InteractiveSalsa.com

The popular mainstream blog, AllThingsD, has posted a note drawing attention to the use of tracking cookies on its website. I think AllThingsD is a model for how mainstreaming media (in their case, The Wall Street Journal) can enter the blogosphere and maintain a balance between the blogger vibe and that of traditional media. Given the depth of the WSJ legal resources, this may be a sign of the future. It is interesting you see it on AllThingsD and not WSJ.com; I would have expected the opposite given the looser format of blogs vs. media.

Here is the text:

A note about tracking cookies

Some of the advertisers and Web analytics firms used on this site may place “tracking cookies” on your computer. We are telling you about them right upfront, and we want you to know how to get rid of these tracking cookies if you like. Read more »

Tracking cookies are small text files that can tell such companies what you are doing online, even though they usually don’t record your name or other personably identifiable information. These cookies are used by these companies to try and match ads to a user’s interests. They are used all over the Web, but in most cases, their presence is only disclosed deep inside privacy policies.

We want you to know how to get rid of these tracking cookies if you like. Here are links to pages where you can opt out of the cookies set by our ad-placement contractor and our analytics contractor:

• http://www.doubleclick.com/us/about_doubleclick/privacy/
• http://www.omniture.com/privacy/2o7

We’d prefer a totally opt-in system, but, as far as we know, the ad industry doesn’t have a practical one as of now.

If you want to clean out all tracking cookies from all your Web sites, here are links where you can download three programs that can clean out tracking cookies:

• http://www.lavasoftusa.com/products/ad-aware_se_personal.php
• http://www.spybot.info/en/download/index.html
• http://www.webroot.com/consumer/products/spysweeper/

You can also change the preferences or settings in your Web browser to control cookies. In some cases, you can choose to accept cookies from the primary site, but block them from third parties. In others, you can block cookies from specific advertisers, or clear out all cookies.

Not all cookies are tracking cookies. Like most other Web sites, ours may place cookies on your computer, in addition to any placed by advertisers. But ours aren’t “tracking cookies.” They merely do things like save your registration information, if you choose to register. They do not tell us what you do or where you go online.

[X Dismiss] This notice is intended to appear only the first time you visit the site on any computer.

Here is a screenshot (click to enlarge):

I received this letter last week and thought I would share it with you.

February 13, 2008

Dear Stockholders,

On February 1, 2008, Microsoft made an unsolicited proposal to acquire your company. As much has been reported in the press recently, I wanted to reach out to you personally to let you know why your Board of Directors, after a careful review by Yahoo!’s management along with our financial and legal advisors, believes that Microsoft’s proposal substantially undervalues Yahoo! and is not in the best interests of our stockholders.

Most importantly, I want you to know that your Board is continuously evaluating all of Yahoo!’s strategic options in the context of the rapidly evolving industry environment, and we remain committed to pursuing initiatives that maximize value for all our stockholders.

We have a unique combination of strengths

• Yahoo! is one of the most recognizable and admired brands in the world. We have over 500 million users (nearly 1 out of every 2 internet users worldwide). In the U.S., we are # 1 in many of the most used online services including personalized home pages, mail, news, music, shopping and travel. Because we have leadership positions in so many indispensable online services, users spend more time on Yahoo! sites than anywhere else online.
• Yahoo! is an attractive partner for marketers. Yahoo! is #1 in online display advertising, which represents 90% of the advertising inventory on the web, and we are also a leader in search marketing and a pioneer in the growing fields of mobile advertising and online video advertising. Through Yahoo!, advertisers can now connect with consumers on our owned sites as well as those of our growing network of partners including eBay, Comcast, AT&T, a consortium of over 600 newspapers, Forbes.com, Cars.com, WebMD and more.
• Yahoo! has the financial flexibility to execute our plans, thanks to our healthy cash balance, which exceeded $2 billion as of December 31, 2007, and our substantial operating cash flow, which we expect to grow double digits in 2009.
• Yahoo! has made important investments in our core computing infrastructure enabling us to dramatically increase the speed of our search engine updates even while handling vast and growing quantities of data.
• In addition, we have the added value of our substantial, unconsolidated investments in Japan and China. We have substantial positions in Yahoo! Japan, the leader in its market, and Alibaba, which is strongly positioned in China, a market with enormous growth potential.

These assets–our brand and its audience, our relationships with marketers, our financial strength, our technology, and our strategic investments–are the core of our value and our leadership position in the industry.

We have a huge market opportunity - and are uniquely positioned to capitalize on it

The global online advertising market is projected to grow from $45 billion in 2007 to $75 billion in 2010. And we are moving quickly to take advantage of what we see as a unique window of time in the growth - and evolution - of this market to build market share and to create value for stockholders.

We are executing our strategy - and making headway

We have taken significant but disciplined steps to refocus our business on our objectives to become the starting point for the most consumers and the must buy for the most advertisers and enhance Yahoo!’s long-term performance.

Starting Point Objective: Our goal is to grow visits to key Yahoo! starting points and properties, where users enter the Internet, by 15% per year over the next several years. We are the most visited site in the U.S., and we continue to grow - we experienced double-digit growth in U.S. users in 2007 on our Yahoo.com home page.

In addition to traditional starting points on the PC - including our home pages, mail, My Yahoo! and search, we are particularly excited about our growth prospects in mobile, the biggest emerging starting point in the world. Globally, there are twice as many users of mobile devices as users of personal computers, and mobile advertising is projected to grow substantially in the coming years. We have an important competitive edge as the number one mobile destination in the U.S., and we are building a superior mobile experience for Yahoo! users globally so we can further capitalize on this opportunity.

Must Buy Objective: We are working to make online advertising easier and more effective for marketers, opening up new ways for them to connect with consumers. We’ve successfully completed the global roll-out of our search marketing system, Panama, which improved the search experience for our users, boosted returns for our advertisers, and increased revenue for Yahoo!. Last year, we bought Right Media, an exchange that enables buyers and sellers of online advertising to come together. Another 2007 acquisition, Blue Lithium, brings us best-in-class performance marketing capabilities, complementing Yahoo!’s existing offerings for advertisers. We also integrated our search advertising and display advertising sales forces, creating a one-stop shop for all of advertisers’ online marketing needs. All of these - Panama, Right Media, Blue Lithium, and our combined sales efforts - complement and enhance Yahoo!’s existing capabilities and will make it easier for advertisers and online publishers to buy and sell advertising online.

We are also creating a unique and valuable network of premium websites to serve our advertisers. We are making it easier for our advertisers to provide interesting and relevant offers to our users by combining advertising space on Yahoo!’s owned sites with that from a growing group of premium partners including eBay, Comcast, AT&T, a consortium of over 600 newspapers and many others.

As we reach more users both on our own websites and on the sites of our premium partners, and better monetize the ad space on Yahoo!’s owned and operated sites, we are striving to increase the percentage of total online advertising demand we touch from an estimated 15% in 2007 to 20% over the next several years.

These key strategies will be enhanced by our adoption of new, more open technology platforms that will encourage the development of new applications and the involvement of third-party developers - and help enrich the user experience.

We have accomplished a great deal in a very short time - and we are focused on building this momentum

Today, Yahoo! is a faster-moving, better-organized, more nimble company than it was just a few months ago. We have redeployed our resources to drive Yahoo!’s key strategic priorities - taking important steps to streamline our organization and close down or scale back businesses that don’t support these critical growth initiatives. The fact is that we are well on our way to transforming the experiences of Yahoo!’s users, advertisers, publishers and developers - an important shift that is at the heart of our plan to create stockholder value.

I want you to know that the Yahoo! Board of Directors and management team remain committed to pursuing initiatives that maximize value for all our Yahoo! stockholders. This is a great company and we are moving quickly to make it even better.

Sincerely,

Jerry Yang
CEO and Chief Yahoo!

And the sleeping giant in the room keeps getting bigger. Some people jumped in long ago. Some more recently. Some must be waiting until they see $100B. Anyway you slice it… the Internet is not your fathers Internet any more (as if that makes sense; hey remember those Oldsmobile cars…didn’t think so).

Congratulations to all involved in that phat $21.1B number! Am I crazy, or does it seem like the party is just getting started? No, I’m not referring to the economy. For all I know, a global recession will hit and slow everything down. But, when you think about what the Internet has become, and then you think about what could be possible given where we are at today… it seems like we are just getting started. I think they call that job security, or a career path, or something.

And now for the data and a couple quotes…

Internet Advertising Revenues Again Reach New Highs, Estimated to Pass $21 Billion in 2007 and Hit Nearly $6 Billion in Q4 2007

NEW YORK, NY (February 25, 2008) – The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) today announced that Internet advertising revenues for 2007 are estimated to grow to $21.1 billion, a 25 percent increase over the previous revenue record of nearly $16.9 billion for full year 2006.

… “Interactive media continue their unabated growth,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB. “There is no media as measurable as interactive, and they provide products and services at the precise moment a consumer desires them. I applaud the industry on maintaining this extraordinary momentum of innovation, which has fundamentally changed the way we live today.”

“The record $21.1 billion year of interactive advertising is the culmination of consecutive record quarters throughout 2007,”said David Silverman, partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers. “The continued record growth evidences the importance and uniqueness of interactive media to both consumers and the marketers that are trying to reach them.”

…Sorry about that.  I’ve been away for a bit.  I could chalk it up to being busy, or traveling… but I’ll just say I’m lazy, arr, more like uncommitted.  I admit it, but don’t like it.  There is so much I could say on this blog, but hesitate, and/or don’t take the time.  More to come… hopefully more often!  I welcome you comments and feedback emails.

Republican Presidential candidate, Mike Huckabee, thanked bloggers recently and called them his “secret weapon.”

I’ve left politics off this blog so far because we have a ways to go.  But, when a come-from-behind candidate calls bloggers his secret weapon… I think it is worth noting.  Hmm, sounds a little like NBC’s The Office.  That said, it is no secret that the candidates in both Parties are heavily leveraging the Internet.  Just think, it was a big deal in 2004 that Howard Dean raised money from his website.

source: nyt story

While this does not come as a complete surprise, given that I really don’t think about Netscape anymore, it is still an uncomfortable moment in history.  AOL will stop development on the Netscape browser on 2/1/08.

Wow, I remember when I first used Netscape: I had been using Telenet (tab to go from link to link, press enter to click) to navigate the simplistic world of this thing called the Internet (or Information Superhighway if you were a politician).  It was great, I could actually look up information without having to wait for a newspaper or call some stupid hotline (remember those?).  Nevermind that there wasn’t much content available.  It was a small sense of control and freedom.   Then… I saw Netscape.  Holy cow, this thing actually let you use a mouse to click on links (you didn’t have to tab over every link you didn’t want to click), and, the cool part was this HTML stuff that allowed you to see pictures and different fonts.  Ah yes, and the hyper animated gif and zero font control era began.  As the Dead said… what a long strange trip its been.  My mobile phone does so much more than that today.  We’ll miss you Netscape.

 More…

I always like this stuff.  In a world of constant change and hype, we all need to reflect on the ideas, dollars and energy that did  not pay off.  Techcrunch has its Deadpool (busts) list for 2007 here.

Here is a snapshot of Techcrunch’s 2007 headlines.

And, Techcrunch has a list of deals in 2007 here.

…more information is out here (Feb?), here and here (prototype?).   Looks interesting.  I’m ready.  Bring on the tease campaign.

Will Internet TV and online media get a catylst?  It has to some degree, but it may come faster than we thought if this strike keeps going.  There is a lot being said about this topic, here is just one good article from FT.com…

Hollywood warned ‘writers will move online’

The head of the union representing striking film and television writers has issued a stark warning to US media companies that writers and audiences will migrate to the internet in the event of a prolonged strike.

Pay talks between the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents companies including Walt Disney, News Corporation and Viacom, ended acrimoniously last week.

But with the strike in its second month, Patric Verrone, president of the WGA West, said the dispute was creating “entrepreneurial possibilities for the talent community to go directly into production and distribution”. He added: “With every day that goes by, our members are exploring internet TV. The ability to explore this business without media conglomerates is becoming a real possibility.”

CNBC is a great TV brand, and one that has been arming for battle with Fox Business.  With that said, it is not nearly as powerful online as it could be.  I wish it was, I like it.  I think my peak useage of the site was back in 2000 when stocks were flying high and the internet and TV were at different places in the world — the TV brand meant a lot more.

Check out Yahoo Finance for CNBC content.

I still remember when I first saw Yahoo Finance.  That was one of those OMG-the-internet-rocks moments for me.  All that data, and so accessible.  It was one of my early favs that still lives today in a similar form.

As a User, thanks for doing this deal…I look forward to gobbling up content and looking at your ads.

Here is the NYTimes story…

Will this lead to more deals between cable networks and Internet players?