A few stories ClickZ's editors are reading: RockYou Raises $50 Million In Venture Capital )TechCrunch( Google Strikes YouTube Deal With Univision )Dow Jones Newswires( The Problem With AOL's Media Strategy )Business Insider( Does the Industry Need Big Digital Agencies Anymore?

Wow, has search marketing come a long way. I just did a Google search for "Flu preventions" and one of the top advertisers is the Florida Department of Citrus. "Fight those nasty cold and flu bugs by drinking Florida orange juice!" exclaims the ad, linking to FloridaJuice.com . Vacuum maker Oreck is also running ads against flu prevention searches, promising "Free Gifts & Free Shipping.

A few stories ClickZ's editors are reading: Millennial Media Gets $16M in New Funding Money will be used to fuel growth and international expansion. )Baltimore Sun( Is Marketing a Strategic Resource or a Procured Commodity? Interactive Advertising Bureau CEO Randy Rothenberg pens another screed on the importance of the big idea, among other things. )I, a Bee( In Detroit,

A poster seen on a NYC subway for Marble Collegiate Church.

Guitar Center is spicing up the worn-out genre of wish lists with an interactive tool that lets people say "gimme" with a bit of style and attitude. Visitors to the music retailer's Web site can use the Wish List Poster generator to create online rock posters in one of a number of styles, including indie, 60s, garage, new wave, rockabilly, punk, and metal. The application lets musicians drag guitars, amps,

Google has unveiled two incremental changes to DoubleClick for media planning and analytics. It's all part of Google's hope to attract more display ad dollars. The company described its new DFA Analytics tool as similar to Google Analytics. It will allow marketers to get regular campaign performance updates, in chart and graph form, and broken down by advertiser, campaigns, site, etc. Also, for media planning, trafficking and reporting,

A few stories ClickZ's editors are reading: Seafood Industry Fights NYT Story with AdWords Campaign )Nieman Journalism Lab( Wrigley Drops Tribal DDB, Digitas and Agency.com for Digital )AdAge( Murdoch could block Google searches entirely )Guardian( AOL Laying Off 100 Today )ValleyWag( Twitter Hit Sh*t My Dad Says Heads to TV )Hollywood Reporter( RIM Unveils Advertising,

Tagged has settled with two states over allegedly deceptive e-mail invitation practices, reported here in June . The company will pay a total of $750,000 in penalties and legal fees to New York and Texas, and has added new privacy and security controls to its invite-a-friend system. Over the summer New York Attorney General Andy Cuomo filed an intent to sue against Tagged,

Remember when the search engine wars were about search? These days, it's a given that Google won on that front, but that's not stopping Yahoo and Microsoft from trying to beat Google at another game: free Wi-Fi. But, as usual, Google's getting involved too. Yahoo is providing free Wi-Fi in New York's Times Square, complete with a landing page chock-full of links to Yahoo Local listings, Flickr photos, Yahoo News, and ads for Yahoo's new home page.

How invested is Google in the success of Droid, the most hyped device yet to be built using its Android operating system? So much so that it's willing to sully that holy of holies - its homepage - with an ad promoting the smartphone. The ad appears directly below the search field, as you can see in the screenshot above. It points to a landing page hosted by Google , which promotes the Droid's search and navigation capabilities.

A few stories ClickZ's editors are reading: BusinessWeek's Top Online Executive To Leave Magazine )Business Week( CNN Launches Sponsored News Trivia Quiz )WebProNews( YouTube Video Dealmaker Jordan Hoffner Leaves Company Hoffner brokered content agreements with Time Warner and Walt Disney. He'll be replaced by Chris Maxcy, who handled deals with record labels.

Amazon has introduced a feature on its Associates affiliate scheme which allows its members to tweet links with ease directly from its site. When browsing products, affiliates can now post links to Twitter by simply clicking a toolbar button at the top every page, similar to the way in which they might share an article via a "share this" button. Of course, the same result was already possible by entering an affiliate link into a url shortener and posting it to Twitter,

Though they're more prone to drinking beer and Jagermeister, a sneak preview of the return of the members of the world's most brutal metal band, Dethklok , has been brought to us by Coke Zero. In fact, the non-caloric soda brand is sponsoring a host of previews of upcoming shows on Cartoon Network's adult-aimed programming block Adult Swim. The main goal appears to be promoting the " Facial Profiler ," an application available at CocaColaZero.

Gawker Media has created a new site at Gawker.tv focused on TV and online video content. Posts published since its launch this afternoon: a montage of gratuitous product placements on television and the above video of a puppy that has fallen and can't get up. The new site marks something of a departure for Publisher Nick Denton, who has historically launched new sites under their own brands. He noted the smallest Gawker Media site now has 18 million page views,

A few items ClickZ editors are reading: Facebook Awarded $711 million Decision Against "Spam King" Wallace . Site is unlikely to collect more than a small fraction of damages against Sanford Wallace, who has phished and spammed his way to infamy. However, a probably criminal contempt suit could mean jail-time for Wallace. )Facebook blog( Microsoft Close to a Decision on Charging for Online Content Exec editor Bill Keller tells paper ombud a decision is "weeks away." )NYTimes.

If you think Obama's campaign changed everything and from now on political campaigns will never again question the value of using online ads to reach voters, build lists, or generate donations, think again. The campaign team behind New Jersey independent dark horse candidate for governor, Chris Daggett aren't spending on Web ads. Yet, as Daggett has gained momentum among disillusioned Jersey voters,

Yahoo filed an extension last night to its self-imposed deadline for signing the pending search deal with Microsoft. When the deal was announced on July 29, the companies expected to complete the deal by October 27, but that didn't happen. During its analyst day presentations yesterday, Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz told financial analysts not to worry about the move, insisting it was just a matter of "running out of time." "It's a 10-year agreement,

On this day in 1994, HotWired.com made Internet history by becoming the first online publisher to display a banner ad. The unit was 468 x 60 pixels and was purchased by either Volvo, MCI, Club Med, Zima, 1-800-Collect or AT&T, all of which reportedly bought ad space that fateful day. The AT&T version above asked/promised, "Have you ever clicked your mouse right here? You will." If the copywriter were given a do-over today, he or she might change the line to, "You will,

Sadly, most of us have grown accustomed to seeing some pretty nasty images in online ads. Flabby bellies, yellow teeth, domanatrix chickens. Well, I may have stumbled on the most bizarre, indeed grossest image yet. Today, while doing research on Facebook for a story )believe it or not, I actually do story research there(, I stumbled upon a woman shaving. Not her legs. Not her underarms. Not her...um... Her face ! OK, now unfortunately I've heard about some women doing this,

Gawker Scammed By Malware Crew Pretending To Be Suzuki Ad scam is similar to one put over on the New York Times recently. Take an extra few minutes to read the WHOLE thread and comments section. )Business Insider( Wall Street optimistic on ad outlook )Hollywood Reporter( TopTenReviews Buys Space.com Tech product review site now owns Space.com, LiveScience.com and Newsarama.com after deal with consumer media division of Imaginova Inc.