eBay Refining Search; Programmatic Jobs

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eBay Refining Search

eBay continues to reinvent itself by rolling out a new search engine and refocusing its brand from just an auction site to a “global commerce platform.” In an interview with Wired, eBay’s Chief Technology Officer, Mark Carges, said, “It wasn’t just that it needed a new coat of paint. We had lost our innovative approach to building software.” Read more. Though unmentioned, “retargeting,” which leverages more accurate search data, could aid eBay’s advertising business strategy.

Programmatic Jobs

In an effort to bolster its global programmatic advertising options, AOL announced 40 new job openings in Dublin. “Nowadays, agencies and advertisers want to move to the real-time realm, where they are able to, from their perspective, get the best possible value at any given instant for their ad spend, and from a publisher perspective get the best possible revenue for their impressions. So when you move to real-time you have to move to a programmatic type of buying and selling because it’s too quick for human intervention for the most part,” said Aengus McClean, head of AOL Global Operations. Read more. The Silicon Republic, which covered the story, also compiled a list of memes related to software engineering jobs. See those here.

Inadco Is Back

As part of its announcement regarding an $11 million funding round, Inadco says it is adding search and social to its display-ad, lead-generation product line. CEO James Walker says the funds will be used for R&D and to build products. The company appears to be capitalizing on the native ad craze, too. Its boilerplate explains that the company provides “a platform for marketers to create native ad units called Form Ads that enable two-way communication between consumers and marketers, allowing for real-time data capture.” Read more. And, read this Inadco 2011 interview with AdExchanger which explains some of the basics of their leads biz.

Ad-droid

According to the developers of the Lookout app for Android, 6.5% of free apps (out of a sample of 200,000 apps) meet their definition of adware. “The small minority of ad networks that behave badly is making a lack of trust for the entire industry,” Lookout’s Jeremy Linden told the MIT Technology Review. Read more.

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Daily Roundup

Daily News Roundup

From Creators To Haters; BidSwitch Says ‘No More Free Scrapes’

In an article from The Drift, Doug Weaver draws a parallel between a line on Mad Men and real life. The quote: “If you don’t like what they are saying about you, change the conversation.” Weaver goes on to say that if people aren’t talking about your company, you have to give them a reason to do so. He writes, “Do anything but ‘introduce yourself.’ First, they will care that you’ve brought an agenda that’s about them; then they’ll get emotionally connected with the problem or issue you’re prepared to take on; then – and only then – will they want to know your bio, credentials and track record.” Read more.

Mayer’s First Meeting

Marissa Mayer held her first stockholder meeting since taking over as Yahoo CEO last year, and according to Silicon Beat it went well, aside from a couple of interesting moments. The first came when a group of Walmart employees tried to distract from the topic at hand, which was Yahoo. The second was an older shareholder who was distracted by his attraction to Mayer. Yahoo has had five CEOs in five years. One shareholder said this meeting was more fun than the previous two. Read more.

Search And Display

On Search Engine Land, Magnetic VP of Tech Ops Lionel White wonders aloud about the future of Facebook search and display — a topic near and dear to Magnetic’s heart. He concludes, “We don’t know how long cheap prices will hold out, how much display inventory will be available on Facebook’s exchange and how quickly Graph Search will be adopted by its massive user base. Only time will tell just how much value Facebook will bring to the search and display markets.” Read more.

Recommending Intent

Internet Retailer says Nordstrom has taken an equity stake in gift-recommendation site Wantful.com. A Nordstrom spokesperson tells IR, “The fastest-growing part of our business is e-commerce. You have to find better ways to personalize the [online] experience.” Read more. That oughta be a rich data trove.

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