Contextual Video advertising - YuMe Launches video ad network

Sam, over at costpernews just blogged about ScanScout - a service that, unlike other video advertising networks out there, displayes contextual ads in videos. Apparently, clickable ads are displayed at the bottom of the video player on the basis of spoken keywords and tags .

As I was reading the costpernews post, The RSS reader popped up a story on GigaOM about the launch of another contextual video ad network - YuMe. Which is probably the only competition to ScanScout as of now.

Unlike ScanScout, however, YuMe targets ads based on tags and metadata and this is not entirely automated - YuMe Staff actually screens user generated video before placing ads in there to ensure “Brand safety”.

Another very interesting feature they are boasting about is geo-targeting, advertisers can select exactly where there ads will be seen and can show different versions of the ad in different zip codes.

Online video advertising (and monetization) is getting real huge real quick, and IMO these two companies - ScanScout and YuMe have come up with some fantastic innovation.

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Google - The AOL of our generation?

Very interesting post on Sam Harrelson’s Blog - Cost Per News

The idea of going to a specific “search engine” or “search site” in a few years will seem as stupid as dialing in to an AOL server to get on the internets. We’re going to be talking about “the good old Google days” soon enough.

Google is our generation’s AOL, I fear.

Read Full Article here

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PayPerPost launches “Review my post” affiliate program

PayPerPost, one of the preferred revenue sources for many bloggers now has an affiliate program, and it’s kind of unique how they plan to implement it.

If you are a ‘Postie’ or a PPP member, you can make $7.50 for every blogger who signs up with them via your referral, but there is a slight difference in how you do this.

Bloggers who plan to promote PayPerPost via the new affiliate program will be required to place a ‘Review My Post’ button on the bottom of their posts. Any non-postie blogger can click on button, join PPP and write a review of your post on their own blog - and get paid $7.50 for doing so. On the other hand, the postie who’s post is reviewed also gets $7.50 as referral commission.

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SwitchPlanet - Swapping and charity in a web 2.0 avatar

Seth Godin calls it a cross between Ebay, Criaglist and Netflix - for charity. SwitchPlanet.com, Currently in beta, is yet another addition to the emerging number of “social swapping” websites.

The Elegantly designed website lets users swap things you own with things you want with other members. Already, the website has catalogued thousands of CDs, DVDs, and Video Games that are up for barter.

They are not charging any transaction fees or service fees etc, all services offered on the website are free to use - that’s where the “charity” part kicks in; Each time you trade using SwitchPlanet, you are requested (but not required) to donate to the SwitchFund (donations to the switchfund are then redirected to select charity organizations).

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Word Source - Dictionary 2.0

There’s a new dictionary on the web, and it’s cool, it’s not beta, but it’s social and I think I like it.

Word source, is a new online dictionary with some features that aren’t normally associated with dictionaries.

First of all, it’s very easy to use, all you need to do is type www.word.sc/(word) into your browser to look up for definitions and thesaurus entries; Besides, the site itself has a zen-like appearance, has no ads and is more or less to the point.

Then, there is the 2.0 part of the dictionary - they call this wordsourcelive, you can “like” or “dislike” any word in the dictionary, you can tag a word, you can associate a picture to any word in the dictionary by uploading it and of course, in the process, you can become a part of the newest social network idea on the web.

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Shoemoney unbanned from MyBlogLog

Technorati 100 Blogger, Shoemoney was banned yesterday from MyBlogLog, after he exposed a lot of vulnerabilities(including how to browse the web as other people) of the social networking destination popular with bloggers and recently acquired by Yahoo!.

There’s a new post titled “Everybody hurts…Sometimes.” on the MyBlogLog blog by Eric (Founder and automatic friend of every new member). He writes:

“After fixing the exploit, I should have unbanned (Shoemoney) and thanked him for finding it. But I didn’t. I screwed up. Shoemoney’s picture is now featured on our Members page, we unbanned his IP address, and we at MyBlogLog hope to return to the constructive dialog that we once had.”

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Digg un-bans some domains

Every once in a while, I would come across a story on some blog that I thought was very “Diggable” and click the “Digg this” bookmarklet on my safari toolbar with the hope to add one more homepage story to my month old digg account, and digg would show a message that “This domain is currently banned from digg”. Not anymore, for some websites, atleast.

Digg has unbanned many domains recently.
Neil Patel has blogged (and is updating) a list of websites Digg recently re-started allowing submissions from.

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Innovative new social network - AffiliateMarketingFriends.com

Jim Kural has just launched a social network with a cause - AffiliateMarketingFriends.com.

The website, built as a social network for those in the Affiliate Marketing Industry, is selling blocks on pixels on it’s home page worth $10 each - which are linked to the members’ websites or blogs, similar to the Million dollar homepage. All the proceeds from the pixels sold will go to charity.

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The Politician’s very own affiliate network

Stumbled upon a very interesting blog post earlier today via a post on ABW about how politicians can benefit from affiliate marketing.

and I quote:

A campaign manager is paid, so why couldn’t a supporter of Obama get a small fee for every legitimate email address she or he refers to signup to the Obama mailing list? Or a 10% cut of any donation money she refers? It might blur the line between knowing if your friend really believes in Obama’s ideas, or is just doing it for money, but in some ways it’s just about getting people to learn more about the candidate and make their own decisions.

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New Social Shopping site - FashMatch

Here’s another brand new “Beta”( ) Social Shopping site that I recently discovered.

FashMatch.com lets users create, share and discuss Matches. The site is offering a new web 2.0 way to offer and receive (and critique) fashion advice.

So basically, you select from their database of apparel and accessories and create an entire outfit out of that, put it up for sharing within the social network and debate. simple. Of course, they also send advice seekers (and advice givers) to stores where they can buy each part of these user-mashed (or rather, matched - I’ve begun to use too much web 2.0 lingo these days) outfits.
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