Internet

More Transparency Than Microsoft Bargained For

"While reporting a story on Microsoft's video blogging initiative -- something called Channel 9 -- the dossier that Microsoft and its outside public relations agency Waggener Edstrom keeps on me accidentally ended up in my email inbox," recounts Fred Vogelstein.

The Promised Land Goes Online

"Israel's official MySpace page was launched in January under the direction of officials from the Foreign Ministry," reports Gregory Levey.

Don't Worry Your Pretty Heads, Says Cosmetics Industry

In response to growing concerns about the safety of some cosmetics, the industry group Cosmetic, Toiletry, and Fragrance Association (CTFA) "has embarked on what it calls an 'education process' designed to reassure consumers." As the Center for Media and Democracy reported

MoveOn Moves In With Pelosi

Farhad Manjoo of Salon.com examines MoveOn's new role as power-broker for the Democratic Party. "MoveOn, which began with an e-mail petition opposing President Clinton's impeachment in 1998, has grown into one of the biggest and best-known netroots groups on the left. ...

Hello, Teens? Marketing Firms Are Calling

Retailers "eager to connect with teen and twentysomething shoppers" are increasingly marketing to them through their cell phones, reports USA Today. New marketing approaches include "coupons that go to shoppers' cellphones." The marketing firm Access 360 Media "saw redemption rates of about 40%" with cell-delivered coupons, as opposed to "less than 2% for many print or online coupon campaigns." Then there's GPShopper, "an Internet-style search engine that lets shoppers search a chain's entire inventory," with Best Buy, Toys R Us and Sports Authority among the chains using the service.

News Media Aiming Low, Warns Report

"We sense the news business entering a new phase heading into 2007 -- a phase of more limited ambition," the Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) writes in the overview to its "State of the News Media 2007" report. News organizations are "starting to redefine their appeal and their purpose based on diminished capacity.

Latest Version of Pay for Play: Bucks for Blogs

Beware the blog that gushes about a product, movie, or anything you might consider purchasing. There's a chance that the blogger is on the payroll of "new marketing middlemen such as PayPerPost Inc. that connect advertisers with mom-and-pop webmasters." PayPerPost alone pays 15,500 bloggers for inserting their clients into blog postings.

David Outsmarts Mining Goliath


A satirical ad the New South Wales Mining Council wants banned from the web

By invoking Australian copyright law, the New South Wales Minerals Council (NSWMC) twice succeeded in shutting down a website that sat

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