In This Update:
• Online Ad Firm Specific Media Raises $100 Million
• Privacy Groups Pitch “Don’t Track Me” Ad Server Blacklist
• AOL To Help Consumers Opt-Out of Online Ads
• Facebook to Announce Music Platform Next Week
• Court Blocks Patent Office from Instituting Controversial Rules
• Online Ad Firm eXelate Raises $4mm And Unveils Targeting Exchange
• Report: Advertiser Funded Mobile TV is Favored Option for Consumers
• Peer39 Receives $8.2mm Second Round for “Natural Language Advertising”
• Microsoft Sees Windows Vista Growth Phase Underway
• AOL’s Truveo Video Search Engine Opens in Eight Countries
• IBM Plans Major Security Initiative
• Vivendi and Greystripe to Launch Free, Ad-Supported Mobile Games
• Online Video Startup 5Min Raises $5 Million

Online Ad Firm Specific Media Raises $100 Million
PAIDCONTENT
Online ad company Specific Media has raised $100 million from PE firm Francisco Partners, which it says will be used to fund acquisitions and expansion abroad. The money will also help expand into new types of advertising including search-based ads and video ads, adding to the traditional display ads that it now uses, says CEO Time Vanderhook. This is the second significant funding for the eight-year old firm, which develops technology for targeted online advertising technology. In Jun last year it raised USD10m in a series A round, led by Enterprise Partners Venture Capital with participation from Shepherd Ventures. The California-based company offers several types of targeted advertising, including demographic, contextual, geographic and behavioral targeting, which targets ads using information about web surfers’ browsing history.
Source>

Privacy Groups Pitch “Don’t Track Me” Ad Server Blacklist
ARS TECHNICA
The Do Not Call list has proved a huge hit with consumers. Now, a collection of privacy advocates wants the Federal Trade Commission to launch a similar Do Not Track List that will prevent behavioral advertisers from tracking online activities over time. The scheme is the brainchild of the Center for Democracy & Technology, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and other privacy watchdogs. Although it has the virtue of simplicity, implementing the plan does pose some practical challenges since it requires browser updates or new plug-ins. At the heart of the new system is a list, maintained by the FTC, of all domain names that are mapped to behavioral advertising servers. All US advertisers would be required to submit domains to this list, and the list would then be downloaded by a web browser (or a browser plug-in).
Source>

AOL To Help Consumers Opt-Out of Online Ads
INFORMATIONWEEK
AOL on Wednesday said it would launch by the end of the year a service that would help people shield their Web travels from advertisers. AOL unveiled the program on the eve of a two-day Federal Trade Commission forum on online privacy. While AOL uses what the industry calls behavioral targeting on its Web properties, the company said it’s important that advertisers and publishers be upfront with consumers about the practice, and give them the choice to opt out. AOL’s privacy technology will be available through a Web site that’ll be linked to opt-out lists run by the largest advertisers. Consumers’ preferences will be stored using a Web cache technique that will stay in place even when consumers delete their browser cookies, which is the only way people today can avoid tracking. The technology was developed by Tacoda, a behavioral ad network company that AOL bought in July.
Source>

Facebook to Announce Music Platform Next Week
CO-ED MAGAZINE
Facebook has been rumored to announce an online music service to compete with iTunes and MySpace in the near future. The “Facebook Music” platform will serve as the social networking giants first step into the music space. The new platform is set to be announced at ad:tech in New York City next week. Leading up to this announcement Facebook has been holding top-secret meetings with high-level representatives at each of the four major music labels. In the first generation of Facebook Music “fans” will be allowed to listen to artist’s music, watch videos, upload pictures, add music to their page, receive tour information and interact with other fans. Online music moguls, be warned.
Source>

Court Blocks Patent Office from Instituting Controversial Rules
INFORMATIONWEEK
A federal judge on Wednesday enjoined the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office from instituting new rules, scheduled to take effect Nov. 1, that critics say would limit the level of patent protection available to inventors. Ruling on a motion filed by pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, which is suing the Patent Office over the issue, Judge James Cacheris of the U.S. Court for the Eastern District of Virginia blocked, for now at least, the patent office from implementing the regulations Thursday as planned. The new rules are intended to speed patent reviews by the chronically understaffed USPTO. Among other things, they limit so-called “continuing applications” through which inventors can modify existing patent applications.
Source>

Online Ad Firm eXelate Raises $4mm And Unveils Targeting Exchange
ADOTAS
eXelate, which has created the first targeting data marketplace has announced today that it has secured $4 million in first-round financing from Carmel Ventures and is launching the eXelate Targeting eXchange. Co-founder and general partner of Carmel Ventures, Shlomo Dovrat will be joining the company’s board of directors. The eXelate Targeting eXchange allows ad networks to increase the income earned from users of non-targeted sites by attributing to them targeting data based on prior visits to vertical sites. The targeted vertical publisher in turn benefits from a new revenue stream without giving up any advertising inventory and with no privacy concerns. The ad networks that use the eXchange gain access to over 50 million unique users in verticals including travel, finance and Hispanic.
Source>

Report: Advertiser Funded Mobile TV is Favored Option for Consumers
CELLULAR NEWS
Interest in mobile TV remains very low, with just 1% using it in the past 12 months and only 3% saying they were likely to try it in the next year, according to a new report from Continental Research. Mobile phone owners were asked whether they would prefer to have an ad-free package that required a relatively high subscription fee for the TV service, or have a free service that would have a considerable amount of advertising within the programming, or somewhere in between. The most popular choice was the completely free option, favoured by over a quarter (27%). Report author Tim Barber said: “To promote take-up of mobile TV, networks should consider advertiser-funded content to enable customers to access the service (at least initially) for no fee at all.
Source>

Peer39 Receives $8.2mm Second Round for “Natural Language Advertising”
VENTUREBEAT
Peer39, a startup claiming to develop a technology which “dramatically” boosts ad efficiency, has raised USD8.2m in a second round of funding led by Canaan Partners’s Warren Lee, who will join the board. JPMorgan also participated. The New York startup, which plans to launch soon, says it has integrated “natural language” and “machine learning” concepts into its technology to effectively analyze gathered information. The company combines semantic technologies with neuro-lingustic programming (NLP) to produce “groundbreaking algorithms that boost ROI for the industry,” a spokesman tells VentureBeat. The funding adds to $3mm raised in March from Dawntreader Ventures, as well as seed funding from Dan Ciporin, the former CEO of Shopping.com.
Source>

Microsoft Sees Windows Vista Growth Phase Underway
REUTERS
Microsoft Corp’s Windows Vista is starting to see mass adoption from businesses nearly a year after it was released, the company said while predicting a strong first holiday season for the product. Microsoft delivered quarterly results last week that eclipsed Wall Street’s most bullish forecasts, helped in part by strong demand for Vista, the latest upgrade to its flagship Windows operating system. Vista was introduced in January. In a note to clients on Wednesday, Bernstein Research analyst Charles Di Bona said he thinks Vista’s upgrade cycle is “underappreciated” and expects growth at the Windows business to be stronger than market expectations.
Source>

AOL’s Truveo Video Search Engine Opens in Eight Countries
TVOVER.NET
AOL takes the next step in its ambitious global expansion effort with the launch of new local language versions of the AOL India portal and the launch of Truveo’s popular video search engine serving eight countries, including India. he Truveo video search engine lets users search and browse through tens of millions of videos from thousands of sources across the Web, and reaches more than 40 million users a month in the U.S. As the first step of this international expansion, today Truveo is unveiling video search sites for France, Germany, India, Japan, Korea, Spain, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom.
Source>

IBM Plans Major Security Initiative
PHYSORG
IBM Corp. plans to announce Thursday that it will boost what it spends developing computer security products to $1.5 billion in 2008, reflecting an intensifying focus for the company. IBM executives would not say how much they used to spend. But analyst Charles King of Pund-IT Research said he believes $1.5 billion would be twice what IBM traditionally spends on security research and product development each year. The figure is separate from IBM’s spending on acquisitions that bring in new technology. In the past year IBM has bought several security companies, including Internet Security Systems Inc. for $1.3 billion and Watchfire Corp. for at least $100 million.
Source>

Vivendi and Greystripe to Launch Free, Ad-Supported Mobile Games
GOMONEWS
Vivendi Games Mobile and Greystripe are going to work together to offer ad-supported free games on mobile. This is the first time that the subsidiary of Vivendi Universal Games has moved into the ad-based mobile game market, according to A&E Interactive, whereas Greystripe has already generated 21 million downloads. Vivendi Games Mobile will distribute ten ad-supported titles that will be offered for free via Greystripe’s online and mobile gaming portal GameJump.com and through its AdWRAP Catalog Platform.
Source>

Online Video Startup 5Min Raises $5 Million
TECHCRUNCH
Israeli startup 5Min, which provides an online video platform for practical questions, is reportedly raising USD5m in cash from Spark Capital, according to data on CrunchBase. The funding adds to a seed investment in Apr, when it raised USD300,000 from angels including Grey Interactive Israel and Mirval Overseas.. The same report says the seed investors own nearly 50% of the startup, while the three co-founders, Tal Simantov, Ran Harnevo and Hanan Lashover, own less than 45% combined. Spark Capital is also the investor of online video businesses Veoh and Next New Networks. 5Min hosts five-minute long videos in which users offer solutions to practical questions, in areas such as arts, business, technology and so on, saying it wants to create the “first communal Life Videopedia”.
Source>

Tags: AOL, Cisco, eXelate, Facebook, Financing, Greystripe, IBM, IPO, ISP, iTunes, Local, Mac, Microsoft, Music, MySpace, Peer39, Seed, Series A, Social Networking, Tacoda, Truveo, Turn, Venture Capital, Veoh, Video, Vista, Vivendi