» Telefonica offers global Latin mobile Ad buy, ft.com reported. Network operators are stepping up efforts to provide large-scale mobile advertising services, taking advantage of advertising agencies’ desire for greater competition to Google and Apple in the fast-growing market.
Telefónica has created a “global advertising solutions” business unit, allowing agencies to buy ads to display to its 250m mobile customers in 25 countries, across Europe, the US and Latin America. Telefónica claims it is the first operator to offer an international “one stop shop”.
» Practically all media on earth talked last week about rumors that Twitter was being purchased by Google or Facebook. The supposed talks valued Twitter at $8 billion to $10 billion, The Wall Street Journal said, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter. The Journal piece that Twitter had 2010 revenue of $45 million but lost money as it hired and invested in data centers. Today the rumor was turned down by Twitter’s CEO, Dick Costolo, saying the company's goal is to remain independent and grow its business. Costolo, speaking at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Feb. 14, said "I don't know where these things come from. It's just a rumor."
» Paidcontent.org reports that Google, which suggested last month it would be taking “stronger action” to ensure its search results were not overridden with results from content farms, appears to be taking its first concrete step to ensure users have a better experience. A new extension for its Chrome browser released today, lets users block specific sites from showing up in their search results. The company says it may then take that information into account when it determines how to rank results.
The move is unlikely to worry content farms very much considering all of the asterisks involved (users have to have Chrome and install the extension and specify the sites they want to block) and that the language Google uses is far from strong (“We will study the resulting feedback and explore using it as a potential ranking signal for our search results.”)
» Miami Ad School. PippaSeichrist, President and Co-founder of Miami Ad School, announced plans for Miami Ad School en Español.Available at their Miami, Florida location, Miami Ad School en Español is a 2-year program in art direction and copywriting taught primarily in Spanish by leading Hispanic creatives. In their 2nd year, students can study and intern in various multicultural agencies in the US, Latin America and Spain. The programs are to begin in the summer of 2011.
» Apple is saying that if publishers want to sell digital newspapers and magazines for the iPhone and iPad, they must give customers the option of paying through its iTunes store. Apple Inc. receives a 30% cut from such sales. If people choose to leave the app anyway and buy through a Web browser, Apple does not receive any of the proceeds. That option will remain available.
