Channel | Digital

The Mobile Marketing Association says it ended 2006 with a 150% increase in membership over 2005, including 30 new member companies that joined late in the year.

Second-quarter revenue in Microsoft's online services business was up 5% year over year, but revenue from search advertising made up only a "modest" part of that growth, the company said yesterday.

Alvion Inc., an e-commerce and data management firm, has been acquired by an investment group lead by Robert K. Sher, who was named CEO.

In an announcement that caught many search marketing advertisers and professionals by surprise, Yahoo! energized a conference call about its Q4 results yesterday by declaring that it will give Project Panama, its new search-ad platform, a full launch ahead of schedule.

Mobile marketing is going to depend on making the mobile Internet easier to access. Handsets are going to have to get easier to use; carriers are going to have to make data plans easier to understand; and Web sites are going to have to get easier to read and use on the small, small screen.…

Dave Deasy spent several years running online and small business-oriented programs for Hewlett Packard and America Online. In 2003, he left the high-pressure corporate life to try his own hand at running a small business. Deasy founded MyFavoriteCity.com, which sells gift baskets and souvenirs from about 20 cities around the country.

Yahoo! is ahead of plan with the transition to its new Project Panama search marketing platform and plans an early February launch for the second phase, which will use a quality score to determine the most relevant -- and most profitable -- pay-per-click ads.

Finns are increasingly using their cell phones to access the Internet and react to advertising, according to a survey by the Finnish Direct Marketing Association.

IProspect, a search engine marketing firm, has promoted John Tawadros to chief operating officer from vice president of client services and technology.

Online advertising increases supermarket sales, according to French survey findings released by the digital marketing agency Adtech AG.