Congratulation are in order for my colleagues over at the event programming team at Search Engine Strategies )SES( and Search Engine Watch who've been promoted. They are part of the team that works to develop the global SES Conference and Expo series, Webcasts , and training initiatives . And, they work with search marketing experts to ensure the events offer the highest quality learning opportunities. So here's the scoop - straight from Gary Lynch, managing director,

In case you were wondering what Google's stance is on whether or not its deal with Yahoo is bad for competition, it's official! It's all good. Following his comments on ad pricing concerns related to the Yahoo/Google search ad pair up, Google President, Advertising and Commerce, North America Tim Armstrong responded to questions regarding competition today. Armstrong also managed to jab arch nemesis, Microsoft, noting,

Mitch Oscar , who knows more about iTV than practically anyone else, recently moved from Carat to MPG. He took his Collaborative Alliance with him. Once a conference-room size event, today's powwow of media executives, analysts and technology providers from both sides of the analog/digital divide spilled into the street outside NYC's Helen Mills Threatre. They gathered to share learnings,

"It's a little bit scary [from a traditional publishing perspective] to see one advertiser paying for the whole endeavor." -Josh Quittner, Editor-at-Large, Time Inc. "I'm over that." -Chris Anderson, Editor-in-Chief, Wired magazine. The two conversed for an hour at OMMA today, touching on new ad models, Google Chrome and social news sites like Digg.

Since launching six months ago, Hulu CEO Jason Kilar said the online video site has picked up 90 advertisers. The site, a joint venture between NBC Universal and Fox Corp., has also partnered with 90 content providers. "Content partners are seeing a dramatic lift to overall online business. Fox has seen overall online business more than triple since March 12," Kilar said while speaking at the OMMA conference today in New York City.

Sony just released Life with PlayStation worldwide to owners of the PlayStation 3. This is a new lifestyle service that offers a visual and interactive way to access information from around the globe. The first installation will be Live Channel, which will have a place and time world map with cloud imagery, which is provided in participation with the University of Wisconsin-Madison Space Science and Engineering Center.

As one Wall Street behemouth after another topples like so many houses of cards, consumer confidence in large financial institutions is shaken - if not utterly shattered. And today, a 404 error page from SmithBarney.com. Servers that go down or overload are never a good thing, but the brand message subtext in this 404, this week, is jarring indeed.

It seems the Queen's interest in the digital world has evolved since admitting, as she awarded Bill Gates with an honorary Knighthood in 2005, that she didn't own a computer. Following the success of a dedicated RoyalChannel on YouTube, Her royal highness Queen Elizabeth II will pay a visit to Google's London headquarters on October 16 to tour the offices and meet staff, with husband the Duke of Edinburgh in tow. The YouTube channel itself has racked up over 22,

No one expected Microsoft to tackle Apple's Mac/PC ads directly in the next wave of the new Windows campaign created by its Crispin Porter & Bogusky. But that's just what it's done . Not only that, it dug up a John Hodgman look-alike from the ranks of Microsoft engineers to try and undercut Apple's biting portrayal of the company's stodgy image. "Hello, I'm a PC, and I've been made into a stereotype," he says. Other ads feature Eva Longoria and Deepak Chopra, among others,

The Interactive Advertising Bureau yesterday put out a press release commending Congress for passing the Identity Theft Enforcement and Restitution Act, which provides for enforcement for nabbing and prosecuting cyber criminals and spyware purveyors. In other news, The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association has praised the removal of lead from interior paint. Am I missing something here? Don't get me wrong,

Really, Ask.com? I'm trying to get some decent seats for the Neil Young show at the Garden in December and here I am, minding my own business on the Garden's site, when all of a sudden the seating chart page starts giving me a lap dance. OK, not quite, but it does automate a video ad for Ask.com featuring a chick in next-to-nothing gyrating on a pole. "What are the Best Aerobic Workouts?" The ad inquires. "Need Answers? Ask.com." Hey, if I were getting my daily fix of Maxim,

Facebook's redesign is not sitting pretty with more than one million - or about 1 percent - of its members. Several Faceboook Groups have been established to protest the social network's redesign. In the "Petition Against the "New Facebook" group with 1.35 million members, there's a list outlining 10 things wrong with the "new" Facebook results. In the ultimate insult, Scott Sanders wrote: "the new layout is starting to look more and more like MySpace." Another group called,

Best Buy has agreed to buy Napster, partly for the chance to sell tech products to its user base. The music retailer plans to cross-sell devices and other products to Napster's 700,000 subscribers. By doing so it expects to "capture recurring revenue by offering ongoing value over a mobile digital platform," it said in a statement. Interesting notion, but is it logical? From a marketing standpoint,

At Ogilvy's powwow for their IBM clients today, WSJ.com General Manager Daniel Bernard stopped by to show off a sneak peak at the eagerly-anticipated site redesign, slated to launch tomorrow. It's loaded with new features, including community functionalities that require users to log-in with their real names to network or comment on content. But what's most impressive is how WSJ.com has combined usability and interface with monetization. Beginning tomorrow,

If any more investment or research firms plan to lower their 2008 and 2009 forecasts for online ad spending, I don't want to know about it. Jeffries & Company today became the latest in a long string of firms to trim )albeit slightly( their expectations of the online ad market. Jeffries now declares the channel will grow to $50 billion )20 percent( in 2008, down from its earlier prediction of $52 billion )25 percent(.

What sort of ad selling plans does Amazon have up its sleeve? There must be some, since the ecommerce king has hired longtime Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions GM Lisa Utzschneider. Amazon wouldn't confirm the news, which was reported by the New York Post. Amazon has yet to make any big splash in the online ad industry. This certainly signals interest in building out that side of the business. So far, big players like Google, Yahoo, Microsoft,

How do you engage a group of more than 200 public relations professionals? Bring in George Wright, marketing manager of Blendtec, a company known for viral videos on its site, WillItBlend.com . Wright did not disappoint. With a garden rake and Blendtec blender as his props, Wright spoke at the Public Relations Society of America's T3 PR , a conference for PR professionals representing tech companies. Wright has been on the speaking circuit,

Time Warner's AOL has spent much of the past year revamping its advertising operation, consolidating it under the Platform A brand, and restructuring staff at the unit. But the firm's ad business is suffering, according to Time Warner CFO John Martin. Speaking at an industry event yesterday, he said ad contract cancellations and sluggish third-party network revenue )read: Advertising.com, and other AOL-owned networks like Tacoda and Quigo( are to blame.

Seth McFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy has made its official debut, and the sponsor placements for Burger King are a good sight better than we've all been trained to expect from video. The reason: McFarlane's team created them, so they feel homegrown' part of the entertainment package: Now has anyone seen these in the wild? As you'll recall, Google and McFarlane struck a deal to distribute the content in ad space on the AdSense network.

Position matters in paid search, according to Google. The search engine released findings of custom research performed by Millward Brown on its behalf. And Sprint was the guinea pig in this project. The goal was to determine the value of an impression beyond the click, measure the impact of paid search ads, and find out how much search placement matters. Brand recall was greater in the top-sponsored position, and was reduced in lower positions, the study found.