Massive Ad Network Consolidation Is Occurring

The big boys are on a buying spree!

Microsoft just announced they are paying $6 billion for aQuantive, the parent company of Avenue A | Razorfish. The acquisition comes after recent big acquisitions by Google and Yahoo in this space. Google bought Doubleclick for $3.1 billion in April. Later that same month, Yahoo acquired competitor RightMedia for $680 million. Just yesterday, WPP Group acquired yet another company in this space, 24/7 Real Media, for $649 million.

New Google Analytics Interface

Well, I tried taking a look at the new Google reporting options, but all I got was this:



I will try again later, I think Google is having a few roll out hiccups

Microsoft Says Your Phone is Your Next PC

I just read an interesting article on physorg.com that talks about Microsoft's research on developing the cell phone to be the next 'PC' platform - a project they are calling 'Fone+'
I agree with this approach. People don't want to carry all kinds of devices with them, the cell phone is going to evolve into the 'communicator'
http://www.physorg.com/news98525702.html

New Study from Pew Internet Project

Pew has just released an interesting study as a PDF that groups internet users into three categories
1. Elite Tech Users
2. Middle-of-the-road Tech Users
3. Few Tech Assets



Their study shows 51% of Americans utilizing some sort of internet technology (the first two groups above) and 49% with little or no usage. From studying the demographic data it looks like the largest divide was for older users, but lower income also played a large factor

Google Announces New Version of Google Analytics

The Google Analytics Blog announced they are starting to roll out a new version of Google Analytics. A few of the new features include:

• Email and export reports: Schedule or send ad-hoc personalized report emails and export reports in PDF format.
• Custom Dashboard: No more digging through reports. Put all the information you need on a custom dashboard that you can email to others.
• Trend and Over-time Graph: Compare time periods and select date ranges without losing sight of long term trends.

You can view a demo of the new service here.

Over the next several weeks, Google will be migrating all existing Analytics accounts to the new Google Analytics interface.