, features a game, tons of content and a number of video webisodes about Kim and Seana, two music-obsessed girls,

Facebook is soliciting user feedback on the quality and relevance of its ads. KnowledgeBid founder Rob Webb spotted a new thumbs up/thumbs down icon , posted below, similar to what it's used to let people rate notifications. The feedback mechanism is fairly detailed, allowing a person to critique the ad for accuracy, relevance, offensiveness, and so on. ClickZ hasn't yet been able to spot the feature in the wild. Based on the screen grab however,

The race for the presidency is so fascinating this election season, even the folks up north in Canada want to know more about it. I had the pleasure of discussing online political advertising by the presidential hopefuls Tuesday night on Canada's Business News Network )live via satellite from CNN's studios in New York(. The discussion centered on Barack Obama's online ad spending , much of which ended up going to Google paid search )and some display,

Google is being sued for what seems to be the same thing companies like AzoogleAds )now Epic( and World Avenue were investigated for by Florida's Attorney General 's Office. Those ad firms agreed to pay $1 million each for allegedly duping consumers into signing up for supposedly "free" mobile content services and other gifts that actually cost them. Those firms served the lead-gen driven ads or bought ads on sites like Google promoting the offers.

BermanBraun, the studio launched by former Yahoo entertainment chief Lloyd Braun and film industry vet Gail Berman, has entered a deal with Microsoft to create an MSN-branded celebrity gossip and entertainment site. Kara Swisher first reported the launch yesterday , along with the tidbit that BermanBraun will also produce a daily "Lunacy Report" roundup up weird news appearing on Yahoo. Sounds very similar to Yahoo's recently-folded "the 9,

In the latest volley, Yahoo investor Carl Icahn is calling for the ouster of Yahoo's chief executive Jerry Yang, according to wsj.com. The report comes a day after a Delaware judge unsealed a class action lawsuit against Yahoo's board and Yang. The suit alleges Yahoo's board set up "roadblocks" to Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Yahoo.

Like it has done much of the primary season , Barack Obama's campaign is running display ads targeted to voters in South Dakota today. In the past, similar ads have urged people to vote early or make sure they're registered to vote. The ads suggest they confirm their polling place. )Oh, and let's not forget they tell viewers to "Vote for Barack Obama."( The Media Trust has spotted these on South Dakota news sites AberdeenNews.com, ArgusLeader.com, KSFY.com,

"I asked a lady next to me in Wal-Mart if she Twittered or Plurked. She almost killed me. Security told me not to come back. Luddites." -Dave Evans, co-founder of Digital Voodoo and ClickZ columnist, on Twitter.

At the Interactive Advertising Bureau's forum on social media, speakers tossed out examples of good social network applications. One example: a Fedex virtual gift where someone can build a package, seal it, "fling" it to a friend, who can then open it. But finding a social application for some brands, especially consumer-packaged good companies, is tougher. Take Swiffer, a sweeper. "Swisher'Swiffer. I wouldn't put that on my [Facebook] profile," said Tim Kendall,

The best moment of the Future is Now panel at the IAB's UGC and Social Media conference had more to do with the past than the future. Deep Focus CEO Ian Schafer noted television isn't purchased the same way today that it was a year ago. "All media is emerging in one form or another... It's all up for grabs." Organic's Chad Stoller chimed in: "Look at outdoor. For years you'd buy billboards with one constant impression. Now you can have 30 [creatives] up in an hour.

"Our success story today is a success story about users and traffic. It's not a success story about monetization. That's coming... With a site as large as ours is we have the opportunity to give you cuts of every segment you might be looking for." Brian Cusack, YouTube sales manager, speaking at IAB's UGC and Social Media conference.

Run-of-network ads on social communities fetch a measly 5 cents per CPM, while those associated with a social application command 70 to 80 cents, says Seth Goldstein, chief executive of SocialMedia . "We have to march beyond $1 CPM and move to $2 to $3 to $4," he said, speaking today at the Interactive Advertising Bureau's forum on user-generated content and social media. Keep in mind that Goldstein has a vested interest in the success of social media applications. After all,