Kozlen Communications

Apparently Adobe has struck a deal with Yahoo to deliver contextual advertising within PDF files.  This is supposed to give publishers an option of monetizing their white papers or other documents with dynamic ads.  Starting today, publishers can use the beta program for free, and advertisers will be able to buy space as part of their routine Yahoo Publisher Network buys.  While this may make sense for B2B applications, I’m not sure how much you’d want to utilize this for B2C purposes.  It seems that most consumers might initially view it as another form of intrusive advertising.

Google announced a new version of its popular mobile maps application that includes a new feature giving users their approximate location. The “My Location” feature allows people without GPS-enabled phones to find out where they are by pressing “0″ on their device keypads.  It uses the cell phone tower technology to give the user an apporoximate location.  While not as accurate as GPS, it does give you an idea of your location within a hundred feet or so.  Google claims that the application is private – saying they collect no personal information about users (login, email, cell number, name, etc.).  While the maps do not currently contain advertising, you can certainly see how this will eventually help Google’s targeted and localized advertising whether they provide their applications to mobile providers or build a wireless network themselves.

Upon doing some additional research into Facebook’s plan to allow users to endorse products to their friends, it looks like they’ve got a good plan to monitize this word of mouth marketing.  Not only can users select advertising to appear on their pages, but – if users allow – the site will link to things they’ve recently purchased.  And, much like Amazon’s powerful recommendation engine, you’ll be able to see items that X number of your friends have purchased.  Facebook’s plan to tie this type of revenue stream in seems tremendously smart, but they are relying on users to give up a piece of their privacy.  If they do it right – learning from their experience and allowing users to limit who can see this information, then they will likely be pretty successful and should start to earn some decent money.

Research study after study shows that there’s nothing more powerful in the marketing world than word of mouth recommendations and suggestions from trusted family, friends, and experts.  Today, Facebook announced a new advertising plan that leverages this type of marketing with their popular social network.  Users will be able to decide which products or services will be advertised with their content – in effect, a personal endorsement from that user.  When communicating with their friends on the social network, it will be obvious what products and/or services their friend likes or endorses.  It’s an effective, and perhaps most important, user accepted way for advertisers to spread the word.  Much the way that Google’s adsense allows website owners to generate some revenue through advertising, I can see Facebook users eventually sharing in the advertising revenue if they are willing to show they endorse a given advertiser.