"Isn't advertising on the most pre-viral videos on YouTube )and using that as your inventory pool( sucking all of the demographic and contextual targeting out of it? It just feels to me like such a blatant attempt to lure advertisers into the 'flavor of the minute', while setting the effort up for failure in terms of ad performance. Here's the question I'm left asking: Is this going to be an effort that can command and justify higher CPMs?

A group of top tech entrepreneurs paneled in New York tonight. Talk was lively, if not deep, given the audience of INSEAD alums hailed mainly from the relatively distant shores of Wall Street. Discussion encompassed online media and marketing. Some highlights: Start-up vet Kevin Ryan was anything but bullish on mobile. "Not one single company in mobile is valued at $1 billion. The carriers are blocking all the innovation.

The Federal Trade Commission amended four CAN-SPAM Act provisions. The new rules stipulate that companies don't charge users to opt-out of receiving e-mails. They also alter the definition of the term "person," according to the FTC press release , "to clarify that CAN-SPAM's obligations are not limited to natural persons." The term "sender" was also redefined in an effort to clarify who's responsible for enabling opt-outs when multiple parties advertise in a single e-mail.

You've heard of induced labor. Now there are "induced visits!" At least that's what Epic Advertising, formerly Azoogle Ads, claims it can measure with its new Performance CPM metric. According to the company, an "induced" site visit is one resulting "in any way from an ad," even if there's no direct click-through. The metric also considers CPC, CPM and CPA tracking and brand impact. Being a performance marketing firm,

It's official: Richard Kosinski, former VP of political advertising for Yahoo, is moving to Westwood One. As SVP, Chief Digital Officer, Kosinski will head up Westwood's digital products such as news, sports and talk as well as all digital product and business development. While the Westwood name is synonymous with radio, the company is branching out to all platforms. As I reported in April, Kosinski is replaced by Yahoo vet Diane Rinaldo,

"I think the ad business has slowed down because we slowed it down. We took a lot of ads down... I think there is bigger opportunity putting the ads on a wider band of sites. Suppose I create a Military.com [a Monster site in the U.S.] for France, for the U.K., for the Netherlands, Germany, etc. Not only is it growth in my recruiting businesses, but that's where I can get a lot of growth for my advertising business." -Monster.com Chief Sal Iannuzzi,

Suddenly all the social networking majors are racing to see who can break down their own walls the fastest - and in the case of Google, to make the switch from sheet rock to plumbing, if you'll forgive an overstretched metaphor. Shortly after News Corp. announced its data portability initiative last week , Facebook chimed in with its own proposal to give users control over their identities. Called Facebook Connect,

A range of ads promoting credit and loan facilities on Facebook are in fact illegal, according to U.K. debt charity Credit Action. The charity has said that a number of companies advertising on the social networking site are not providing information on their products that is required to satisfy U.K. advertising laws set out by the Office of Fair Trading )OFT(. An article on the credit action website reads, "If you've been on Facebook recently,

"Online Classifieds Have Grown Up," writes Brad Waller, VP, business and affiliate development of ePage, in response to my column that examines why more classified ad sites haven't incorporated more interactive features. The online classified site, he says, has been around since 1994 and that consumers are the ones who've resisted change. "We offered audio many years ago and it never took off. We have offered video for a few years and very few users have chosen to upload any,

On Bloomberg Radio this week, Google Search exec Marissa Mayer was asked how Google justifies blowing off the $200 million per year the company claims it could make from text ads on its image search results. "Ads should match the results." She said if Google were to run ads in Image Search, they would likely be image ads. She also said attention would be paid to the relevance, user experience, and types of interaction with image search. Based on those remarks,

Post written by Fred Aun. AdMission, a developer of dynamic display ads for small and local advertisers, has sold "certain assets" to The Cobalt Group. The companies did not confirm a report that the assets in question are its Spotlight Ads division, and would only say the deal was needed to keep up with the times. "Online advertising is an extremely exciting and rapidly evolving market and display advertising is the fastest growing segment of the category,

You may have seen an announcement from EyeWonder out on the wires earlier this week. When we here in the newsroom at ClickZ saw it, our response was a universal "huh?" It said EyeWonder has "unveiled a new category for the advertising industry, 'Interactive Digital Advertising.' The new category was created to address the challenges today's leading interactive agencies face in clearly defining and communicating rich media." Interactive Digital Advertising? Yeah,

The Interactive Advertising Bureau today released guidelines that would update the definition of rich media as well as revise guidelines for other ad formats . The IAB has asked for comment within the next 30 days before locking down them down. When asked about the highlights, Marla Nitke, IAB spokeswoman, pointed to the three bullet points in the IAB news release. The highlights are: *Redefine rich media.

One of the more storied vendors in the digital marketing arena, Enliven, has agreed to merge with DG FastChannel, an ad production and creative asset management firm. The combined entity hopes to offer advertisers a single place to create and manage ad assets, especially video. Enliven offers rich media, mobile and in-game ad products and services.

A Google search for "Myanmar," devastated by a cyclone, shows that nonprofits are turning to paid search to help raise funds to assist victims.

Talk about forethought - or in this case, is it afterthought? Nola.com , the online presence of New Orleans' Times-Picayune, has - as the very first paragraph of its online media kit - the following call-to-action: ATTENTION Current NOLA.com Advertisers ONLY. Hurricane Advertising Information. Please fill out instructions for your campaign in case of emergency/evacuation. CLICK HERE. The form on the landing page requests complete contact information,

Aegis Group has acquired Brazilian communications agency Age, which offers trade and sports marketing, online planning and buying, and offline creative services. Having already acquired Brazil's largest independent digital agency AgenciaClick in 2007, Aegis plans for the two to "work closely together, sharing resources and creating a fully integrated marketing offer in Brazil," according to a press release.

Today, ComScore released its March data on European search engine market share. Unsurprisingly Google sites came out on top, commanding 79 percent of searches across the continent. Yahoo and Microsoft came in fourth and fifth place, each with about 2 percent of search market share, respectively. Worth noting however, is the increasing share for engines in the Eastern European markets, which are dominated by non-English language search technology. Two Polish properties,

"The most effective agencies must live squarely at the intersection of marketing and technology. They should be sprinting to that intersection. Not just digital agencies, but all agencies. As all media becomes digital, any agency that doesn't view itself as a technology company should commence reflecting fondly on the good ol' days. The road ahead is likely to be significantly less fulfilling." -Jeff Lanctot, SVP of Avenue A | Razorfish Media, writing in his blog .

Google has signed onto a venture, led by Sprint, to develop and deliver high-speed wireless Internet access for mobile devices, according to a published report. Comcast, Time Warner, Intel, Clearwire, and others are set to announce they will invest $3.2 billion for the technology called WiMax, the WSJ.com reports . Google is said to be the preferred software developer on the network. Its search service would be the default on new mobile devices, the WSJ.com reports.