Search ad revenues still climbs, no sign of slowing down

With the latest financial problems at Wall Street and the credit crunch, one would really think the online advertising industry would start slowing down. However, this doesn't seem to be the case so far, but there is yet to come.
Here's a bit of what CNET said about it:

Despite an economic turndown, online advertising--and search in particular--is managing to keep its market intact, according to reports on Tuesday by an industry trade group and Wall Street analyst.

According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau, Internet advertising revenues rose 15.2 percent, to $11.5 billion during the first six months of the year, compared with the same period last year. And search advertising grabbed a larger piece of the share, accounting for 44 percent of the market--up 3 percentage points.

Search advertising generated nearly $5.1 billion during the first half of the year, up 24 percent from a year ago. Display advertising, meanwhile, also grew at a double-digit pace of 19 percent to $3.8 billion over the course of the first half of the year.

(Credit: Interactive Advertising Bureau)

But what about the third quarter and the market meltdown during the early days of the fourth quarter?

Two players in online advertising say conditions are remaining stable, according to a Tuesday report by JPMorgan analyst Imran Khan.

Search engine marketing (SEM) companies such as Didit and Reprise Media report that third-quarter search budgets were up, mainly due to a shift from more traditional marketing to search advertising.

Well, obviously the search advertising industry isn't going anywhere anytime soon. However, things could still change according to the way the economy is going right now. It's pretty foolish to think that the credit crunch will have no effect on the online advertising industry, because it will affect a lot of new companies, and even bigger companies, because they have to start going into the bunker mode, and one of the first places that they can start cutting is advertising.

True, there seems to be evidence that advertising is still yet climbing, but this could be due to the changes in search advertising itself, now including more industries, so as to gain revenue from a bigger source.

Tags: Internet Marketing, Marketing, Advertising, online ads, search engines, search ads

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Piracy becoming legal? MPAA vs. RealDVD, MPAA sues back!

Hollywood has taken serious action on the part of movie makers against RealNetworks' RealDVD. The Motion Picture Association of America has decided to take RealNetworks' RealDVD software to the federal courts.

The MPAA wants a restraining order from the federal courts in order to stop the RealDVD softwware program from being sold. Why? It is because the RealDVD software from RealNetworks allows users to copy DVDs and store them on their computer hard drives.

When RealDVD was first released, the company claimed that it was completely legal and in no way violated Copyright laws, because of several things.
They were the first to start the fight, and decided to file a suit against all the major movie making studios and the DVD Copy Control Association. According to Real's press release, the lawsuit "asks the court to rule that RealNetworks Home Entertainment Inc.'s RealDVD software...fully complies with the DVD Copy Control Association's license agreement."

They are sitting on the fact that their software doesn't actually break any encrytion in the process of copying the DVD, and even adds an extra layer of digital rights management.

The MPAA filed a suit in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, claiming that "RealNetworks' RealDVD violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act because its software illegally bypasses the copyright protection built into DVDs." They also ask for monetary damages and this is what they say about RealNetworks's RealDVD.

"RealNetworks' RealDVD should be called StealDVD," Greg Goeckner, executive vice president and general counsel for the MPAA, said in a statement. "RealNetworks knows its product violates the law and undermines the hard-won trust that has been growing between America's movie makers and the technology community."

While RealNetworks says their case was preceded by Kaleidescape's 2007 courtroom victory over the DVD Copy Control Association, the MPAA claim the two cases have nothing to do with each other. They fear people will be able to rip/burn/copy DVDs and keep them after renting by means of RealDVD. Thus, piracy will become far widespread and helped greatly by RealDVD. However, RealDVD doesn't believe this is the case.

"We are disappointed that the movie industry is following in the footsteps of the music industry and trying to shut down advances in technology rather than embracing changes that provide consumers with more value and flexibility for their purchases," RealNetworks said in a statement.

Will RealDVD win over the MPAA? Obviously, this is going to bring up a lot of questions about these kinds of software and exactly how far you can take "backups" and such. The questions relating to piracy are popping up everywhere, and it's not going to go away anytime soon. If RealNetworks' security methods are effective in stopping pirates, then maybe it would be okay for their RealDVD software to continue selling. However, it doesn't sound very effective at protecting DVDs from being illegally copied at all. I mean, how can you protect the DVD properly without having a guideline for the proper use of the stored copy? What kind of DRM could possibly justify the copying of a DVD? The only thing I could think of, is if the DVD had to be put in everytime, but then that makes the act of putting it on your computer useless. However, RealDVD allows up to 5 PCs to be able to play DVDs without the disc when authorized. Is this really giving protection, or just making piracy easier? It sounds pretty easy for somebody to illegally copy a rented DVD to their computer.

Tags: DVD, RealDVD, RealNetworks, MPAA, Movies, Rip DVDs, Copyright Management, BlitzTech Blog

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3 reasons why Wall Street problems will affect all including tech

Today: $700 billion bailout plan fails in the House of Representatives.
So many problems have come to attack the U.S. economy, and the government has failed to act to help Wall Street. However, Wall Street isn't the end of problems, because their problems and the credit crunch is going to seriously affect a lot of industries around.

It's something we really need to think about here, because much of the U.S. economy is based on credit, and with these massive problems plaguing Wall Street, obviously, that part of the economy will be affected.

Why and how will Wall Street problems affect other industries, and the technology sector?

1) The power of Wall street to drag everything else into their mess is enormous, because this is where much of the U.S. "credit" is. Banks are having a hard time getting money, and it's going to take down new companies, and companies that rely on loans for their business. They will be destroyed completely, and there's not much they can do about it either. Even large companies that rely on loans will suffer hugely.

2) Wall Street problems is causing a major shift in public perception of the markets everywhere. They are lowering investor confidence, and causing stocks to plummet. Not all companies have a massive amount of money just lying around to plow past this time of economic downturn. If investors lose their confidence, then many companies will see their chances of survival dwindle, or at least force them to stay dormant with little progress during this time.

3) Normal Americans will also suffer from this, if not remedied soon. We're talking major decreases in consumer confidence and consumer buying because of reason number 1. How much of American people use credit every single day to purchase items, or products or services? Almost all. How many rely on credit to help them with their everyday needs? You can probably answer that easily. The truth is, people need credit and they need to use it for spending! If people don't have the money to spend, we're just going to see a continued and drastic lowering of consumer buying trends. Think of what this does to companies! Companies need consumer business to survive. Regardless of what sector, they need consumers somewhere up or down the line.

How does Wall Street affect the tech sector? Just take a look at tech stocks and you'll see what's happening. Obviously tech isn't immune. It's just another sector where people are losing their confidence.
In the online advertising world, there may be serious problems with filling ad inventory, as less companies will be willing to spend a lot of money on advertising. It's not just the inventory either, as it is quite possible companies will be willing to pay less for displaying ads. They will all shift to the saving mode instead of expansion. Digg seems to have disregarded this altogether, but the fact remains, online advertising is far from immune.

The government really has to take action RIGHT NOW! It's really unfortunate that the bailout plan failed, and even Microsoft has asked Congress to re-vote on the matter. Something needs to be done if we want to avoid a cash freeze and other economic problems. This is just too important to be left alone.

Tags: Wall Street, advertising, government, economy, banks, credit, Microsoft, Internet, Tech, industry, companies, confidence, BlitzTech Blog

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