Web Stops, Slows For SOPA; Kenny As Yahoo! Chairman?; Criteo Extends Reach With BrightTag

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SOPA Wednesday

Yesterday, in an effort to stop the “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA), Internet destinations and digerati made their displeasure known that the U.S. government’s attempt to stop piracy was a step in the wrong direction – if not right off a cliff – as it could subject “good” sites to the vagaries of regulation. Google took action and Wikipedia went black to name a couple. Gov’t reps quickly backed down from their pro-SOPA stance. And in The New York Times, a former movie industry lobbyist, John Feehery, chided the movie or “content” industry for its support of SOPA: “The problem for the content industry is they just don’t know how to mobilize people. They have a small group of content makers, a few unions, whereas the Internet world, the social media world especially, has a tremendous reach. They can reach people in ways we never dreamed of before. This has been a real learning experience for the content world.”

Kenny As Yahoo!’s Chairman?

Is this what part of Scott Thompson’s package was to step through the Yahoo! CEO door? With Jerry Yang already departed, All Things D’s Kara Swisher reports four more Yahoo! board members may be given the heave-ho. Read about it. Where’s Yahoo! board member David Kenny in all this? The former Digitas chief and Akamai president would seem to be a good candidate to be advising – at the very least – on next steps for Yahoo! rather than exiting. Swisher thinks he could be the next chairman.

Sell-Side Meet Buy-Side

Through a new agreement, tag manager BrightTag has made it just a little bit easier for Criteo and its clients to advertise to publisher audiences. From the BrightTag blog: “Through this BrightTag ONE partnership, shared BrightTag/Criteo clients can easily turn on Criteo data collection from within the BrightTag user interface, replacing the need to go through extensive hard-coding of individual tags.” Read more. Instant retargeting reach gives publishers presumably higher CPMs driven by brands’ desire to reach in-market consumers via a retargeter like Criteo.

How Are The Ad Exchanges Evolving?

Boston’s North Bridge Venture Partners wants a piece of NYC’s tech world – and ad exchange tech participants, too. Discussing her fund’s focus, North Bridge’s Dayna Grayson says, “Certainly ad tech would fall in that category. I think the industry is now ready for real automation around ad technology—both social and mobile. We’re still in 1999 in mobile vs. what it’s going to become. It will be used for everything. Then the question is, how are the ad exchanges today going to evolve?” Read more.

Looking Back At Spend Forecasts

Digiday’s Jack Marshall looks at the divide between what’s predicted and what actually occurs when it comes to ad spending forecasts by analysts. Marshall asks if the predictions really matter and quotes Jumptap CMO Paran Johar who says, “This is what we look to analysts for – ‘what’s the future?’ They can also help shape trends with their predictions. But you’re right in that the actual ‘doing’ is what matters most.” Read more.

Video Rankings

comScore publicly released its December 2011 rankings for U.S. video ad networks – now designated as the “Ad Videos Only” list. Of note is BrightRoll’s bigger reach compared to others on the partially pay-for-play list. Also, Videology (formerly TidalTV) is now part of the top 10, too, along with newcomers Auditude and Undertone. See December. And, compare to November.

From Cookies To Gems

Adweek’s Ki Mae Heussner hightlights a new company called Personal turning a consumer’s data into a consumer’s currency – of a sort. She writes, “Personal, using category-specific data ‘gems,’ can store information, from insurance policy numbers to favorite recipes to pet-sitting directions. Other ‘gems’ could store electronics purchases or websites a person has visited. For now, people can use the site as a quick reference or to share ‘gems’ with others. It’s also intended to aid in the filling out of forms.” Read it.

Info(Brand)graphic Thursday

33across has released a new infographic that incorporates insights from its “Brand Graph” and highlights audience attributes across Automotive, CPG and other verticals of interest. See it (PDF).

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